My Ukrainian ENGin buddy shared the twelve traditional dishes served on Christmas Eve.
We are going to see how many we can make at the WLBOTT Test Kitchen and Tractor Lube Station.
The menu:
Wheat kutia — Кутя з пшениці
Cabbage rolls with rice and mushrooms [ukr: golubtsi] — Голубці з рисом та грибами –
Dumplings (varenyky) — Вареники
Lenten borscht — Пісний борщ
Pea cutlets — Січеники з гороху
Fried, baked, or jellied fish — Смажена, запечена або заливна риба
Salad with pickles, sauerkraut, and onions — Салат із солоних огірків, кислої капусти та цибулі
Lenten potato pancakes [ukr: dranyky] — Пісні деруни
Boiled potatoes — Варена картопля
Stewed cabbage with mushrooms — Тушкована капуста з грибами
Kalach or bread — Калач або хліб
I’ll have to check with my buddy, but I believe that “Lenten” in this context means “vegetarian.”
Lenten borscht — Пісний борщ
We’re going to start our Ukrainian culinary adventure with the traditional Ukrainian beet soup – borscht.
Borscht: The Nuts and Bolts
Borscht is a sour soup, made with meat stock, vegetables and seasonings, common in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. In English, the word borscht is most often associated with the soup’s variant of Ukrainian origin, made with red beetroots as one of the main ingredients, which give the dish its distinctive red color. The same name, however, is also used for a wide selection of sour-tasting soups without beetroots, such as sorrel-based green borscht, rye-based white borscht, and cabbage borscht.
Wikipedia / Photo by liz west from Boxborough, MA – borsch served, CC BY 2.0
Semi-Sequitur: I’d Like to Buy a Vowel
WLBOTT: Let’s look at the word “borscht.” It has seven letters but only one vowel. Can you think of other English words with seven letters but only one vowel?
Elder G: What an intriguing challenge! Here’s a list of seven-letter English words with just one vowel:
Strength
Rhythms
Stretch
Frights
Chrysms
Knights
Squashy (if ‘y’ is not considered a vowel here)
Cryptic
The Recipe
We found a delicious Ukrainian Borscht recipe by Olena Osipov.
A five star recipe from Olena Osipov
Sharing my grandma’s authentic Ukrainian Borscht Recipe I grew up with. This iconic beet soup is served with a dollop of sour cream and rye bread.
I grew up in Ukraine on mom’s and grandma’s real food. As a student and young wife, I didn’t cook much and can’t even remember what we ate. Most likely, junk…
In 2011, I ended up at home with 2 small kids, unemployed and a wee bit chubby. I started working out and realized I need to learn to cook proper meals to keep us all alive and healthy!
That’s how iFoodReal.com was born. My food philosophy in short is – eat real food, higher in protein whenever possible, move daily and enjoy all good things in life in moderation!
Fun Facts
My favorite food is bananas and borscht.
I immigrated to Canada from Kyiv, Ukraine in 2000 with my mom and $100 in my pocket.
My husband’s name is Alex and he is from Russia. We get along most days.
I moved 11 times in my life.
My boys are now 18 and 14. They eat everything I cook and don’t care about junk food. Mission accomplished!
Olena Osipov
Servings: 8 servings
Ingredients:
12 cups beef or vegetable broth or stock low sodium
5 cups green or red cabbage thinly sliced
1 large onion chopped
3 medium carrots chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 large beets peeled and cut into matchsticks
4 large potatoes peeled and cubed
6 ounces can tomato paste low sodium
2 teaspoons salt
3 bay leaves
1 tablespoon white vinegar
Pinch of sugar or maple syrup
3 large garlic cloves grated
Ground black pepper to taste
1/4 cup dill or parsley finely chopped
Yogurt, sour cream and rye bread for serving
Instructions:
In a large pot (I use 6 quart Dutch oven), add broth, bay leaves and bring to a boil. In the meanwhile, wash, peel and cut vegetables.
Once broth is boiling, add cabbage, cover and bring to a boil. Then reduce heat to low and cook for 20 minutes.
In the meanwhile, preheat large skillet on medium heat and swirl 1 tbsp of oil to coat. Add onion, carrots and saute for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add beets, remaining 1 tablespoon of oil and cook for another 3-4 minutes.
Transfer sauteed veggies to a pot along with potatoes, tomato paste and salt. Cover, bring to a boil and cook on low heat for 20 minutes.
Turn off heat. Add vinegar, sugar, garlic and pepper. Stir and let borscht sit for 10 minutes to allow flavours to marry each other. Add dill, stir and adjust any seasonings to taste.
Serve hot with a dollop of yogurt or sour cream, bread and garlic clove on the side (this is not for everyone).
Scenes from the WLBOTT Test Kitchen
We’re saving the outer leaves for recipe #3, cabbage rolls.
Everyone took their turn exploring the pantry vortex. We call this Spice Spelunking.
The Process:
WLBOTT Test Kitchen: The Ladle & Lube
Do to space constraints, we had to combine the Tractor Repair Shop with the WLBOTT Test Kitchen. An opportunity for synergy! Meet
The Ladle & Lube
Let’s Break Google!
We’ll try the Google image search of select portions of the Wikipedia borscht image:
Pretty close!
Respiratory diseases of large ruminants and other icky pathologies.
