April: Borscht
Since Russian forces invaded Ukraine on February 24, horrifying accounts of death and injury and terror have become the new focus of breaking news bulletins on the screens of our phones while the sounds of missile strikes and bombings and screaming children, terrified parents, and lives interrupted have found us unable to turn off podcasts or change channels or stop thinking about the unthinkable or get through any – now routinely terrible – day without tears. There are also accounts of astonishing courage that leave us struck with awe and stories of kindness and ingenuity that make us glad for heroes like Jose Andres and the volunteers who staff the World Central Kitchen World Central Kitchen (wck.org) , Doctors without Borders MSF | Doctors Without Borders - USA, and journalists who risk their lives to let us know what’s happening, and so many people around the world who find ways to help. There are bakers and artists and musicians and ordinary people everywhere who are sharing their skills and resources and giving what they can, and we urge all of you who join us in our collective wish to embrace the people in Ukraine and restore their country and their lives to the ordinariness of only a few weeks ago, and end this infuriating outrageous war, to do whatever we can to help – even if the best we can do never seems like enough. In solidarity with the people of Ukraine, this month Molly and I are sharing a wonderful Ukrainian recipe for Borscht that I learned in the 1970s from my Ukrainian-American neighbor, Natalie.
We lived next door to one another. Both of us were new to being stay-at-home mothers, and suburbia and, thank God we had each other, because we craved grown-up conversation and learned so much about motherhood from one another!
Natalie taught me about the Ukrainian culture that she and her community still strive to preserve. She is a talented artist who has shared the incredibly beautiful colors and intricate designs of Ukrainian pottery and art with admirers and students from all over the world. She taught me recipes that are still among my family’s favorites, and gave me the confidence to learn and love to cook, myself.
We moved from that suburban community the week that that first baby turned three. Natalie made this Borscht for our moving-day dinner the last night we stayed in our house next door to hers. She and I stayed in touch for a while, but sadly, our lives diverged, and we haven’t been in touch for a long time. Even so, the recipes for Borscht and stuffed cabbage rolls, and the plum cake I still make every summer continue to make my family happy and make me feel closer to Natalie and the people and culture that knowing her, made me admire.
In solidarity with the people of Ukraine, and the wish that we could comfort all of them with the deliciousness of a cozy bowl of soup on a shared dinnertime table, here is the recipe for Borscht.
Back in the 1970s, it was unusual – maybe impossible – to find fresh mushrooms in the grocery stores in DC suburbs. Natalie and I used canned mushrooms. Now I use fresh and sauté them in butter before adding them to the soup near the end of cooking. I don’t think either of us knew about the deliciousness of roasting beets, fresh, and we sliced up canned beets, which certainly cut down on cooking time! Roasting beets is better, but – in a pinch – the canned ones will still work just fine. I never buy canned tomato sauce any more. Now, I puree my pantry staple, canned stewed tomatoes, instead, and I’m more likely to buy the boxed beef – or vegetable – broth than to rely on bullion (either cubes or Better-Than). So, the original recipe has gone through some changes that reflect the shifts in my own preferences that have occurred over time. The resulting soup, served hot on a chilly night, or emerging from the blender as a refreshing elixir on a hot summer day according to the variation I created one summer when every food magazine was featuring cold soups, is still delicious and would have probably never become such family treasures if I had not been blessed to have a Ukrainian-American friend named Natalie who taught me to make soup, stuff cabbage leaves, and develop the confidence that has led me to embrace food preparation and love cooking over a lifetime!
Borscht
Ingredients
2 quarts beef or vegetable broth (Or 2 quarts water brought to a boil and combined with 5 or more bullion cubes or 2 Tablespoons beef or vegetable Better than Bullion)
A Quarter head of green cabbage, chopped (about 2 cups)
1 pound (2 or 3 medium-to-large) beets, roasted, cooled, peeled, and sliced into strips (Or 1 15-ounce can drained, sliced beets, further sliced into strips)
2 cups canned whole, pureed, or stewed tomatoes, whirled in a blender until smooth (Or 1 15-ounce can tomato sauce)
1 tsp. each sugar and salt
1-1/2 TBSP. red wine vinegar
Freshly ground pepper to taste
2 cups sliced mushrooms, sauteed in butter until tender and fragrant (Or 1 15-ounce can mushroom stems and pieces, drained)
Sour Cream for serving. Dollop a big spoonful on each bowl of borscht
Preparation:
If roasting the beets, preheat the oven to 425 degrees, F.
Vigorously scrub beets under cold, running water. Leave root end and an inch of stem in tact. Place in a lidded casserole just large enough to hold them in one layer. Add a half cup of water to the casserole. Cover, and bake in the preheated oven for at least an hour, until beets are cooked through. Test the largest beet with the thin blade of a paring knife to make sure it’s has cooked all the way through.
Drain beets in a colander until cool enough to handle comfortably. Slice off the root end off each beet, and pinch off the stem. Under a stream of cool, running water, slip off the skins.
Then, slice into strips, and set aside until you’re ready to add to the broth.
Slice a quarter of a medium-sized head of green cabbage into pieces about an inch in size. Set aside.
Bring the broth to a boil. Add the cabbage. Bring the broth to boiling again, then reduce the heat under the pot to medium low, and cook at a slowly bubbling simmer for 20 minutes.
Add the teaspoons of sugar, salt, and ground pepper to taste, the sliced beets, the tomato puree, and the red wine vinegar.
Continue simmering until flavors blend, 15 to 20 minutes longer.
Meanwhile, melt butter in a skillet and cook sliced fresh mushrooms, seasoned lightly with a sprinkling of salt, until they smell delicious and soften. Then, use a silicon spatula to scrape the contents of the skillet, including the browned butter, into the soup.
Or, if you don’t have fresh mushrooms, drain the canned stems and pieces, and add to the broth.
Taste broth one more time, correct seasonings, then ladle into bowls, top each with a generous dollop of sour cream, and serve immediately.
Variation: Rather than serving the borscht hot, you can chill it in the refrigerator for several hours, or chill any leftover borscht, and make cold borscht for lunch or a dinner-time pleasure, the next day. Here’s how.
Pour cold soup into blender container to fill it no higher than two thirds full. (If you need to do this in two batches, just set the first batch of liquified soup aside while you add the next ingredients to the second blenderful. Then combine both batches.)
Puree the soup. Now peel a long cucumber or 2 to 3 pickling cucumbers and slice thinly.
Add most of the cucumber slices to the blender, and puree again until smooth.
At this point – if you like it – you can add horseradish (1 to 3 tsp.) to the blender container, as well. If you don’t like horseradish, just dollop sour cream or plain Greek yogurt on top of each mug, along with a cucumber slice, and some salt and pepper, and enjoy.
Taste the soup in the blender, or combine the two batches and taste.
Pour into mugs, and garnish with a slice of cucumber and a big dollop of sour cream or plain yogurt, and a healthy sprinkle of salt. Chopped chives, if you happen to have them in your herb garden, are also nice!
Enjoy a nutritious cool treat on a sticky summer day or evening!
Let’s hope that, long before summer arrives, Ukrainians will have retrieved their country and their lives and this malevolent war will be over and gone.
-Penny
This Beet watercolor painting is available as a giclee print via Molly’s webshop here.