Summa Borscht Recipes

Steps:

• Place the beets in a large pot of boiling salted water and cook uncovered until the beets are tender, 30 to 40 minutes. Remove the beets to a bowl with a slotted spoon and set aside to cool. Strain the cooking liquid through a fine sieve and also set aside to cool.
• In a large bowl, whisk together 1 1/2 cups of the beet cooking liquid, the chicken stock, sour cream, yogurt, sugar, lemon juice, vinegar, 1 tablespoon salt, and the pepper. Peel the cooled beets with a small paring knife or rub the skins off with your hands. Cut the beets in small to medium dice. Add the beets, cucumber, scallions, and dill to the soup. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 4 hours or overnight. Season, to taste, and serve cold with a dollop of sour cream and an extra sprig of fresh dill.

Steps:

• Place diced potatoes into a large saucepan, and cover with water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat, and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 25 minutes. Stir in the green onions, dill, and buttermilk; bring back to a simmer. Stir in the half-and-half before serving.

Steps:

• Bring the water to a boil in a large stockpot. Gently drop the ham into the boiling water; add 1 chopped onion, dill, and salt. Reduce heat to low, cover the stockpot, and simmer 1 hour.
• Remove ham from broth. Cut as much meat from the bone as possible, cut into dice, and refrigerate. Return bone and any undesirable meat chunks to the broth. Cover and let simmer an additional 3 hours.
• Remove and discard the bone and any large chunks of meat from the broth. Strain the broth through cheesecloth and return strained broth to the stockpot; place over medium heat. Add 1/2 chopped onion to the broth; season with salt and black pepper. Stir diced potatoes into the broth, bring to a boil, and reduce heat to medium low; cook at a simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat to cool, about 20 minutes.
• Whisk egg, flour, and about 1/4 cup of the buttermilk together in a bowl until smooth with no lumps; set aside.
• Pour remaining buttermilk into the simmering broth. Stir egg mixture into the stockpot; bring the mixture to simmer over medium heat and reduce heat to low. Stir diced ham into the simmering soup; cook until hot, about 15 minutes.

Steps:

• To the water in a large soup pot, add the farmer sausage and cook for about 1 hour: this makes your soup stock.
• Remove the pieces of sausage and let cool, then remove the casing and cut up into bit size pieces.
• Add potatoes, onion greens, dill green, parsley, sorrel, bay leaf and peppercorns (in a spice bag or container) to the stock.
• Cook this until potatoes are done.
• Add the farmer sausage pieces back into the soup.
• Add salt to taste.
• Serve hot with heaping tablespoon of sour cream in each serving.
• Good served with fresh homemade brown bread.
• The farmer sausage can be substituted with a smoked ham hock.

Steps:

• Place beets in a 3-inch deep glass dish.
• Cover with plastic wrap.
• Cook at 100% for 12 minutes.
• Prick plastic to release steam.
• Uncover and test beets to see if they are done.
• If not done, cook until tender.
• When beets are cool enough to handle, peel and remove stems.
• Place in food processor.
• Add apple juice and vinegar and puree until smooth.
• Remove all but 1/4 cup of the mixture and put in large bowl.
• Add ricotta to mixture (still in food processor) and blend until smooth.
• Whisk into puree and add lemon juice, buttermilk, sugar, salt and enough water to thin soup to desired consistency.
• Chill well approx 4 hours.
• Divide onion and cucumber among and put into 4 serving bowls.
• Ladle soup over and sprinkle dill on top.

Steps:

• For the stock, wash the leeks by trimming their ends, slicing them lengthwise in quarters and separating and rinsing each layer under cold water. Put them in a large pot along with the other ingredients, cover with 6 quarts of water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 2 1/2 hours, until only a 1/2 gallon of liquid remains. Remove from the heat, strain and discard the solids.
• For the soup, melt the butter in a large pan. Wash the leeks thoroughly; trim so only the white part remains; julienne and soften them in a large pot over medium-low heat, stirring, about 5 minutes. Stir in the potatoes and cook for 5 minutes. Add the beets and continue to cook, stirring, 5 minutes; then add the lima beans and cook 5 minutes more.
• Add the zucchini, lettuce, sorrel and beet greens, cover with the stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, add 1/2 cup of the pickle juice and simmer until the potatoes are tender. Add 1/8 cup of the dill and cool in the refrigerator. Before serving, stir in the remaining 1/2 cup of pickle juice, the vinegar, salt, pepper and remaining dill. Serve chilled with a dollop of sour cream in each bowl. (The borscht can be made several days ahead.)