Easter White Borscht Recipes

POLISH WHITE BORSCHT ON PORK RIBS AND FERMENTED WHEAT STARTER

Steps:

• Grab a large cooking pot, 4-5 quart / litres should be enough. Place just over a pound (around 500 grams) of pork ribs inside.
• Pour in just over 2 quarts (2 litres) of cold water. Bring to boil, then reduce the heat to low-medium. Cover with a lid and cook for 30 minutes.
• While that's cooking, peel the vegetables: 2 carrots, 2 parsley roots, a piece of celery root. Chop into chunky pieces.
• Grab a leek, remove the dirty outer leaves.
• Wash all the veggies under the running water and set them aside.
• Once the 30 minutes are up, add chopped vegetables to the pot. Add the spices: 3 all-spice berries, 2 bay leaves, 5 black peppercorns.
• Bring the pot to boil, reduce the heat to low and cook undercover for another hour.
• After that time, peel a garlic clove and smash it with a side of a knife. Add to the pot.
• Add 1 teaspoon of salt and 2 tablespoons of grated horseradish. This can be from a jar or freshly grated - whatever you have available.
• Cook for another 5 minutes or so. Grab another pot and place a strainer over it. Pour our soup through it. Don't throw the veggies and meat away! Keep them on the side for now.
• Grab a piece of smoked bacon. If it has a tough skin, cut it off. Cut the meat into cubes, roughly quarter of an inch (5-6 mm) in size.
• Heat up 1 teaspoon of canola oil and 1 teaspoon of butter. Add chopped bacon. Fry for 5-7 minutes, until the meat cubes turn lightly golden. Add it to the soup.
• Grab 4 white kiełbasa links, poke them with a toothpick in a few places. Add them to the pot and cook on low heat for 20 minutes.
• Add 1⅓ cup (300ml) of sour wheat starter for a milder Barszcz, up to 2 cups (or more; roughly 500ml) for a sharper result. If you're not sure how much to add, pour it over gradually, tasting along the way. There are two ways to do it: • Mix the contents of the jar/bottle, so that the liquid part blends with the floury part, • Or start by adding the liquid only, topping with the muddy floury part later on - spoonful by spoonful, until you reach the desired thickness. That's how I do it.
• Add 2 teaspoons of dried marjoram and bring to a boil. Cook for a few minutes, stirring continuously. Have a taste - does it need some seasoning? If so, add a pinch of salt and pepper.
• Pour the sour cream into a cup. Gradually add some hot soup in (around 8 tablespoons in total), spoonful by spoonful, stirring as you go. Pour over this creamy mixture into the soup, mix it in with a spoon.
• Do you want to serve your soup with vegetables and meat? Chop some veggies into pieces. Remove the meat from the bone. Add them to the soup. Cook for another 2-3 minutes on a low heat.
• Peel the boiled eggs, slice them in half.
• To serve, pour the soup over into bowls or soup plates. Distribute the pieces of meat and vegetables evenly. Add a portion of sausage to each plate - whole links or slices, up to you.
• Decorate with halved boiled eggs and fresh marjoram.

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.

EASTER WHITE BORSCHT

Steps:

• Bring water, kielbasa, and 2 whole cloves garlic to boil in a large pot; reduce heat to medium and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove sausage and pour liquid into a separate bowl. Cut sausage into cubes.
• Melt butter over medium heat in the pot used to boil sausage; cook and stir leeks, onion, and minced garlic until vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes. Transfer vegetables to a blender; add about 1/2 cup reserved sausage water and blend until smooth, adding more water as needed.
• Pour vegetable puree and remaining sausage water back into the original pot. Add bay leaves and bring borscht to a simmer over medium heat; remove and discard leaves. Whisk sour cream and flour in a bowl until smooth; gradually whisk into borscht until thickened. Stir dill and vinegar into soup and season with salt and black pepper.
• Divide cubed sausage and chopped eggs into bowls; ladle borscht over sausage and egg.

WHITE BORSCHT - POLISH EASTER SOUP - BIALY BARSZCZ

Steps:

