soupnancy

Borscht (or Borshch)

Connecting with my Ukrainian roots

Nancy Hinton

This winter I was menu brainstorming and suddenly felt inspired to make borshch. (More commonly spelled ‘borscht’ in English, ‘borshch’ is closer to the Ukrainian pronunciation.)

Probably because last year I had contributed to a fundraiser in support of Ukraine and got a cookbook* in exchange, which I have picked up to peruse here and there over the slow season. Not to mention that I do have Ukrainian roots that I have barely explored.

Ok, I have made cabbage rolls before. When I found out that my birthmother was Ukrainian, the first thing I did was wonder what 'my people' ate... Cabbage rolls, sausage and borscht, dumplings and pickles!

Over the years, I recall playing around with some fancied-up fare on my restaurant menus, but not much that stuck. Although come to think of it, I am strong on canning, pickling and putting up and do use cabbage in my kitchen a lot, especially fermented.

I remember eating borscht at a Polish restaurant on Prince Arthur that we would go to on occasion in university – they had a daily menu that my boyfriend at the time claimed was the best deal in town to fill you up nice and cheap. I thought it was pretty heavy stuff, but it did taste like real cooking, and I liked the varenyky with onions and sour cream.

Even though beets are among my least favourite vegetables, being ‘soupnancy’, I have certainly made beet soups before – more like pretty pink concoctions – with ginger and citrus, or fennel, apple and dill, but not borscht per say, which is usually quite meaty. With the brutal winter we had, this classic version was suddenly a turn on. I had beets in the cold room and wild boar, house sauerkraut about to be ripe, so the timing was perfect. Plus, the reddish colour would be appropriate for Valentine’s Day.

Upon perusing multiple sources, I quickly learned that like most ‘national’ dishes, there are an endless number of recipes. I like to try to be true to the classic dish in the beginning, before ‘appropriating’ and going off in all directions. However, the existing variability gave me permission to do my own thing. I followed the template of what seemed to me to be essential and took it from there, following my fridge and feeling, as per normal. (I rarely make anything the same way twice, unless I have to as with our JS products).

What I have gleaned: Main ingredient - beets, always onions and cabbage too, usually carrots and potato, and either a chunk of meat or bone. Sour cream and dill to garnish.

I include a recipe from the book to give you an idea of the options, but below is a description of what I I did, and I wouldn’t want to change a thing myself.

BTW, the book I mentioned, ‘Babusya’s kitchen’ beyond being for a noble cause, is actually quite good, endearingly full of personal stories and hearty recipes that bring you into people’s homes, evoking an authentic portrait of Ukranian cuisine. Afterall, ‘Babusya’ means ‘grandmother’.

My recipe: I braised a shoulder cut of boar (like leaner but tastier pork) in the oven, and boiled a couple of pounds of (peeled) beets whole in water, then used the cooking liquid of both to make my soup with a mirepoix (onion, celery, carrot), the shredded/grated beet, bacon and tomato), potato, and cabbage. I added my sauerkraut near the end along with a whack of dill. I served a wild herb crème fraiche to finish à la minute.

And it was really delicious, I must say. Although a rustic dish by nature, it took its place on the winter tasting menu at the restaurant as it was a hit according to customer feedback, tasting complex and different from anything else.

Without an actual pork shoulder or beef blade roast, some bacon, a ham bone or chicken legs cooked in the soup would do the job. I think a good meat stock is essential in this case, if not necessarily the meat itself. Of course, a vegetarian beet soup could be great, but not really ‘borscht’ to me..

No stickler for recipes, I’m all for playing loose, but after this, I wouldn’t sub out the sauerkraut if I could help it. But, obviously you could, and just use cabbage and a splash of cider vinegar. I had cider, a touch of maple syrup and some tomato along with a bouquet garni (bay, thyme, peppercorn, clove) in my braising liquid/stock, so I didn’t need to add much more seasoning, but otherwise, I would always tweak at the end with a dash of salt, spice, acid, umami and sweet, if necessary to punch up and balance the flavours.. The sour cream garnish appears to be unanimously key, but I’m not sure I agree; however the dill is!