The Borscht

Hey, pick up your spoon,
And place it on the table.
Wait for the things that come,
And then you eat borscht!

Mom sets the bowl right there,
You stare at it weirdly,
Then you make a Silly Putty face,
Then you devour borscht!

(from Ground Zero's biggest hit "The Borscht")

I've never had much luck with borscht. Maybe I don't really understand what it is supposed to be. It's one of those dishes that constantly has you scratching your head wondering if you are at all on the right track. I found these "local" beets at our local grocery store and was drawn to them because of their wide range of shapes and colors. Once cleaned, they ranged from pure white to deep red and had shapes that went from "carrot" to "garlic clove." Since most of them had a color that was pink at best, I decided to try to make what I was going to call a "White Borscht," by using green cabbage and chicken stock instead of red and beef, which is how I understand borscht normally to be constructed. That term has proved to be historically inaccurate. As Wikipedia notes:

White borshch is made from a base of whey (the sour liquid left over from production of curd cheese) usually added to a broth of boiled white fresh kiełbasa.

Recipe follows. I used this, modified a bit, as a template.

About 4 cups various beets (pictured above) shredded
1/2 yellow onion
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1 carrot, diced into arcs
2 mushrooms, diced

about 6 cups homemade chicken stock
2 potatoes (Price Chopper whites) peeled and diced
1/3 head of green cabbage, sliced as thin as possible, (without getting ridiculous about it, that is)
1 small green pepper, diced

juice of 1 lemon
1 Tbs salt
3 Tbs sugar

1 Tbs tomato paste

salt and pepper to taste

at the end:
1 clove garlic, minced
1 handful dill, chopped

Heat about 2 Tbs olive oil in a large pot over the highest heat your Vesta brand stove can manage. Add onion and garlic and saute until browned, about 3 minutes (on the outside, 5 seconds on the inside where the pot is domed and no oil remains.)

Add beets and carrot. Saute, stirring occasionally, for about 5 or more minutes.

Add chicken stock and bring to a low boil, add potato and cook for 3 minutes. Add cabbage and mushrooms and continue simmering for about 5 minutes.

Remember that you were supposed to have added tomato paste by now, add it cursing and stirring frantically. Cook a little more.

Add green pepper, sugar, lemon juice, salt, and black pepper. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes.

Remove from heat. Stir in garlic and dill. Serve hot.

Here's another song about the same borscht as Terry from Ground Zero was singing about. It's by his brother, who gives us the recipe for his own version, which oddly does not even try to follow the recipe in the song about his mother's borscht, "the best soup in the land."