EPTBorscht
Borscht! What an interesting dish, right? Whenever some TV cook pulls an exotic dish out of his or her ass, it usually comes off the tail of a trip to some foreign land where they acquired the taste for such dish, or maybe a recipe was handed down to them by a grandma of a friend who lived in said land for 87 years. Not me. I was sitting on my ass, as usual, browsing Wikipedia, and came across this.
Anyways, it's not the journey that matters, it's the result that makes you sit here and read this blog, right? Borscht is a healthy, hearty, easy soup made with red beets. Due to its diverse origins in about a dozen Eastern European countries, the ways to make borscht are near infinite. This is just one such variation that I've cobbled together from several recipes.
Ingredients
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/WUuGe.jpg)
This is just most of the ingredients. Read the list for all of them. Or if you're feeling plucky, proceed blindly off of this picture alone. What's the matter, chicken?
Total time: 1 1/2-4 hours
Serves 4-8
Beef Stock*:
~1 lb raw beef bones, tendons, etc.
1 yellow onion
1 carrot
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp rosemary
2 bay leaves
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp fresh or dried parsley
1 tbsp vegetable oil
Borscht:
4 cups beef stock
5 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 medium head of green cabbage
1 yellow onion
1 large carrot
3 medium beets**
3 medium or 4 small potatoes
salt
pepper
2 tbsp vegetable oil
3 tsp red wine vinegar
3 tbsp fresh parsley
2 bay leaves
3 cloves garlic
sour cream or fresh yogurt for garnish
*You notice that salt and pepper are not listed. Do not season your stocks so that they may remain a neutral ingredient when it comes to seasoning the actual dish. If you use store bought stock, you will have to take sodium into account.
**With their leaves, if possible.
Cooking
We start with the beef stock. You can either buy the stock, or make it ahead of time. Heat up a tablespoon of oil in a pot and deposit your beef bones. Brown them for about 1-2 minutes on all sides.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/JBnCD.jpg)
The Necromancer from Diablo 2 would make a great soup cook.
Meanwhile, peel your carrot and onion and chop them into chunks. Deposit the chunks into the browned beef and cook until soft. Pour about 5-6 cups of water into the pot. Add thyme, rosemary, garlic, and parsley. Simmer for about two hours, then strain into a container. Either use immediately, refrigerate for up to 3 days, or freeze for long-term storage.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/uk5PS.jpg)
Some of you might be wondering sarcastically if this is a vegetable stock with a bit of beef or a beef stock. Well if you are wondering that, just remember that I'm way Soup Nazier than you are.
Now, when you are ready for the borscht, the borscht is ready for you! Chop your onions and carrots into similar sized slices. Saute them in oil until soft in your soup pot.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/swABe.jpg)
You can also add meat to your borscht, but I'm only using vegetables here. Beet your meat on your own time.
As the onions and carrots soften, peel and dice your potatoes. When the vegetables in the pot are soft, add your tomato paste. Stir to mix, then add your beef stock, garlic, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil and add the potatoes. Simmer for five minutes.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/4RswH.jpg)
If you make the soup with chicken instead you can call the soup "the birds and the beets".
While you were cooking your vegetables and waiting for the potatoes to cook, you should peel and shred your beets. You can shred by knife like I did, but it takes a longer period of time. Also chop your beet leaves into pieces and shred your cabbage.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/7tpgj.jpg)
If you put your beets into a box that's called beet boxing.
Dump all of your vegetables into the soup and simmer until tender, about 20-30 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste and add your vinegar. When the vegetables are as tender as you desire, turn the heat off. Roughly chop 3 tablespoons of parsley and stir them into the soup.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Jlsiv.jpg)
If you eat enough beets it'll turn your piss orange. Romantically speaking, it's like pissing a sunset.
Serve the soup hot with a dollop of sour cream or plain yogurt. Garnish with parsley (or more authentically, dill).
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/WR9B0.jpg)
Finished borsch. It looks almost like an aborschion in a pot. Probably how the name came to be.
The Result
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/OGSjR.jpg)
Too many beet puns. At this point I'm really beeting a dead borsch.
Wow, this soup isn't bad at all, even without meat. It is slightly sweet, with a rich meaty flavor from the beef stock. Some recipes ask you to add a bit of sugar or honey, but I think that sweetners will definitely push the soup over the edge. Be careful not to spill the soup on your shirt while eating though. That shit'll never come off. Or, if you do live in an Eastern bloc country, it might feel like you're being drenched in the blood of revolutionary patriots or something. Wear it outside proudly.
Well, this concludes another installment of [F], my new Fblog. I know it's been over a month since my last entry, but I am trying to do these as often as I can, Hopefully this will end up being a bi-weekly release at least. Questions and comments are always welcome, especially if you eat borsch regularly and have a favorite recipe. Past installments of all of my food blogs can be found at
http://foodinmind.wordpress.com
Until next time, eat beets, beet off, beet up, etc. It can't be beet.
You were right, when you wrote there are infinite ways to prepare this dish haha![[image loading]](http://im.glogster.com/media/5/28/85/27/28852789.jpg)
, but you didn't exactly make it the traditional russian way that my grandma does (even though she is northern polish, but that is another story). You used too many fancy things that a traditional borscht didn't have back in the old days 
