Vera and Tanya's Borscht Recipe
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Ingredients: |
Ingredients: Borscht can be dangerous!
TANYA’S BORSCHT
1 can of whole tomatoes with the juice 28 oz,
2 ˝ cans of water (use the can as your measuring cup
2-3 fresh beets cut into about cubes
shank bone with meat, or cubes of beef for stew (about a pound) or 4 – 5 short ribs
(Your choice, but you want it lean as possible. Short ribs are not too lean)
medium whole onion
1/4 cup of green pepper cut in1/2 inch strips
1/4 cup of barley
one carrot cut in 1 inch rounds
2-3 red potatoes, peeled and cubed
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Directions: |
Directions:Put the first five ingredients in a large soup pot and bring to boil. Then add the potatoes, green peppers, barley and the carrots after it comes to a boil. Boil for about 15-20 minutes until the meat and beets become tender. Then add:
2 lemons juiced
Then add:
1 head of cabbage, shredded
Cook until the cabbage is tender and adjust the taste with salt, pepper and perhaps a little sugar if the soup is too sour. Sprinkle on chives at serving.
This freezes well in containers with tight fitting lids.
The making of borscht is dangerous. It is dangerous because cutting fresh beets into cubes can be difficult (they are very hard) and they stain your fingers, clothes, cutting boards, and counter tops. Use the lemon rind to clean up the stains. The cutting of the cabbage is dangerous too. The cabbage is hard and unwieldy at times. Be careful. And then there is the cabbage creating gas factor. This can be flatulence producing, and therefore dangerous.
The making of borscht is not exact. One has to practice and make it often, using the freshest of ingredients. Eventually, the measurements and tanginess will be become second nature and you will have created your version of Tanya’s Borscht. |
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Personal
Notes: |
Personal
Notes: Borscht
There are many versions of borscht. I guess every Ukrainian/Russian/Jewish grandma had her own version. We have never tasted borscht like ours anywhere. We’ve seen borscht on the menu on a few occasions at Jewish delis or at ethnic restaurants, but our version has never appeared. It seems as though borscht is unique to each family and depends on what on what is available in the refrigerator at the time of making. Grandama Tanya (Fein) made borscht almost weekly and according to my mother, Vera Brook. It was a staple in her house, especially during the depression years. It was sometimes hard to find beets and meat in the mid1930’s in Chicago. On those occasions one would improvise, however we remember that my grandmother’s borscht was pretty consistent.
There is a story that Vera tells about borscht. It goes like this: When she arrived in America with her parents in 1922, they went to live with grandma Tanya’s brother Saul and his wife Clara. Clara had one daughter at the time, a baby about Vera’s age, named Alyce. Tanya was feeding Vera borscht one day and Clara said in Yiddish, “The (de greena) –immigrant-- doesn't’t know how to feed a baby. Babies don’t get borscht. They won’t grow.” But grandma ignored Clara and fed Vera borscht anyway. Vera grew just fine and turns 86 this week.
I recall Vera and I visiting Nicole when she was an undergrad at NYU. We made containers of borscht and brought them to the dorm. I wonder how the smell was received when she heated it up. The soup does have a distinct odor of cabbage. I once brought some to AMY School for lunch and one student came to my door after smelling the warmed up borscht and said, “It smells like wet dog in here.”
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Here are few Yiddish words you should know:
Alte kakr: literally “old defecator", harmless old man sometimes thought as contentious or lecherous. “Al’s status as an alte kakr made him a great candidate to have an opinion on the flavor of the borscht.”
Awn-ge pats-ket: over done, over decorated, cluttered, littered, disordered, sloppy. “ I took grandma to a Bed and Breaksfast in Cape May. She thought the room was awn-ge pats-ket with too many lamps, pictures, mirrors and furniture in such a small room.”
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