Gramma Richter's Family Borscht

I was eating borscht for lunch at work not long ago and due to the yummy smell of my lunch found myself fielding some questions about this yummy Eastern European soup. There are as many kinds of borscht as there are grandmothers who make it, pretty much; the main thing that they all have in common is that they are sour.

Most people equate borscht with beets, but it does not always have beets in it; there is green borscht, white borscht, and orange borscht as well. Borscht can have chunks in it or be a pureed soup; it can be vegetarian or full of beef or lamb or even chicken; it can be eaten hot or cold.

This recipe that I'm going to share here with you is my Great-Grandmother's recipe for white borscht that my dad shared with me.

Richter Borscht

Chop into cubes & sauté in a pot:

• with 1 Tbsp butter (optional: replace butter with 3 rashers of bacon, minced finely)
  
• 2 potatoes
• 2 carrots
• 2 stalks of celery
  

Add:

• 2 quarts chicken stock
• 1/2 cup precooked or leftover rice
• 3 green onions minced
• handful of beet leaves cut into strips (or other greens, I like spinach)
  
• 1 Tbsp minced fresh parsley

Simmer until vegetables are tender.

Then add:

• 1 tsp fresh minced dill
• 1/2 cup cream with one beaten egg mixed in
  

Bring to simmer again and then drizzle in:

• 1 1/2 Tbsp white vinegar

Heat to a simmer and then serve hot.

Chewy Gingersnaps

This recipe is a classic at our house at Xmas/Yule time. My Grandma has been making these cookies for as long as I can remember and everyone loves them. She always slightly under cooks them so that they're just the perfect amount of chewy and a little crisp around the edges.

I have, scandalously, toyed with her recipe and sometimes substitute cardamom for the ginger in this recipe to make something a little more unusual.

Chewy Gingersnaps

Cream together:

• 3/4 cup shortening
• 1 cup white sugar

Add:

• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup molasses

Mix together with a whisk in a small bowl:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 Tbsp ginger (or cardamom instead)
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt

Mix dry ingredients into wet. Make sure the dough is thoroughly mixed then wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill for about an hour.

Roll into balls; I have a cookie dough scoop for this that gives me totally even blobs of dough like a little ice cream scoop. I think this is probably the best cookie invention ever and you can get them in a variety of sizes.

Roll each dough ball in white sugar and place on baking sheet. Press lightly with a fork or fingers.

Bake cookies in a pre-heated 350F oven for about 12-15 mins. I would do a small test batch at 12 mins to see what they're like when they're cooled a bit because they will crisp as they cool.

The exact time you want to bake them will depend on how big you make yours and how chewy or crisp you like them. I like to make them little so I don't die of guilt if I eat six of them, while my daughter likes to make six cookies out of the whole batch of dough because she doesn't have the patience to bake more than one tray of cookies.

Linsensuppe

Linsensuppe is a German lentil soup that is utterly fabulous. I've made this dish for company and potlucks so many times. Even people who claim to not be fond of lentils usually love it.

I blame the bacon.

Brown:

• 4 rashers of bacon, minced
• 4 – 6 sausages, sliced into rounds (pretty much any type will do, but I like bratwurst best)

Heat together in a large pot:

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 finely diced onion
• 1 leek, finely chopped
• 3 carrot, finely diced
• 2 stalks of celery, diced
• 2 bay leaves

Add:

• 1 can of lentils, well rinsed
• 4 cups of water or stock

Simmer for about a half hour. Good with a loaf of dense artisan bread or homemade biscuits and butter.

Finnish Cardamom Bread (Pulla)

This recipe is a hand-me-down from a Finnish fishing family that lived close to my dad when he was growing up. They pretty much adopted him into the family because he spent so much time there, hanging out with their kids (and probably for the amazing pickled fish and baking that their mom would do.)

Helmi would make this bread for the men to take on the fishing boats with them, but dried into rusks instead of fresh so that it would keep longer. Either way, it's fabulous and I'm sure that this is the source of my cardamom addiction as an adult.

This recipe makes a LOT of bread; don't expect it to last long though, it's SO good.

Pulla

Cream together:

• 1 lb butter (NOT MARGERINE)
• 2 1/2 cups white sugar

Add:

• 1 dozen lightly beaten eggs
• 1 quart whole milk
• 2 Tbsp ground black cardamom (I use 3 because I really love cardamom)
• 2 tsp yeast (can make a sponge with the milk first if you prefer)

Mix in:

• About 15 - 17 cups of flour

Don't add too much flour, you want the dough soft but not really sticky. Because this is a sweet bread, it will tend to be a little stickier anyways, so be careful.

Drizzle a little oil on the top of the dough and turn it so that it's oiled all over to keep it from drying out. Cover with a clean cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled.

Punch dough down and shape. The traditional shape for this bread is braids, but you can make it into buns, loaves, rings.. whatever you like. This dough makes KILLER cinnamon buns.

Let dough rise again until doubled. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar. Bake in a pre-heated 350F oven.

Recipe from: Helmi Liimatta

Lazy Biscuits

Much as I like homemade food, sometimes I really crave instant gratification. These biscuits are totally homemade but are quick enough to make that I'd consider them to be as instant as I get in the kitchen. They're based on a recipe from my 1963 Good Housekeeping Cookbook, which is a really good reference book for all those archaic things that you might want to know how to make. For some reason I'm delighted by all the instructions for making fancy tea party sandwiches; apparently I didn't have enough tea parties when I was a child. (yes mom, I'm blaming you). When I make these for company, I use the biscuit cutter that my sister made for me when she was in eighth grade metal shop. It always makes them better!

