28.02.08: Definitive Borscht

As regular readers of this blog well know, borscht has been a recurring theme. Way back on Day 12, Lou essayed a recipe so simple that we could hardly call it Borscht since it was basically a beetroot puree. Then I had a go with a recipe from the Soup Bible. Then I had another go and so did she. By now, I reckon we're about ready to settle upon a definitive recipe.

Borscht is traditionally made with beef stock, so the main issue with making a vegetarian version is how to get that flavour and the secret is: Marmite! Not just Marmite, but mushrooms, too, sweated right down in the mirepoix to surrender their bosky essence. Like this:

For the mirepoix, you will require a pound or half a kilo each of onions, carrots and celery, plus half a head of garlic. Buy five kilos of beets, four decent sized Bramley cooking apples, and a 750g punnet of field mushrooms. You'll also need cream or yoghurt and chives or dill for the garnish. I like thick Greek yogurt thinned with a little lemon juice to make it runnier and a clump of chives one can cut straight into the soup with scissors.

1. Roughly chop the onions, carrots and celery and sweat them in a splash of oil in the bottom of your soup pot with the peeled and crushed garlic. Keep the lid on the soup pot to keep the moisture in, but stir the contents often.

2. Next, add the mushrooms. You don't have to bother chopping them. You'll want to sweat them right down and they will release a lot of moisture. Keep the lid on, but keep stirring.

3. Apples are a bit of a controversial ingredient, but add a delightfully fruity note. Peel, core and chop the Bramleys and add the to the pot, stirring them into the mixture.

4. As the soup pot continues to cook over low heat, peel and chop the beets. Add them to the pot, stirring them into the mirepoix, and add sufficient liquid to cover, probably two litres. You need a dark vegetable stock: Marigold bouillon mixed with a dessert spoon of Marmite per litre.

5. Boil the beets quite vigorously for half an hour until they're soft enough to be blended and then liquidise, homogenise and blend, blend, blend your borscht. Add more liquid to create a silky texture and achieve your desired consistency.

6. Serve with an optional swirl of yogurt, or cream, chopped chives or dill, and black pepper.

Dairy comment: 'borscht as good as a Porche!'

Occupational hazard: beetroot hands

15.11.07: Borscht

I served borscht today with a swirl of sour yogurt and garnish of chopped chives. I used a gallon or so of frozen beetroot puree left over from when Lou made her simple borscht, and following the Soup Bible recipe which I called complex borscht, because it contains mushrooms, apples and red pepper. The mushrooms - a 750g punnet from Somerfield - impart an earthy flavour to the base of the soup, which is important as I was not about to use beef stock, while the apples - half a dozen Bramleys - provide a fruity zing that worked well with the beetroot.

I started with half a dozen medium sized onions, roughly chopped and sweated in the bottom of the soup pot with half a dozen stalks of celery and two red bell peppers, seeded and roughly chopped. To this mixture, I added cumin (ground jeera in this case, since I didn't have any whole cumin seed), bay leaves, and dried thyme. Then I added the chopped mushrooms, continuing to cook over low heat with the lid on, stirring occasionally, while I peeled and chopped the apples.

After adding the apples to the pot, I tipped in the beetroot puree which I'd defrosted in another pot and added another couple of litres of stock. I used Marigold bouillon, adding a dessert spoon-sized dollop of Marmite to achieve a darker colour and richer flavour. I brought the pot back to the boil, simmered for about fifteen minutes and left the pot to cool for ten minutes before blending its contents with Gaynor.

I wasn't entirely satisfied with the consistency of the soup, so I passed it through a sieve into another pot, achieving a silky texture that was enhanced with the addition of sour yogurt (rather than cream). I used fresh yogurt form the EasiYo yogurt maker, thinning it with a little lemon juice, which one commentator found 'a little sour' which is surely the point? Anyway, this person - actually, it was Professor John Eacott (he's got a PhD in funk!) - also said the borscht was 'lovely' and 'worked a treat'.

Only about 15 people came in for soup today - one of whom declined to make a further donation on the grounds that he gave a fiver yesterday;-) - but it was good to see them all. Naveed (left) was among those who spared a half hour to hang out and chat. He's one of a small group of students of City Design & Social Science from the London School of Economics who are doing a project on the Pullens; its history and social evolution. They haven't quite worked out what angle each is going to take, yet, but will be looking to interview residents in the near future. So, if you're reading this and you live on the Pullens, or used to, and you've got something to say about about the experience, leave a comment here or come into the Soup Kitchen one lunchtime soon.