• 1. Place pre-cooked ham and kielbasa in a roaster. Add 2 quarts of water, cover and roast for 2 hours at 350 degrees. Reserve the pan juices as this will be the base for your soup broth. Refrigerate and then remove the fat from top afterwards. NOw, add the juices to a large pot and your addtl water to make 8 quarts. *If using an uncooked ham, do not add kielbasa util 1 hour before ham is done cooking.
• 2. Add your peppercorns, garlic and bring to a simmer. In a medium bowl add your 1 cup of water and 1/2 flour, whisk till smooth and then add to your broth.
• 3. Now, add your vineager to the level of taste your desire. Add more if you like it to be a really tart soup. (I loved it with the extra vinegar.) Simmer for awhile till the soup thickens and flavors meld. Probably about 1 hr or a little longer.
• 4. Slice up Kielbasa 1/4 inch thick, cube ham and rye bread into bite sized pieces and the farmers cheese too. Coarsely chop your eggs. (The farmers cheese Chef Tad brought was extremely soft and so yummy too. It was unlike any farmers cheese I have had before. I will ask him this coming Sunday at our next class where he got it.)
• 5. Combine all the chopped ingredients into a large bowl, so that it can be scooped out and placed in serving dishes.
• 6. Now ladle your very hot broth over the top and add your desired amount of horseradish to your own bowl.
• 7. Now, you are ready to eat a most delicious bowl of authentic polish soup. I just love the tartness in the broth and our chef that taught us how to make this soup brought homemade polish smoked kielbasa. It packed so much flavor and was so delicious added into this soup.

WHITE BORSCHT (BARSZCZ BIAłY - POLISH EASTER SOUP)

Steps:

• Cook the white sausage: Bring the broth to a boil, when hot add the raw white sausages and simmer over very low heat for 15-20 minutes. The broth should not cook rapidly, it should just gently simmer.
• Chop the smoked bacon into 1/2-inch (1 cm) cubes, press the garlic through a garlic press. Peel the potatoes and cut them into small cubes.
• When the sausage is cooked, take it out of the water and cut into slices.
• Add potatoes to the broth and cook for 7-10 minutes or until the potatoes are soft.
• Heat the oil in a large frying pan. When hot, add the sausage slices and bacon. Cook for a couple of minutes over medium-high heat, until they are browned on all sides. Add the garlic and marjoram and cook for 30 seconds.
• Add some hot broth to the pan then scrape with a spatula all the brown bits on the bottom of the pan. Add the content of the pan to the pot with broth.
• Add the sour wheat starter - stir the flour with the liquid and add it to the soup. Make sure to add the starter gradually - trying the soup while you add it, to make sure it's not too sour for you.
• Add the heavy cream and horseradish. Warm up the soup until very warm (I'm trying not to boil it only to preserve the health benefits of the wheat starter).
• Season the soup with salt and pepper. Serve with hard-boiled eggs.
• Enjoy!

WHITE BORSCHT

Steps:

• Cut kielbasa into 4 equal lengths, and cover in a pot with 3 quarts cold water and the bay leaves. Bring to a boil, then let gently boil for 25 minutes more until swollen and cooked through and beads of oil have formed. Pull sausages from the now smoky and seasoned water, and set aside. Save that water!
• While the kielbasa simmers, split leeks in half lengthwise, then soak and rinse in cold water to thoroughly remove all sand. Slice leeks into 3/8-inch half-moons from whites to dark greens, as far up as is viable.
• Peel potatoes, trim all four sides to stabilize on the cutting board and trim both ends to "box" the potato. Save the scraps. Cut the boxes into large cubes, about 3/4-inch square.
• In a sturdy soup pot, melt 1 stick butter over low heat until foaming. Stir in onion, garlic and a healthy pinch of salt, and let them sweat for a full 5 minutes until translucent.
• Stir in remaining butter, the sliced leeks and another generous pinch of salt, then let sweat slowly over low heat for 8 minutes until moist, bright green and glossy.
• Add potato scraps, the cube of bread and half the kielbasa boiling liquid. Let gently simmer 10 minutes while the potato scrap softens and the bread hunk becomes flabby and swollen. If you need to increase the heat to get a little simmer going, do so.
• Meanwhile, slice kielbasa in half lengthwise. Place two pieces back into the soup pot as is, and then slice the remaining 6 pieces into very thin, 1/8-inch half-moons, and set aside.
• Retrieve the soggy lump of sourdough bread with a slotted spoon, and don't worry if you also get a few bits of leek or onion or whatever is floating in the soup when you pull it out. Also remove about 1 cup of liquid, and set aside.
• Add potato cubes and the rest of the kielbasa liquid to the pot. Add another pinch of salt and half the black pepper. Let it come back to temperature, and then to simmer until potatoes are cooked through, about 25 minutes more.
• Using either a stick blender or a traditional blender, purée the sodden hunk of bread until foamy, using some of the liquid you pulled in Step 8, if needed. Stir this back into the soup pot once the potatoes are cooked through, and add the sliced kielbasa as well.
• Whisk the crème fraîche with 1/2 cup of the hot reserved liquid; stir mixture into the soup. Stir in the chopped dill and the remaining 1/2 tablespoon pepper. Serve very hot.