North Dakota · Soup
North Dakota Borscht
- Intermediate
- 2 h
- roughly 3 of 4 for cost
Leads with acid holding everything up to the light, fresh herbs arguing happily on top, settling low and earthy.
Ingredients
- 500g beef shank or short rib
- 2L water
- 4 beets, peeled and diced
- 1 onion, diced
- 3 carrots, diced
- 400g cabbage, shredded
- 400g potatoes, cubed
- 400g crushed tomatoes
- 2 tbsp cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp dill
- Sour cream to serve
The skills inside
Allergen screen
Found: dairy
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Simmer the beef in the water 90 min until tender. Lift out, dice the meat, and keep the broth. 90 min
- Add the beets, onion, and carrots to the broth and simmer 20 min. 20 min
- Add the cabbage, potatoes, and tomatoes and cook 25 min until everything is tender. 25 min
- Return the meat, add vinegar, sugar, and dill, and simmer 10 min. Balance the sweet and sour to taste. 10 min
- Serve topped with sour cream and fresh dill.
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Keeping the cooking liquid 60 recipes
- It was actually kept: the liquid went into a container rather than down the drain, and the volume saved is enough to be worth using.
- It is clean: strained of solids and grit, and not clouded with the debris of whatever broke up in it.
- It tastes of what it cooked and tastes concentrated rather than washed out, and it is not so salty or so bitter that the only honest use is the bin.
- It was cooled quickly and stored cold, not left standing warm on the stove to be dealt with later.
- Used, it does the job the dish gives it (carrying flavour into a sauce, loosening the dish, or setting when chilled) rather than merely adding water back.
Where it goes wrong The pot was left to cool slowly on the stove and only strained the next day, so it soured overnight: what should have been the best ingredient in the dish goes in the bin, and the recipe gets water instead.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Cabernet Sauvignon or Malbec
- Also Right
- Tempranillo (Rioja Reserva)
- From the Taps
- Amber ale
- Zero-Proof
- Sparkling water, make room
Tannin binds to seared protein and fat: each bite softens the wine, each sip resets the palate: the steakhouse equation.
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