It's official--Autumn is here! How do I know? Besides the colorful trees, cooler temperatures, and pumpkins on sale at Albertson's--It's the LDS General Conference this weekend. So, in keeping with traditions instilled in me as a youth (thanks Dad!), I cleaned out the garden and got ready for winter while listening to the Saturday morning session. If you missed General Conference visit
www.lds.org for the audio & video links. I recommend the talk by Elder Bednar!
Another conference tradition is Borstch for lunch on Sunday. But my mom isn't here to make it, so I made the attempt for the first time ever all on my own. Borstch is one of my favorite things to eat--it's a wonderfully warm comfort food on cold Autumn days. What is Borstch? A Russian vegetable soup, usually made with lots of beets--healthy right? Let me just mention it's made with a pound--yes, I said 1 POUND--of butter! How can it NOT be tasty with a pound of butter?
So, during the break between conference sessions, I ran up to my parent's house and found the recipe in the files (thanks for being so organized Mom!) and then to the grocery store for all the ingredients. The recipe says it makes enough for 8 people. After all was cut, fried, boiled, and stirred, let's just say those 8 people must be GIANTS!! I ended up with at least 5 quarts of Borstch. Here's the recipe. I forgot to take the fancy, food-styled, picture of my bowl of Borstch for the family cookbook--sorry!
Borstch
1 qt. tomatoes (I used a couple of cans of diced tomatoes from my food storage)
8 med. potatoes
2 large onions (I only used one)
1 carrot (I halved a bunch of little snack carrots)
1 small beet (I used one can of diced beets--drained off the liquid)
1/2 stalk celery
1 lb. butter (to make this a healthier soup, I suggest using only 2 Tbs. of butter here)
1 green pepper (I used a red one 'cause I don't like green)
small bunch of dill leaves
1 good head cabbage (glad it called for a "good" head...I used a pkg. of pre-shredded cabbage)
1 c. heavy cream
Put 1 qt. of tomatoes into a frying pan with 3 tbs. of butter (or just 1 Tbs.) and let it cook for a few minutes.
Pour 3 qts. of water into a 4 qt. pot (5 qt pot would be better) and bring to a boil. Peel 8 med. potatoes, 2 onions, 1 carrot, 1 beet and 1/2 stalk of celery.
Cut 5 potatoes and the beets into haves, cube carrots and chop the celery finely. Put all this into the boiling water and add half to the tomatoes (I held out the tomatoes until the very end) that have been cooking with the butter. Salt to taste and add 1/4 lbs. butter (or half that even). Select a real solid head of cabbage and shred it very finely.
Put 1/2 tbs. butter into a frying pan, chop onions real fine and fry in melted butter for at least 5 min. Watch so that they don't burn. Then add 1/3 of the shredded cabbage, some chopped green peppers and allow to fry.
Be careful that your potatoes do not over-cook. When they are tender enough to mash, take them out and mash them, add the rest of the butter and the cup of cream to the potatoes.
Cut the 3 remaining potatoes into small cubes. Pour them into the boiling potato stock water which you have left and let them boil for about 10 minutes. Then add the fried cabbage (with the onion and green pepper) and the rest of the shredded cabbage. Allow to boil for about 3 min. then pour in the mashed potatoes. Stir very slowly so there will be no potatoes in lumps. Last of all, add the rest of the fried tomatoes (this is where I added all of the fried tomatoes) and the finely chopped dill leaves. When it all comes to a boil, take it off the heat and allow to cool. At this point I put my borstch through the blender--not too much--just enough to smooth it out a bit. Add salt to taste and serve. Serves 8 people.
P.S. I gave some to my grandmother. She left me the best voice mail message about how wonderful the Borstch tasted! Hooray! I'm calling it a success!
HAPPY FALL EVERYONE!
