A #Recipe for Hot Borscht to Celebrate the Winter Olympics in Russia

The Winter olympics are coming and we're after something Russian, and something warming...Booby's Hot Borscht!

A Russian Story and Recipe to Warm the Cockles of Your Heart

It’s SO thrilling for those of us who love winter sports: the Olympics are about to start!! And it’s even more exciting that they are being held in Sochi, Russia. How many of you had heard of Sochi before its Olympic fame?

For this month’s #letslunch we are celebrating these Olympics with a perfectly warming, suitably Russian and a-slight-twist-on-the-traditional soup: hot borscht.

This recipe came to the Monday Morning Cooking Club from the family of the late Manya Boorder. It appears, along with her traditional (cold) borscht recipe (photograph above) in the food, the stories, the sisterhood. Our book is full of wonderful recipes and heartwarming, beautiful stories just like this one.

Known fondly to all of her family and friends as Booby, Manya (or Mary) was born in Gluhov, a little shtetl in the Ukraine, in 1910. She was 8 years old when she fled the pogroms and spent a year on the road until she reached Harbin in China. They lived there until 1933 and then moved to Shanghai. She married young, and together with their son John, immigrated to Australia in the late 1940s.

Manya became the matriarch of a large Sydney family. Growing up, Manya cooked all the meals and was helped by all the women in the family. Her son John, who passed away in 2010, could not remember his mother, grandmother or even great grandmother ever needing to consult a cookbook; everything was handed down from one generation to the next. One person would cook the food and then someone else in the family had to do the tasting and suggesting, perhaps ‘a bissel (a little) more of this and a bissel more of that’. It was always done from memory and then by taste. Manya cooked with generosity and joy, and her family all smile when they think of her favourite expression: ‘Please have a little more’.

[box]Booby’s hot borscht

Borscht is as much a part of the Russian culture as matzo ball soup is for the Jewish people. During the revolution and the pogroms, food was scarce. Hot borscht with potatoes and black bread (white bread was a luxury) was a great meal, particularly in winter. In warmer weather, cold borscht was the go. All Russian families knew how to make borscht and most tasted the same, although her family insist Booby’s was the best! In those days chicken soup was a luxury, so this was a great alternative. Unlike chicken soup, it does not claim to cure any ailments, but it sure doesn’t hurt. As the saying went: ‘Just have more borscht.’

1 litre (4 cups) chicken stock
2 litres (8 cups) water
1.5 kg beef spare rib or top rib
(or other meat on the bone suitable for soups)
4 fresh beetroot (beets), peeled and roughly chopped
850 g tin whole beetroot (beets), grated
2 large carrots, peeled and sliced
4 potatoes, peeled and cut into large cubes
400 g tin diced tomatoes
410 g tin tomato purée
2 lemons, juiced
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cabbage, shredded

Put the stock and water into a large stockpot. Add the meat and bring to the boil, skimming the surface to remove the scum. Add the fresh and tinned beetroot, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes and tomato purée and boil for 1 hour, or until the meat is just about falling off the bone. Add the lemon juice and season with salt, pepper and sugar to balance the flavours. Add the cabbage and simmer for at least another 15 minutes, or until the cabbage is very soft. Remove the meat from the saucepan. When cool enough to
handle, pull the meat from the bones. Shred the meat with a fork and return it to the pan. Taste again and adjust the seasoning and lemon juice if necessary. Let the borscht cool overnight.

The next day, skim off any fat and reheat to serve.
Serves 12[/box]

Let’s Lunch (#LetsLunch) is a twitter-based virtual lunch club where anyone interested can join this monthly ‘lunch date’. A topic is posted at the beginning of the month, everyone now takes it in turns, and all posts are made on the same day by this random but lovely group of food bloggers, writers and people who just love cooking from all around the world. Anyone can join at any time – just join us on twitter by searching and adding the hashtag #LetsLunch. Check out the others’ posts right here over the next few days – they are always so wonderful!

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12 Comments

  1. Mai Hoang

    Looks good. I love the color! And the story is quite touching as well. And go Australia!!! 🙂

    1. Lisa Goldberg

      Aussie aussie aussie!! Thanks Mai, great #letslunch this month.

