Fall is the Best Time for Russian Soups

One of my favorite hobbies is cooking and finding and tasting food in the different countries I visit or live in. 

When I lived in Germany I spent great deal of my time and money at the many restaurants and kiosks I would find around the cities.  I had my favorite places to go and would even take a train to visit them. 

I can remember going to Shonberg, Germany just for their grilled chicken or broiled trout! (don't forget the German potato salad)  Yum!  I also had a favorite ice cream shop in Escborn, Germany where I could have the local favorite - Italian Ice Cream.  I always seemed to pick the same dish too called Spaghetti Ice.  It was nothing more than vanilla squeezed through a mold to make the noodles with lots of strawberry goodness poured over the top!  And, who can forget the Bratwurst!!!! Mit brodchen und senf, bitte!

I also seek out and find the best goodies and eat them here in Russia too.  I miss many of these delicacies while I'm not in Russia like the Pelmeni.  You just can't beat that with fresh cucumbers and tomatoes with butter on top and salt and pepper.  Pelmeni are meat dumplings with many variations.  Once I accidentally bought meat Pelmeni along with a box of cheese and raisin pelmeni.  They didn't taste too good when we dipped them out of the pan.  It pays to learn how to read Russian.

Now that the weather is getting cooler I am on the lookout for Russian soups.  I'll take just about any of them - Salyanka, Schi, or pea soup.  However, the all time favorite of just about everyone is Borsh.  If it has beets in it its borsh. 

There is much debate over this dish.  Ukrainians claim it as their own and so do the Russians.  There are also as many different recipes as their are households and cooks but the main ingredients remain the same.  Below is one of the local recipes I found.  Try it and see if you like it. 

It is prepared with many common optional ingredients, depending on the cuisine of course, including; various vegetables - beans, cabbage, carrots, cucumber, potatoes, onions, tomatoes and mushrooms, and meats - chicken, pork, or beef...

Ingredients: (depends on cuisine but most popular one would be this) :

1. 2 lbs pork loin
2. 12 cups cold water
3. 1 teaspoon salt
4. 1 medium onion, chopped
5. 3 beets, peeled and chopped
6. 2 carrots, chopped
7. tablespoon beet kvas (beet kvas is the liquid from pickled beets.)
8. medium potato
9. 1/2 cup celery, thinly sliced
10. 3 cups cabbage, shredded
11.1 (10 1/2 ounce) can tomato soup
12. 2 garlic cloves, minced
13. 1 tablespoon flour
14. dill weed, chopped
15. sour cream

Directions:

- Cover the meat with the cold water in a large stock pot.
- Add the salt and bring slowly to the boiling point.
- Skim the top of the water and discard.
- Cover and simmer for 1 ½ hours.
- Remove meat and set aside to cool.
- Add the onions and beets to the stock pot.
- Cook for about 20 minutes.
- Add the potato, celery, and carrot.
- Continue cooking for about 15minutes.
- Meanwhile, after the meat is cool, shred it and discard any fat or bones. dd the shredded pork to the stock pot.
- Add the cabbage and cook till tender.
- Be careful not to overcook.
- Stir in the tomato soup and garlic.
- Blend the flour with 3 TBS. of cold water.
- Add some of the soup liquid to the flour and stir till smooth.
- Add to the borscht.
- Add the beet kvas and season with salt and pepper.
- Bring to the boiling point.
- Flavor with dill weed.
- Serve with a dollop of sour cream.

I have to give credit where credit is due, there are many cooks on the web here who know much more about cooking than I do.  You can find this recipe at the expat site here in Moscow.  It is under the food section of the site.

Guten Apetit!