Borscht
A beetroot soup on beef stock where acid holds both the colour and the flavour. The beetroot is braised separately, never boiled in the pot.
Ingredients
For 6 servings · tick what is ready
Use the scaled ingredient list. Steps and temperatures stay unchanged; use a larger pan or dish if needed. Seasonings to taste stay to taste.
How to make it
Cover the meat with cold water, bring it to the boil and skim. Simmer for an hour and a half at a bare tremble — a rolling boil turns the stock cloudy.
Braise the beetroot in a pan with a spoon of oil, the tomato paste and the vinegar, covered, for about twenty minutes. The vinegar is what keeps the colour.
Separately fry the onion and carrot until soft and golden.
Lift the meat out, pull it into pieces and return it to the stock. Add the potatoes and give them ten minutes — before any acid reaches the pot.
Add the cabbage, then after five minutes the beetroot and the fried vegetables. Give it five minutes more, add the bay and garlic and take it straight off the heat.
Let it stand covered for at least twenty minutes. Serve with sour cream, which softens the acid and pulls the flavours together.
About this recipe
By UniTools · Source: UniTools — theunitools.com. Recipe content available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Photo: liz west from Boxborough, MA · CC BY 2.0