In this covid19 period and having social distancing to keep everybody safe…. me, my partner and his friends started with a weekly virtual dinner meet-up. We mutual agree on a recipe to cook and at lazy times we do delivery/takeaway in a particular kitchen.
Today, we all cook the famous Ukrainian/Russian beetroot soup, borscht. Each of us makes his own version of borscht. One having meat, with shrimps (my partner’s style) or vegetarian.
Naturally, I go for the original borscht with meat. How can it not go with meat, right? This is my 1sttime cooking borscht and I will never forget this delicious soup when I ate this in Russia. I really hope I will get close to this memorable taste.
The result was surprisingly good, almost close to the one I had in Russia. Maybe next time, when I try again 🙂
Serves 4P and cooking time 1:30-2hrs
Ingredients
- 300gr unboned stew meat or veal shin (NL: kalfsschenkel) – cut meat in pieces
- 1L cold water
- ½ Tbsp salt + more at taste
- 2 medium beetroot – peel and grate or cut in bite size pieces
- 2 Tbsp olive oil2 Tbsp vinegar
- ½ Tbsp sugar
- 1 Tbsp tomato sauce 1 shallot – fine dice
- ½ Tbsp butter1 medium carrot – peel and cut in bite size or grate
- 3 medium potatoes –peel and cut in bite size
- 1 tomato – optional peeled and cut in dices
- 1 bay leave
- ½ tsp pepper
- 10gr dille (handful) – chop + fresh sprigs for garnish
- 1 clove garlic – pressed
- Sour cream – optional for garnish
Kitchen Tools
- Large soup pot
- Food processor
- Large bowl
- Frying pan
What to do?
1) Wash meat in cold water and cut in pieces. Place in a large soup pot with 1 liter cold water + ½ Tbsp salt. Bring it to boil and remove the foam while it boils. Keep doing this until there is no foam crud as this will be your broth. Then lower the heat and boil for 45min-1hr. Regularly remove crud if needed.
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2) Grate beet in food processor or cut in bite size. Place the beet in a large bowl and add 2 Tbsp olive oil + 2Tbsp vinegar. Stir well and sauté 5min in pan. Then lower the heat, add ½ Tbsp sugar + 1 Tbsp tomato sauce. Stir well for 10min. Place the beet back in the bowl and set aside.
3) Use the same pan, no need to wash it. Sauté the onion in ½ Tbsp butter for 2min. Add carrot and sauté for another 5 min or until it gets soft. Then add into big bowl of beet.
4) Once the meat has been cooked for minimum 45min, add the diced potatoes in the soup pan and cook for 10min. Then add sautéed beet, onions, carrot and diced tomatoes. Cook for another 10min.
5) Add 1 bay leave, ½ tsp pepper and salt to taste.
6) Add chopped dille and pressed garlic in soup pan. Stir well and cover with lid. Cook the soup in low heat for 20min.
Finally: serve the soup hot and garnish with fresh dille sprigs and a little bit of sour cream (optional).
Eet Smakelijk!
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