Borscht (pron. "bore-sh-ch") is Russian beet soup. It's made mostly in winter out of root vegetables, but my room mate has a cold and I have some beets, so here we go.
As far back as I can remember, my mother's side of my family has been making some variation or other of this. I'm making my Grannie's version, which has lamb shank in it, but my vegetarian mom does a really good variation sans meat that I'll include here, as well.
For the kitchen-phobic, this is a good one. It's ridiculously easy, the hardest part being controlling the amount of beet juice you get on every kitchen surface (including yourself).
As far as the meat is concerned, you can use a wide variety of things. I went to the Lebanese grocer up the street and got two smallish shanks of lamb. That's about as Russian as you can get. Otherwise, you could use a leftover roasted chicken carcass (mmm, carcass), a whole, uncooked chicken (in which case you'd want to make sure it cooked long enough for the meat to be falling off the bone), or leftover bones from roast beef or lamb or pork etc. It's a good way not to let those go to waste. I suppose you could also use chopped up bits of meat, if you wanted a stew-like thing going on, but I'm just gonna stick with tradition here.
Ingredients:
The right music
Lamb shank
3 medium-ish beets
3 medium-ish potatoes
a quarter or so of a large red cabbage. You can use more if you like.
half a large onion. Or the whole onion. Up to you.
A few cloves of garlic.
salt and pepper to taste
water
a couple tablespoons of cooking oil such as grapeseed, canola, or olive
In a large pot over medium-high heat, heat the cooking oil til it coats the bottom of said pot easily when tipped. Toss in the lamb shank and cook til it's browned on all sides.
Peel and chop the potatoes and beets into bite-sized cubes. When the meat is browned, toss them in with it. Give a few stirs.
Chop the onion and garlic and add those after the beets and potatoes have been cooking about ten minutes.
Chop the red cabbage so it's in medium-length shreds and throw it in when the onion is getting soft. Sauté for a few more minutes.
Add salt and pepper and stir to mix. Then add about five cups of water, or enough to cover about an inch over the veggies. Turn the heat to medium and cover.
Simmer for up (or over) an hour, depending on how soft and mushy you like things. I like chunks, so I go with about forty five minutes or so.
Serve with a glop of sour cream and the freshest dill you can lay your red Commie hands on.
Variations:
If you're using a soup bone, toss in the veggies to sauté first, and when they're all going throw in the bone. If you're using a whole chicken, put it in when you add the water.
For vegetarians, sauté the veggies and then instead of water, add five or six cups of vegetable broth or the equivalent of water and bouillon. It's just as good, but your babushka won't know what to think of you.