Day 18: Complex Borscht

I called this one 'Complex' Borscht in contrast to the Simple Borscht that Louisa made last week, which was basically a puree: a single varietal soup. This version comes straight out of The Soup Bible, incorporates apples and mushrooms and is garnished with very fresh yoghurt soured with lemon juice, so its flavours are more complex. If it's not a lot more complicated to make, it is more laborious.

I was able to offer a jug of very fresh yoghurt for the people to swirl into their soup because I've invested in an EasiYo yogurt maker. I it got off the internet from a firm at which EVERYONE WOULD LIKE TO THANK YOU FOR SHOPPING WITH US. Don't cha hate that, when they can't quite bring themselves to actually thank you? I mean, in my stairwell on the Pullens, there's a notice from Makers, the contractors who are refurbing the estate saying, 'WE WOULD LIKE TO INFORM YOU THAT THE SCAFFOLDING WILL BE COMING DOWN ON...' So, one wonders, what were their reservations?

Anyway, I digress (and the scaffolding came down weeks ago). The thing is, I've bought a yogurt maker that requires sachets of dehydrated milk powder. The sample worked really well so, as soon as I obtain a supply of these sachets, a jug of yogurt to swirl into your soup will become a staple of the Soup Kitchen.

There was about three kilos of beets, I reckon, in the 'fridge and I arduously peeled every single one first thing this morning, before a trip to Somerfield, where I was served by Alice and Lady Madonna by the Beatles was playing as I queued, segueing into You Can't Always Get What You Want by The Rolling Stones as I left. Which reminded me of Gimme Shelter, which I stayed up to watch on TV last night, remembering the first time I saw I saw it as a teenager. This time, never mind the murder, I savoured the juicy bits, like that scene at Muscle Shoals when they listen to the playback of Wild Horses for what looks like the first time.

I digress. Anyway, I assembled the indgrediments, seen on the left. Got the mushrooms the recipe called for, 250g, and looked around for a darker concentrated vegetable stock to work with the 'shrooms to give bottom to the flavour of the soup. Traditionally, borscht is made with beef stock. Louisa, in her Simple Borscht, substituted Marmite mixed into Marigold bouillon. I thought about using Marks & Sparks veggie stock concentrate, which is pretty good, but then I saw that new Oxo Concentrated Liquid Stock and thought I'd give it a go. I also picked up a couple of purple onions to co-ordinate with the beetroot, innit.

I had some celery in the fridge and probably one and half kilos of apples, 'local' Bramleys I got from Far Shares. Don't ask me what 'local' means in this context. Maybe someone's got a tree on their allotment? Or perhaps they've been scrumping?I also had about half a dozen red peppers, not the bell peppers, but those slightly more elongated and more piquant peppers that are sold by the stainless steel bowlful for a quid down East Street.

I chopped the onions and celery and sweated them over low heat in the bottom of the soup pot with a couple of bay leaves, adding fresh thyme (left over by Louisa) and cumin seeds, then seeded and chopped the peppers and added them to the pot. Adding a splash of hot water to prevent sticking, I chopped and added first the mushrooms, then the beets, and finally the apples, adding each to the pot and turning the cooking vegetables in their juices.

Then I added the Oxo Concentrated Liquid Stock, or tried to. It's two tablespoons to half a litre. The stuff isn't very runny and I probably needed two bottles to make the six litres of stock I needed. In the end, I added hot water to the bottle, gave it a shake, and mixed the contents 50/50 with Marigold. I poured four litres of this stock over the steaming vegetables, brought the pot to the boil, and simmered it for half and hour before blending.

Our liquidimizer - it's a Dynamic, apparently you can tell by the orange handle - needs servicing, to say the least. Louisa remarked on how it was grinding yesterday but she achieved a very silky consistency to her beany soup without, so far as I know, passing it through a sieve. I gave out a couple of bowls of rough borscht before deciding to pass it and I reckon it was well worth it. Everyone seemed to like it. At least, no one complained. Spookily, for the third day running, the number of bowls of soup served was 23.

Ingredients: beetroot, Bramley apples, mushrooms
Garnish: Sour yogurt
No. of bowls served: 23
Expenditure: £11.91
Donations: £28.87
EasiYo yoghurt maker: £21.04

Running balance: +£139.24