Borscht Recipes

Hot and cold Borscht

There are two main variants of borscht, generically referred to as hot and cold. Both generally are based on beets, but are otherwise prepared and served differently.

Hot Borscht

Hot borscht (mostly Ukrainian and Russian), the kind most popular in the majority of cultures is a hearty soup with many common optional ingredients, depending on the cuisine, including various vegetables (beans, cabbage, carrots, cucumber, potatoes, onions, or tomatoes), mushrooms, and meats (chicken, pork, or beef). It is more akin to a stew than most soups, and may be eaten as a meal in itself, usually with thick dark bread.

Cold Borscht

Cold borshch exists in a number of cultures.

Polish variants

The basic Polish borscht (barszcz) recipe includes red beetroot, onions, garlic, and other vegetables such as carrots and celery or parsley roots. The ingredients are cooked for some time together to produce kind of clear broth (when strained) served as boullion in cups or in other ways. Some recipes include bacon as well, which gives the soup its distinctive, “smoky” taste.

Other versions are richer as they include meat and cut vegetables of various kinds where beetroots aren’t the main one (though this soup isn’t always called barszcz, but rather beetroot soup). This variation of barszcz isn’t strained and vegetable contents are left in it. Such soup can make the main course of obiad (main meal eaten in the early afternoon).

Barszcz in its strictly vegetarian version is the first course during the Christmas Eve feast. It’s served with ravioli-type dumplings called “uszka” (lit. “little ears”) with mushroom filling (sauerkraut can be used as well, again depending on the family tradition). Typically, this version does not include any meat ingredients, although some variants do.

As other Christmas traditions, barszcz served at that time has its own symbolic meaning. Most of food served at that time isn’t quite the food of the living ones, but of those that passed away. Dried fruit, mushrooms — all symbolise death of the old year as opposed to birth of the new one a day later. Change of food on December 25 (Christmas) is a visible sign that old traditions are still preserved in those little, sometimes unclear ways.

A key component to the taste of barscz is acidity. Whilst barszcz can be made easily within a few hours by simply cooking the ingredients and adding vinegar, lemon juice or citric acid; the traditional way is to prepare barszcz several days before and allow it to naturally sour. Depending on the technique; the level of acidity required and the ingredients available, barszcz takes 3-7 days to prepare in this way.

Pho Recipes

Pho is served as a bowl of white rice noodles in clear beef broth, with thin cuts of beef (steak, fatty flank, lean flank, brisket). Variations featuring tendon, tripe, meatballs, chicken leg, chicken breast, or other chicken organs (heart, liver, tongue,[citation needed] etc.) are also available. ‘With the lot’ (made with chicken broth and all or most of the shop’s chicken and cattle offering, including chicken hearts and livers and beef tripe and tendons) is generally rendered ‘tai pin lu’ and, in Anglophonic countries, often left translated. Blood jelly is sometimes included in tai pin lu and other varieties.

The broth is generally made by simmering beef (and sometimes chicken) bones, oxtails, flank steak, charred onion, and spices, taking several hours to prepare. Seasonings include Saigon cinnamon, star anise, charred ginger, cloves, and sometimes black cardamom pods .

The noodles, called bánh phở in Vietnamese, are traditionally cut from wide sheets of fresh rice noodles similar to Chinese Shahe fen, although dried noodles (also called “rice sticks”) may also be used.

The dish is garnished with ingredients such as green onions, white onions, coriander leaves (cilantro), ngò gai (culantro, or long coriander), Thai basil, lemon or lime wedges, and bean sprouts. The last five items are usually provided on a separate plate, which allows customers to adjust the soup’s flavor as they like. Some sauces such as hoisin sauce, fish sauce, and the Thai hot sauce Sriracha, are popular additions as well. The herb ngò ôm (Limnophila aromatica) is sometimes added as well.

For the phở connoisseur, other garnishes which may be ordered on the side include hành trần (the white “bulb” portion of scallions, blanched in boiling broth) and hành giấm (sliced white onions with a dash of vinegar). These are only brought to the table when specifically requested, as opposed to the general platter of greens and lime wedges. The diner typically squeezes a few drops of lime juice onto the vinegared onion slices before eating them. The hành trần and hành giấm, when eaten with the beef slices, are believed to cut the fattiness and balance the strong beef aroma that some find overpowering.

Phở originated in northern Vietnam and spread to southern and central Vietnam in the mid-1950s, after the defeat of the French and the eventual partitioning of the country. It is likely that phở came into being around 1910-1912, early enough in the new century. The communist government of North Vietnam forcibly closed many private phở businesses in the 1950s, opening government-run eateries in their place. Northern Vietnamese fleeing communist rule for South Vietnam introduced phở to their southern counterparts. Unlike in Hanoi in North Vietnam, the phở business flourished in South Vietnam, especially Saigon.

