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Borsch
4-5 BEETS, PEELED AND SHREDDED BUTTER MEAT STOCK JUICE OF 1/2 LEMON I TABLESPOON SUGAR SALT AND PEPPER 1/2 CUP SOUR CREAM Sauté beets in butter 20 minutes, then stir in hot meat stock (chicken, veal, or beef), a little at a time, until beets are tender. Chop beets to small bits, pour on 1 quart meat stock, simmer 30 minutes, strain, stir in seasonings, and dapple with sour cream in center of serving bowl.
Cubes or extract can be used in making the meat stock.
A clear beet soup built in two stages: beets sweated in butter, then simmered in stock and strained. The ingredient list gives no stock quantity, but the method calls for a quart plus the smaller amounts used to soften the beets.
- The hinge is the strainThis is a clear borsch, not a chunky one. Everything the beets give up goes into the broth and the solids are discarded, so shred them fine and do not skimp on the 30-minute simmer.
- Stock quantityThe recipe specifies a quart for the simmer but gives no amount for softening the beets; add it a little at a time as directed and expect to use somewhat more than a quart in all. Reduce or top up at the end to taste.
- Sauté timeTwenty minutes in butter over low heat is not a browning step. Keep the heat gentle and the pan covered; scorched beet turns the finished soup bitter and dulls the colour.
- Hold the colourAdd the lemon juice at the end rather than the start, as the recipe's own order of work does. Acid helps preserve the betalain pigment, and long cooking without it tends to turn the soup brownish.
- Sugar and saltOne tablespoon of sugar suits a sharp lemon and an unsalted homemade stock. If you use bouillon cubes or commercial base, as the recipe permits, taste before salting at all -- they carry a good deal of sodium.
- Sour creamFull-fat sour cream dappled into the centre of the bowl will hold its shape; low-fat versions break and streak. Serve it cold into hot soup, or chill the whole thing and serve it cold, which suits the lemon well.
- YieldFour to six cups, so four servings as a first course. It keeps three or four days refrigerated and improves overnight.