  2. Annabelle

    That is a gorgeous shot! I love borscht but have never tried to make it at home. This does seem like an appropriate occasion to try it out, though!

    1. Lisa Goldberg

      Thanks Annabelle. This might be the time you are most inspired to make borscht, so go for it!

  3. Nancie McDermott

    Such a lovely portrait, of Mrs. Boorder, of her kitchen, her family, and the community cooking ‘club’ which MMCC carries forward. And the photograph? Spectacularly beautiful. Favorite line: “Unlike chicken soup, it does not claim to cure any ailments, but it sure doesn’t hurt.”

  4. Sandwich Surprise

    Lisa! Hot Red Borscht is one of my all time favorite things ever. EVER. Now I can make it at home, yay!

    1. Lisa Goldberg

      Can’t wait to hear how you go with our recipe!

  5. Lucy

    A bissel of this borscht, please. Another winner, Lisa!

    1. Lisa Goldberg

      Thanks Lucy, your Yiddish is wonderful 🙂

  6. Ruthy

    Hi – my mother made borscht with sour salt. How can I substitute or incorporate this in your recipe? BTW I heard about you and this site listening on sirius radio when you were promoting your book. I even called in and mentioned how heartwarming your recipes sounded because of childhood memories. It was fall and was in the midst of the Sukkot holiday, super busy preparing many of these same dishes!

    1. Lisa Goldberg

      Hi Ruthy – so nice to hear from you! Sour salt is actually citric acid which is used in cooking for either its chemical properties or its sour flavour. Lemon juice can sometimes be used in its place. So you could try and use it instead of the lemon juice in the recipe, or maybe halve the lemon juice and add citric acid. All the recipes I have been looking at online, suggest no specific amount, only citric acid ‘to taste’.
      How marvellous that you heard us and called in on Martha Stewart – we were so thrilled to receive so many calls, it made us feel very welcome.
      Happy borschting!

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On Sunday, we will celebrate the festival of Purim.
Here’s the simple version of the story:
Some time around the 4th C BCE, Esther, the Jewish queen of Persia, was told by Mordechai, her cousin, that Haman, the King’s advisor, 
was planning to kill all the Jews. Esther rallied the King, thwarted the genocide and became a heroine.
We celebrate, wear fancy dress and eat hamantashen, a three cornered pastry that represents evil Haman’s three cornered hat.

In a nutshell,
THEY TRIED TO KILL US,
WE SURVIVED,
LET’S EAT!

This is a phrase that I always said lightly (and almost jokingly!) about the festivals of Pesach, Chanukah and Purim. The stories of those festivals were from times so so so long ago. 
We never imagined that in 2024 we would be fighting to survive all over again.  And it seems we’re not quite ready to eat.

We all need to keep standing up and fighting - for Israel and for the Jewish people.
Am Yisrael Chai. 

P.S. Since it is Purim, eating hamantashen is a must. If you want to make your own (these are a batch of mini hamantashen straight out of the oven) you can find recipes in MMCC books 1 and 4.

There’s also a link in my profile to our MMCC recipe.
And Chag Pesach Sameach.

#purim #amyisraelchai #hamantashen #hamastashen
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Today I turned 60.
Crazy, huh? (Yes I think so too!)

I’m grateful for so many things.
I’m grateful that I live in one of the most beautiful cities in one of the best countries in the world.
I’m especially grateful for my wonderful family and friends (and my dog Winston).

But it’s a really tough time to celebrate as it feels like the world is falling apart.
My country has changed. It feels like a divided nation with so many fuckers just full of so much hate.
And the ongoing hostage situation and war in Gaza is unfathomable and devastating.
I have managed to step away from the news/instagram for the day today to enjoy this HUGE😳milestone. I’ve done all the things I love to do (walk, eat, chat, drink, eat some more and start the day with a spicy bloody Mary) with almost all of the people I love the most. What more could I ask for?

Well, since you asked, I have 3 tiny wishes for my birthday, and unsurprisingly they are all related to Israel:
1/ I wish that each and every one of the hostages comes home now,
2/ I wish that Israel completely demilitarizes Hamas ASAP so the war can end, and
3/ I wish that the Palestinian people acknowledge Israel’s right to exist and just let Israel live in peace.
Not too much to ask?
Am Yisrael chai! 💙💙💙

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