Borscht

Sorry Mom.

I’m sorry because I made borscht for the first time yesterday, and, although I think you gave us your recipe some years back, we seem to have misplaced it, and I didn’t ask for it again. And to make matters worse, the borscht I did make was good, even, I hesitate to say, better than yours! Gulp.

It’s September, and it’s time to be harvesting the garden before the first frost of the season hits. I have a row of beets, so of course we thought of making borscht, which Mom often made for us. If you’re not familiar with borscht, you can read about it here. I remember it from my childhood, chiefly for it being a soup having beets (or beetroots as some call them) and including a ham bone, simmered for a long time. I don’t really remember it being a “sour” soup though.

After not finding Mom’s recipe, I did some research, doing the usual Internet search, and then looking up borscht in The Joy of Cooking, which has everything. The recipes looked ok, but, on a hunch, I looked at Anthony Bourdain’s newest cookbook, Appetites, from 2016. It has the dishes that he likes to eat and that he likes to feed to his family and friends. It’s got a lot of good stuff in it. And I found his recipe for Hot Borscht, and it looked good! I liked that he said that

The ham hock and pig’s foot make this a particularly full-bodied and satisfying version of borscht, a soup you might have previously equated with dishwater. The addition of the finely grated beet at the end of the cooking process is the key to getting that violent, almost bloody color in the bowl.

My search was over, at least my search for the recipe. I still had to go find that pig’s foot.

My go-to place for the odd bits of beasts is T&T, a chain of supermarkets that specialized in Asian food, and I was not disappointed. I found the following delightful item:

Pig’s foot.

Happily, this foot was already split lengthwise, so that step of the recipe had been taken care of for me.

The recipe is listed in full at the bottom. It has the following steps:

• Boil the foot for 5 minutes, then drain the water, which will have much scum.
• Simmer the foot and a smoked ham hock in stock for an hour. It’s important to use the real stuff, not the salty weak stuff you get in boxes, or heaven forbid, bullion cubes. I always save the bones from my meals of chicken and pork and make stock from time to time. It’s so good.
• Sauté some diced vegetables, starting with onions, and moving up to carrots, beets (of course), a turnip, and some sliced cabbage. Cooked in duck fat of course^*.
• Pour the stock and now cooked foot and hock into the vegetables. Simmer for 40 minutes.
• Add a little acid to enhance flavour and serve with garnishes.

A warning though: this makes a lot of soup! When selecting a stockpot or Dutch oven, it has to be big enough to heat the vegetables and then hold the stock, make sure it’s at least 8 quarts/7.5 litres.

Smoked pork hock, with skin removed to enhance cooking of the meat.

Partly defrosted pork stock, just a little over 2 litres. The recipe called for 2.5 litres, but it was so thick that I just added a little water instead. It was so thick that I probably could have gotten away without using the pig’s foot.

The veggies. The beets came from the garden. The rest were store-bought.

The stock and pig’s foot makes the borscht so good because their gelatinous contribution makes for a delightful mouth-feel as you eat the soup. The bits of pork hock, although not contributing a lot of meat, are pleasant treats when you find them in your spoon. The lemon (or vinegar) added at the end enhances flavour. And of course you can’t skip the salt, as it’s essential to bring out flavour. The dill added at the end as a garnish helps too.

Soup’s On!

With the shredded beets mixed in, and some dill weed to garnish.

I’ve reformatted the recipe to match the style used in The Joy of Cooking, where the ingredients are intermixed with the directions so they’re only listed once, yet are highlighted to make it easy to see and assemble. I like it because it’s compact and readable.

Same soup, different day. The vegetables continued to cook and got a little mushy. Still the same great taste.

^*Fun story. We were leaving a friend’s place the other day. She offered us some jelly to take home. We said, no thanks, don’t eat much of the stuff. She then offered some rendered duck fat. “Yes, thank-you very much!” I said. What does getting excited about rendered duck fat tell you about us?

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Bourdain’s Hot Borscht

Place:

1 pig’s foot, split lengthwise

in a large, heavy-bottom saucepan and cover it with cold water. Bring it to a boil, let cook for 5 minutes, then remove from the water and rinse well. Discard the water and wash and dry the saucepan. Combine the foot and

1 smoked ham hock
2.5 litres stock

in the pan, adding more water if necessary to cover the joints. Bring to a simmer and cook over low heat for 1 hour.

In a large, heavy-bottom stockpot or Dutch oven, heat:

2 tablespoons duck fat or rendered lard

over medium heat. Add:

2 white or yellow onions, peeled and cut into large slice

stirring to coat with the fat, and season with salt and pepper. Let cook for 5 minutes, then add:

4 garlic cloves, peeled and cut into large dice
4 carrots, peeled and cut into large dice
1 kg or more red beets, peeled and cut into large dice
1 turnip, peeled and cut into large dice

stirring to coat with the fat and released onion juices, and seasoning again with salt and pepper. Let cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, then add:

1/4 head medium of green cabbage, cut into 1/4-inch-thick ribbons (about 3 cups)
5 sprigs fresh dill, stems and fronds separated, fronds reserved for garnish

again stirring and seasoning.

Add the warm stock and bring to a boil, then add the foot and hock and simmer for about 40 minutes, until the vegetables are tender. Stir in:

juice of 1 lemon (about 2 tablespoons) or 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar or sherry vinegar

Taste the broth and season if necessary with salt, pepper, and/or more lemon juice. Stir in:

1 medium red beet (about 200 g), peeled and finely grated

and continue to simmer. Remove and discard the foot. Remove the ham hock, pull as much meat as possible off the bone, and return the meat to the simmering soup.

Serve with:

sour cream, for garnish

and dill fronds alongside.

from Appetites, by Anthony Bourdain, page 52