Hello, glad to meet you again. Today I’m publishing my first culinary post. And I want to start with a traditional Ukrainian dish - borsh. This dish is very important for me because when I got a job at kitchen for the first time I couldn’t do anything but my borsch turned out incredible (so wonderful that the employees of the supermarket located above our small cafe spread legends about the great chef with the most delicious borsh on the East of Ukraine =)); and today I will share the recipe for this miracle with you.
What do we need to prepare this very simple and delicious dish?
- 2 tomatoes
- ¼ cabbage
- 2 carrots
- 3 potatoes
- 1 beetroot
- 1 large onion or 2 small
- meat soup set (I have 3 chicken thighs and 350 gr of pork bones)
- parsley
- garlic
- tomato paste (70 g)
- salt, pepper
- sour cream (optional)
Well, we will start, of course, with the broth. The soup set should be rinsed well, put in a saucepan with cold water and put on medium heat. A small life hack that we were taught at the university - if you want a rich broth, put the meat in cold water, if you want tasty meat, put it in slightly salted boiling water.
While the broth is boiling we need to prepare the vegetables. All vegetables should be washed and peeled. Cut the potatoes into medium cubes, put them into the water so that they don`t darken and forget about them for some time. Put halves of a carrot and a half of a large onion on a hot surface of your stove and fry until black crust (when caramelized, the product is more saturated with taste and flavour), we will need it for the broth. Cut the other half of the onion into small cubes, grate carrots and beets on a large grater (they say that it is better to cut these vegetables with a knife into small straws, then borsch looks neater and tastes better, but personally I did not notice this =).
Another little secret, this time with tomato dressing for borsh. Take two tomatoes and pour boiling water over them, after they stand for a while, remove the peel (we definitely don’t need it). Next, grind them with a blender or grater and mix with tomato paste, so the taste will be more real and pleasant. You can also add bell peppers in addition to tomatoes.
By this time, our broth should already be boiling, and here the most important thing is to remove the foam that appears, if you do not do this, our broth will be very cloudy and even can be bitter.
Once the broth has boiled you need to reduce the heat and add the fried onion and carrot, you can also put a stalk of parsley, bay leaf, and a couple of crushed cloves of garlic, all this will enhance the taste of the broth. I really like a delicious rich broth, I think borsch turns out so delicious because of that.
Well, let's start with our roasting. Pour vegetable oil on a hot frying pan and put in chopped onion, after 3-5 minutes of frying, when at least one onion starts to turn golden, add carrot. In 5 minutes add the beetroot, pour about a tablespoon of vinegar (so that the beet does not lose its bright color) and fry on medium heat for about 5-7 minutes. Here comes the time for our tomato dressing, pour it into fried vegetables and bring to taste, a little salt, pepper, sugar, add a little of broth, mix, cover and simmer for 10 minutes, until the beetroot is ready.
While our broth is saturating (in my opinion, it should be cooked on low heat for at least one hour), let's deal with cabbage - my most unloved vegetable, I hate how it creaks when I cut it, have goosebumps. Just cut it into strips. Parsley and garlic should be intensively chopped.
Well, we have almost everything done. Strain the broth, add chopped potatoes, a little of salt, make the fire medium and cook until cooked. Disassemble the meat used for the broth and mix it with herbs and garlic. Once the potato is cooked, add roasted beet to borsh, wait till it’s boiling and add the cabbage five minutes later. Everyone loves cabbage differently, someone loves when it is crunchy, someone does not, so cook it to the state you like. Now it's time for our mixture of greens and garlic, add it all to borsh, boil, taste and add herbs. That’s all, our delicious borsh is ready !!!
We’re almost there, dry the bread (take the one you like the most), cut lard, put some sour cream in borsh, get a cold glass from a freezer, pour some vodka in it, and enjoy a wonderful, traditional Ukrainian dinner))) Have to say that I do not drink vodka so I have just water in my glass. Tried to think of beer that goes with borsh but nothing came to my mind, so if someone knows what beer tastes with borsh - I'm waiting in the comments section.
Well, I want to dwell on this, I'm waiting for our next meeting. Thank you for reading till the end. We will definitely meet again.