Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Snapshot: Борщ для обеда


Inspired by recent russian posts I made myself Borstj (russian beet soup) with sour cream for lunch.
Mmmmm...

Edit: Here is the recipe I used, should be enough for 4 (big, O.K.-sized) servings:

6 beets (0,5 kg)
3 potatoes
2 onions
1 l vegetable broth
salt, pepper
crushed caraway
1-2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

Peel beets, onions and potatoes and slice them thin. Boil in broth for 30 minutes. After that, mix the vegetables with half of the broth to a smooth purée. Put back in pot and dilute with the rest of the broth. Add spices. Serve with sour cream.

/O.K.

22 comments:

LS said...

It is Borscht in English! Strange that Swedish has a different spelling (hehe). PP is planning to make it for dinner one night. I am not so fond of it, but if PP makes it, it is probably the best ever.

Beets are native to European seashores, did you know that? One of the few vegetables that got domesticated in Europe. Lots of herbs got domesticated there too, but they don't count as vegetables, I think. Oh cabbage is also from the sea shores, can tolerate salt and have fleshy leaves.

O.K. said...

Just wait until you see how the russians spell it... ;)

Never saw any beets at the shore, but you could almost think that old shoes and cans grow there...

LS said...

Some digging on Google and Wikipedia (all-reliable source of information, right?), shows that:

Borstj = Swedish spelling (only 2000+ Google hits)

but the more common spellings are:
Borscht, borsch, borshch, borsht, or bortsch

O.K. said...

борщ на русском языке!

LS said...

O.K., pronounce that!

O.K. said...

"Borstj = Swedish spelling (only 2000+ Google hits)
but the more common spellings are:
Borscht, borsch, borshch, borsht, or bortsch"

Oh, aren't we a tad us-centric? :P
I bet my left pinkie that the most common spelling is "борщ".

The funny thing is that in both swedish and english there seems to be a confusion whether it should end with a "t" or "sch" sound. Russian words and names are, just as arabic, spelled in swedish and english as they sound. I read somewhere that every fourth jew in NYC knew russian, so I guess it is an easy task for you to find someone (at work?) who can solve this mystery for us.

LS said...

OK, I admit, English-centrism rules too much unfortunately. You are right!

EH said...

Nice soup!

Can I have some?

E.H.

LS said...

I asked a Russian-speaking scientist at work, and Borscht in Russian does not have a t-sound at the end, but it does in Hebrew. He also said that the last letter in Borscht in the Cyrillic alphabet (which comes from Bulgaria?) has kind of a t-sound, but not a real t-sound, so that is why people are confused. And in Russia, they consider Bulgaria be the origin of borscht.

LA said...

That soup looks seriously freaky. It looks like blood mixed with half-melted ice lol noob omg.

O.K. said...

It's a special dish for vampires in times of global warming...

Noob? I've made it three times now :P

PP said...

I recently saw a nice sounding(tasting?) recipe for borscht and was told by one LS, "well you can make it for yourself" Ahhhhh, a challenge! So I was told I can make it and LS will try it. So far I think I have several things that LS "does not like" that are now on the like or even the "favorite" list....
hmmmmmmm.....

LS said...

OK and EH, do you remember mom making borscht? I think we had it as kids.

O.K. said...

For the swedish pronunciation I asked the swedish chef. All he said was "Borsjt, borsjt, borsjt!" and threw the soup ladle. :)

O.K. said...

PP: I like the way you cook the brussels sprouts, even though you don't use "de boom boom"...

LS said...

HAHA! O.K., are you suffering from jetlagsinsomnia?

O.K. said...

LS: Yes, I remember having it. I like it better now, I think.

O.K. said...

More like insleepia, I just woke up.

O.K. said...

LS: Thanks for the research!

LS said...

O.K., your sour creme must be very runny for you to be able to make those swirly circles. Ours would just be a glob in the center, it is so thick. Or is it light youghurt you used?

LS said...

LA, there is a recipe on-line for VAMPIRE CHICKEN WITH "BLOOD" BRAISE (beet sauce). Maybe something for you to try to make at home?

Here is the link:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_24618,00.html

O.K. said...

LS: As a matter of fact I mixed the sour cream with cream to make it more fluid, there was not that much left of it either.