There are conflicting beliefs as to how phở came to be. Some believe it originated from French methods used in bouillon or consommé cooking. Oxen were valued work animals and were rarely eaten, but the arrival of the French had probably prompted servants to prepare a dish that suited the French palate. It is even said that phở, or at least the etymological derivation of that name for the dish, came from the French beef stew dish pot-au-feu, with phở being a Vietnamization of the word feu. The broth for pot-au-feu, as it is for phở, is prepared with a bouquet garni containing spices such as cloves and black pepper. Another word for phở, used in Vietnam while Chinese was still the national written language, is hà phấn (河粉; Cantonese: ho4 fan2);[citation needed] the Chinese characters are the equivalent of the Chinese he fen, which comes from Shahe fen (沙河粉), the original name for the rice noodles originating in the town of Shahe, Guangdong.

Others believe that phở possible origins more likely lie in China. China had ruled over Vietnam for over a millennium and greatly influenced Vietnamese culture, including cuisine. Cooking ingredients used in phở, such as spices also seen in Chinese cooking (see five-spice powder and red cooking), as well as the use of rice noodles, are all Chinese influences.

With the arrival of anti-communist Vietnamese exiles and refugees (that is, hailing from South Vietnam) in the post-Vietnam War period, phở was also gradually introduced to Western countries, especially to France and the United States.There are also many phở restaurants in Australia and Canada, as these countries also received many Vietnamese refugees and immigrants. Vietnamese immigrants also brought phở noodles to the former Soviet bloc countries, including Russia, Poland and the Czech Republic.

There are several regional variants of phở in Vietnam, particularly divided between northern (Hanoi, called phở bắc or “northern phở”; or phở Hà Nội), central (Huế)[citation needed], and southern (Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon). One regional phở may be sweeter, and another variation may emphasize a bolder and spicier flavor[citation needed]. “Northern phở” tends to use somewhat wider noodles and green onions.photo 1photo 2 On the other hand, southern Vietnamese generally use thinner noodlesTemplate:Http://ninecooks.typepad.com/perfectpantry/2007/01/banh pho.html (approximately the width of pad Thai or linguine noodles), and add bean sprouts and a greater variety of fresh herbs to their phở instead.

Sorrel Soup

Sorrel soup is a soup made from water, sorrel leaves and salt. Other possible ingredients are egg yolks or boiled eggs and boiled potatoes. It is known in Polish, Lithuanian, East Slavic and Yiddish cuisines. Its other English names spelled variously schav, shchav, shav, shtshav, are borrowed via Yiddish language derived from the Polish name szczaw for sorrel. It is often served cold with sour cream.

It is characterized by its sour taste due to oxalic acid (called “sorrel acid” in Slavic languages) present in sorrel. The “sorrel-sour” taste may disappear when sour cream added, as the oxalic acid would react with calcium and casein.

In Polish, Ukrainian, and Russian cuisines sorrel soup may be prepared using any kind of broth instead of water and may be served either hot or chilled. Otherwise it may be a kosher food.

Caldo Verde Recipe

Caldo verde is a popular soup of Portuguese and Brazilian cuisine.  The basic ingredients are mashed potatoes, mashed onions and minced collard greens, savoy cabbage, or kale. Common flavoring ingredients are garlic and salt. Before serving, slices of chouriço are also often added as well as olive oil. It is usually accompanied by slices of Portuguese broa bread on the side.

In Portugal, it is typically consumed during festivities, and almost always served with chouriço sausage (tora).

Caldo verde originated from the province of Minho, located in Northern Portugal. Although it originated from Minho, it is a national famous recipe used from the very north of Portugal to the south. The love for this soup has spread all over the world becoming a famous symbol of Portuguese cuisine. This traditional soup is mentioned in many books written by Camilo Castelo Branco. Since Caldo Verde is very simple and light it is often consumed before a main course meal as well as a late supper. Caldo verde is also a favourite choice at many Portuguese festivities, celebrations and weddings happening everywhere around the world.

Solyanka Soup

Solyanka is a thick, spicy and sour soup in the Russian and Ukrainian cuisine.

There are mainly three different kinds of solyanka, with the main ingredient being either meat, fish or mushrooms. All of them contain pickled cucumbers with brine, and often cabbage, salty mushrooms, smetana and dill. The soup is prepared by cooking the cucumbers with brine before adding the other ingredients of the broth.

* For meat solyanka, ingredients like beef, ham, sausages, chicken breasts, and cabbage, together with salty mushrooms, cucumber pickles, tomatoes, onions, olives, capers, allspice, parsley, and dill are all cut fine and mingled with cream in a pot. The broth is added, and all shortly heated in the stove, without boiling.
* Fish solyanka is prepared similarly, but soup vegetables are cooked with the broth. The meat is replaced with fish, like sturgeon and salmon, and freshwater crayfish. Finally, some lemon juice is added to the soup.
* For mushroom solyanka, cut cabbage is heated in butter together with vinegar, tomatoes, and cucumber pickles, with little brine. Separately, mushrooms and onions are heated, and grated lemon skin is added. Cabbage and mushrooms are put in layers, breadcrumbs and butter added, and all shortly baked.

Solyanka is also popular in the Eastern parts of Germany, where it is commonly found in restaurants and available as instant product in stores.

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