The Cluttered Pantry

Before our trips to Russia last year, my only interaction with Borscht was from a glass jar in the refrigerator of my parents and grandparents homes…filled with sort of gelatinous muck that was made by those same people that make that holiday wine that tastes like sweetened grape juice. And for that matter, beets were a thing that came pre-sliced in a can.

I think when we did have it is was served cold, but maybe that is just because it used to reside on the top shelf of the fridge.  Either way, it wasn’t exactly a staple in my diet then nor as an adult with my own kitchen.

Then came the  two rounds of trips to Moscow and Siberia. In Chita (the small town in Siberia where we adopted the girls) we alternated eating at one of the two actual restaurants – our favorite was a cafeteria style place that, believe it or not, made savory crepes to order,  they also had a daily assortment of fresh salads and things pickled and breaded and whatnot, and best of all a large vat (and I hope you will picture a big witches cauldron – because it was) of bubbling borscht.  In fact one of the few phrases in the Russian language that I got really good at (beyond things like asking the girls if they were hungry and how to tell them that we loved them) is how to ask for borscht with sour cream.

I can’t do the conversation we had with our translator, who I asked for her best Borscht recipe, justice….but suffice it to say I got minimal input in a very Russian “you, just cook it and  then you serve it” response. (The bemused look on her face told me that I had just publicly admitted that I wasn’t a real woman.)

And you know what? She was right..  You just cook it.

It’s simple and real food.  It warms your kitchen and your body and our two girls must have some sort of sense memory for it, because when I make it they eat in double-time from their bowls.

Ingredients:

• 4 – 6 medium sized fresh beets (they are yucky and dirty if you by them right, scrub then peel, then julienne or rough dice your call)
• 1 medium red onion (i suppose you can use white, but that seems silly)
• 2 cups carrots
• 1 cup thinly sliced red cabbage and/or thinly sliced potato
• 1 pound beef (you know, if you do that sort of thing..  if not I strongly recommend using some butter to make sure your stock is more than just broth) dice it small, coat in flour – pepper/salt/crushed garlic
• enough garlic stock (you can use chicken or beef broth if you prefer) to cover the ingredients

Method:

• Heat pan really hot with a tablespoon or so of oil then seer the meat and brown really well (the more you do the better the caramelized brown bits will be for the broth)
• Toss in the onion and saute’, add the carrots and beets and give a good toss into the drippings then add the garlic stock (just a small amount at first to let you use a wooden spoon to scrape the bottom of the pan with, then pour in the rest.)
• Bring to a full boil then reduce the heat and simmer for as long as you can stand (you can eat it within an hour if you like bity veggies, but the longer it simmers the better the flavors are.)
• Right before you turn off heat add in a tablespoon of butter, and serve with at least a dollop of sour cream (man it is so good)

My newest venture is into using the beet greens.  I haven’t gotten it just right yet, but this last batch was worth at least munching on while the Borscht bubbled…..the cook’s gotta eat right?

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