Or do you want to take another look at the homepage MENU?

Or do you want to SEARCH for something specific?

* * *

"But even better is a borscht, prepared with beets, Ukrainian style, you know the way, my friend, with ham and country sausages. It should be served with sour cream, of course, and a sprinkling of fresh parsley and dill."
--Anton Chekhov, "The Siren"

This fabulous, many layered, complex borscht is compliments of Sándor Fenyvesi, an air traffic controller in Budapest, Hungary, who was educated at a special school for navigating officers and air traffic controllers in Riga, Latvia, when he was 18 years old and learned this soup while there. Sándor has an outstanding bilingual website of soup recipes at www.cookbook.hu. Most derive from his wife Katya, a wonderful cook. Serve this authentic Ukrainian soup hot to 6-8 people as a substantial first course or as a main course. For the story of borscht, click HERE.

• 8 cups beef stock
• 1/2 medium head of cabbage, finely shredded
• 3 medium potatoes, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1 large red beet, shredded
• 1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon bacon fat
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 2 medium onions, finely chopped
• 2 peeled tomatoes, chopped (4 canned tomatoes are fine)
• 1 carrot, sliced
• 1 parsley root or 1/2 parsnip
• 6 peppercorns
• 3 allspice berries
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 whole head of garlic, peeled and chopped
• 2 Tablespoons bacon fat
• fresh parsley, chopped

Garnish: sour cream

Heat the stock in a large soup pot, add cabbage and potatoes and simmer for 15 minutes.

In the meantime, mix the beets, vinegar, bacon fat, sugar, and tomatoes in a saucepan and cook gently, covered, for about 5 minutes. Set aside. Then, in another small pan, heat the butter, mix in the onion, carrot, and parsley root (or parsnip), and braise.

When the cabbage and potatoes are finished simmering, add the beet mixture, the onion mixture, the peppercorns, allspice berries, and bay leaves--and cook another 10 minutes.

Stir in the chopped garlic, the remaining bacon fat, and the chopped parsley. Then turn the heat down to a very low simmer, lightly cover the pot, and simmer very slowly for about 4½ hours. Turn off the heat, let cool, and allow to ripen for about 12-18 hours.

When ready to serve, reheat gently then ladle into bowls. Top each with a teaspoonful of sour cream and serve with a slice of dark rye bread.