Polish Borscht Food

POLISH BORSCHT

Steps:

• Place dried mushrooms in a bowl, cover with cold water, and soak for 30 minutes. Drain.
• While mushrooms are soaking, place beets in a pot, cover with water, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until tender, about 30 minutes. Drain and cool until easily handled. Peel and slice beets.
• Place sliced beets in a large pot and cover with 4 quarts water. Add drained mushrooms, onions, garlic, allspice, bay leaves, salt, and pepper. Stir in oil and lemon juice. Simmer over medium heat for 30 minutes. Garnish with parsley.

BARSZCZ (POLISH BORSCHT)

Steps:

• Melt butter in a large soup pot. Add onion and garlic and cook over medium high heat, until the onion is soft (5 min).
• Add beets, carrots, celery, allspice, and bay leaf. Stir to coat with butter.
• Add stock and bring to a boil. Cook until the vegetables are tender (10 min).
• Remove the pot from the heat. (If desired, you would strain the vegetables from your borscht now.) Stir the vinegar, sugar, pepper, and salt into the broth. Taste and adjust the salt and pepper as desired.
• Serve with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkling of dill, if desired.

GRANDMA'S BORSCHT (POLISH BEET SOUP)

Steps:

• caramelize the onion in some olive oil.
• Add the potatoes and fry for about 2 minutes, careful not to let the onions and potatoes stick to the bottom of the pan. Use a bit more oil if necessary.
• Add the vegetable stock and carrots. If you use fresh green beans, add them at this point. Bring to a boil. Cook for 5 to 10 minutes until potatoes and carrots are tender.
• Add the beets, green beans, bay leaf, and dill. Simmer for a couple of hours. Serve with sour cream if desired.

POLISH WHITE BORSCHT (BIALY BARSZCZ)

Steps:

• Bring keilbassa and water to a boil in a large dutch oven or heavy bottomed soup pot. Reduce heat slightly and boil for 25 minutes. Remove keilbassa to a plate and set aside. Leave the broth in the dutch oven.
• In a medium, non-stick skillet, saute garlic and onion with a tsp of butter until soft, 5 min.
• Add onion mixture to kielbassa broth. Add diced potatoes, bay, salt, and pepper. Cook until potatoes are tender, 15-20 min.
• In a small bowl, whisk flour and sour cream together until smooth. Add ½ c of the soup broth to the sour cream mixture and whisk until smooth and thin. Pour mixture into the soup, stirring constantly. Simmer, stirring often, until thickened, 10 min.
• Cut the kielbasas into 1/2 inch slices, chop the hard boiled eggs. Add both to the soup. Taste the soup and adjust the salt an pepper as desired. Cook 1-2 minutes to heat through.

BARSZCZ (CLASSIC POLISH BORSCHT)

Steps:

• In a large pot, combine the beets, bones, carrots, parsnip, onion, leek, celery, garlic and bay leaves, plus the mushrooms, peppercorns and marjoram, if using. Top with 14 cups water. (There should be enough water to cover all the ingredients.) Bring to a boil over high.
• Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until the vegetables are very tender, 2 to 2 1/2 hours. As it cooks, use a small ladle to periodically skim off and discard any foam, impurities and fat that have risen to the top of the pot.
• Transfer the 3 whole beets to a cutting board to cool. Strain the soup through a colander set over a large bowl. Remove the bones and press the solids to extract all the liquids, then strain the liquid through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean medium saucepan.
• Once they're cool enough to handle, chop the reserved whole beets into small 1/2-inch cubes. Stir the diced beets into the soup and season with salt and pepper.
• Heat soup over medium until warmed, then stir in lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Serve very hot in small bowls or even large teacups, which you can pick up and drink. If desired, serve with a spoonful of sour cream. Keep refrigerated for up to 5 days.

BORSCHT

Steps:

• In a large saucepan, cover the beets with cold water by l inch. Stir in 1/4 cup of the vinegar and 2 tablespoons salt. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer, covered, until very tender, about 30 minutes. Drain, cool, and peel the beets. Dice the beets and set aside.
• Heat the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the celery, leeks, garlic, and caraway seeds and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 8 minutes. Add the cabbage and cook, stirring, until wilted, about 3 minutes.
• Tie the parsley sprigs, thyme, and bay leaf together with a piece of kitchen twine and add to the pot with the beets, tomatoes, and broth. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes to bring the flavors together.
• Stir in the remaining 3 tablespoons vinegar and the remaining 2 teaspoons salt. Season with pepper to taste. To serve divide among warm soup bowls, top with dollops of the sour cream and sprinkle with the dill. Serve with additional vinegar at the table.

BOBCHA'S POLISH BORSCHT

Steps:

• In a large pot combine the spare ribs, onion, bay leaf and peppercorns, vinegar and cover with water. Bring to a simmer and cook until the meat is tender, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. In another pot, cover the scrubbed beets with water and bring to a boil. Simmer the beets for 45 To 1 hour or until the beets are tender. Drain and rinse the beets under cold water until they are cool. Peel and grate the beets.
• When the meat is tender, Remove the bones and strip off the meat in bite size pieces. Return the meat to the broth and stir in the grated beets. Season the soup with salt and pepper. In a large bowl stir together the sour cream, milk and flour. Add two cups of the hot stock to the sour cream mixture and stir to combine. Pour this mixture through a strainer into the soup. Heat the soup over medium heat at a gentle simmer, but do not allow it to boil. Boiling will cause the sour cream to curdle. Serve immediately with boiled potatoes and pumpernickel or rye bread

POLISH BORSCHT - UNCLE BILL'S STYLE

Steps:

• In a large cooking pot, add spareribs, onion, bay leaf, allspice, black peppercorns, white vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper, carrots, celery and cover with 6 cups of water or more if required to cover.
• Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until the spareribs are tender.
• In large saucepan, add scrubbed beets and cover with 4 cups of water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes or until beets are fork tender.
• Drain well and cover with cold water and let cool for 10 minutes.
• Peel and grate beets and set aside.
• In the meantime in a large saucepan, add potatoes and cover with 4 cups of water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Drain well, mash and set aside.
• When the spareribs are tender, remove from cooking pot and strip the meat off the bones and return meat to the cooking pot. Add the grated beets to pot.
• Remove bay leaf and discard.
• Puree the soup in batches in a food processor or blender and return to cooking pot.
• Strain the soup through a sieve and return to cooking pot, discarding any solids.
• In a large bowl, whisk together sour cream, whole milk and flour until blended.
• Add 2 cups of hot broth to the sour cream mixture slowly, and whisk continuously until well blended. Strain the mixture through a sieve into the cooking pot, stirring continuously; discard any solids.
• Heat the broth over medium heat to a gentle simmer, but do not allow to boil. Boiling could cause the sour cream mixture to curdle.
• Immediately remove from heat.
• Add some mashed potatoes into serving bowls, pour broth over and serve.
• Refrigerate any unused portions.