L U N A T A L K with Eva Moon

Soup Weather III

November 3, 2008 on 1:41 pm | In Food, General Musing |

I will run out of soup recipes before long but this one is a family classic and I promise I’ll be just as vague about quantities as ever.

Eva’s Borscht

Fill a big pot (I don’t know, 8 qt?) about half full of water and toss in some meat.

Beef is traditional, but I don’t eat beef for reasons I would go into, but I’m afraid someone would write back explaining how the same objections apply to pork or chicken or lamb and I’d have to put my fingers in my ears and go “lalalala.” I’ve found that a pork wad works just fine (that would be a pork tri-tip roast. I like them because they have no fat. Something with a bone in it would add more flavor, but this is a pretty flavorful soup anyway. A wad is approximately two pounds). I think it would be good with turkey too, but I haven’t tried that yet.

Add some salt, pepper, a few cloves of garlic and a bay leaf or two and cook until the meat is tender, skimming if necessary.

Then add: a sliced onion, 1 can diced tomatoes, 2 cans sliced beets and a shredded head of cabbage. Add some water if it’s boiled away too much. You can add a couple diced potatoes if you like. I didn’t this time.

When the veggies are soft, taste and season with salt, pepper and about a cup of cider vinegar and a cup of sugar. But don’t add the vinegar and sugar all at once. Add about half and taste. It should have a nice tang to it and be evenly balanced between sweet and sour without being overpowering.

Serve with sour cream or plain yogurt. I like yogurt personally.

As a bonus, here’s how I made the pirozhki in the picture:

Cook a couple of potatoes and set aside. Dice a large onion or two medium. It’s really hard to have too much onion. Cook it in a dry heavy pot until much of the liquid is gone and they are limp. Add chopped garlic, scallions and some olive oil and stir until the onions are dark and caramelized. Do this on a daily basis. Caramelizing onions and garlic is one of life’s wonderful aromas. I plan to do up a vat to get me through election returns without going mad. Dice the potatoes and stir them into the onions. They’ll mash up a bit, but do leave it mostly lumps please.

Then, pop open a tube of large buttermilk biscuits. (I’m for easy. So sue me, grandma.) Plop one on a floured board and roll out to thin. Put a spoonful of the potatoes in the middle, wet half the edge of the dough with a bit of water, fold over and press the edges together. Repeat. Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes. Try to get them out of the kitchen before they’re eaten up. Three medium potatoes and one huge onion made almost enough filling for three tubes of biscuits.

Go thou and soupify.

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