Lazy Biscuits

Pre-heat oven to 450F

Mix together in a bowl with a whisk:

• 4 cups flour
• 2 Tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt

In a 2 cup glass measuring cup combine:

• 2/3 cup canola oil
• 1 1/3 cups milk

Pour all the wet ingredients into the dry ones and stir it up with a wooden spoon, then your hands, as it gets stickier.

Dust the counter generously with flour and dump the dough out onto it; pat it out to about an inch thick, adding more flour as necessary.

You can cut out biscuits with a cutter if you like but I prefer to cut it into squares with a knife. No one cares if they're pretty unless they're for company.

Bake for about ten minutes or until golden brown on top.

Optional:

• add 1/4 cup of sugar and cut out with a generously sized biscuit cutter for shortbreads
• add minced herbs and serve with stew

Pork & Sauerkraut Stew

I LOVE sauerkraut. My family thinks that it's weird, but I can sit down with a good jar of drained sauerkraut and just eat it cold out of the jar all by itself. This is a pretty recent thing for me, at least I could never do that when I was a kid; back then I hated the stuff.

Nowadays I usually have two kinds of sauerkraut in the cupboard at any given time, a jar of Rotkraut (or red cabbage sauerkraut), and a regular white cabbage sauerkraut. Yummy stuff!

Sauerkraut is made by fermenting cabbage, rather like kimchi. As a result, sauerkraut has beneficial bacteria and digestive enzymes in it as well as high levels of Vitamin C.

My favourite way to prepare sauerkraut, which most of the people in my house like, is in pork stew with sauerkraut. It has a not-overwhelming sauerkraut flavour that's balanced nicely with good Hungarian paprika and dill. This stew is best made with homemade sauerkraut, of course, just like Papa makes.

Pork & Sauerkraut Stew

Brown in batches in a hot pan with a Tbsp of oil:

• 6 cups of lean cubed pork - can use stew cuts as well

Remove pork and sautee until they start to caramelize:

• 1 or 2 diced onions, according to preference

Stir in:

• 1 tsp caraway seeds
• 1 Tbsp dill
• 2 Tbsp Hungarian paprika
• 4 cups drained and rinsed sauerkraut

Add:

• Vegetable stock or water to just scantly cover.

Simmer for at least an hour before checking the meat. The pork should be very tender, do not rush this stew! I often add more dill and paprika to this as it cooks as well to add more depth to the flavour.

I usually serve this stew with mashed potatoes, topped with a little bit of sour cream.

Adriatic Fish Stew

This is a really delicious way to cook fish that's a little different. I use halibut in this recipe as it is my favourite, though I tend to only make it when a friend goes fishing and I get it for free because halibut is so expensive. You can use just about any kind of firm fish to make this.

Adriatic Fish Stew

In a big pot sautee until soft:

• 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 minced onion
• 4 cloves of garlic, crushed

Add:

• 2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 2 – 3 cups chopped tomatoes (or use canned diced tomatoes)
• 1 Tbsp vinegar (or 1/2 c wine)
• 2 bay leaves
• chopped parsley
• 2 1/2 cups fish or vegetable stock (or chicken, in a pinch)

Bring to a boil and add:

• 2 lbs of fish fillets – cut into 4 cm cubes

Reduce heat and simmer for about 30 mins or until done. Shake pan instead of stirring if possible to keep fish from breaking up. Season to taste.
Serve over herbed mashed potatoes.

Basic Borscht

Since the weather is still rather yucky out here in Western BC, I've been cooking a lot of soups and stews to help stave off the damp chill. I suppose that I shouldn't complain too much about the state of things here, since it seems that the rest of the northern hemisphere is suffering with a crazy cold winter and we're going to be hard pressed to scrape up enough snow to actually host the Olympics on.

So, if you're in the midst of a deep freeze this winter, this recipe will help you stay warm too. And, even better, it's cheap as hell to make. You might even say it's cheap like borscht! Okay, maybe not..

I can rarely find lamb stew meat that's what I would consider a reasonable price. So instead I often use a couple of lame steaks with bones in them. If you brown the steaks and throw them into the stew intact, you can break up the meat later when the stew is done. This gives a very rich broth.

If I have a chicken or a turkey carcass, I will make stock from that and toss in some bits of poultry for meat instead of the lamb. Borscht is fabulous made with turkey!

Borscht

• 1 lb approx. lamb stew meat (can omit meat and use a vegetable stock if preferred)
• 2 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 2 celery sticks, sliced
• 4 large beets, peeled and cubed
• 1/4 – 1/2 head of green cabbage, coarsely shredded
• 1-2 onions, diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 4 tomatoes, diced (or a can of stewed tomatoes if you MUST)
• 1 bay leaf
• 5 cups stock (beef, chicken, veggie)
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• salt and pepper
• dill
• sour cream to garnish

Instructions:
Brown the stew meat in a large heavy pot. Drain the fat if preferred.
Add the onion, carrots, celery, beets to the pot and cook until they’re just starting to soften. Then add the garlic, tomatoes, and cabbage and cook for a few more mins.
Add the bay leaf and the stock and simmer for about an hour, until the meat is very tender and the vegetables are done. Add the lemon juice and dill (to taste) and salt and pepper.
Garnish with sour cream and fresh dill. Serve with dark Russian rye bread.

For my first trick..

This is a recipe that I've never, ever shared before. For a Very Long Time ™, I was a terrible cake baker. In fact, I was almost convinced that cakes were somehow unattainable for me. Then, I was given this cake recipe and my whole world changed! Okay, maybe not my whole world, but my cakes sure did.

The secret to a "proper" cake from scratch is that you have to do is buy cake & pastry flour. That's it. Even if you don't even sift it like those finicky old cake recipes say, just using cake flour is going to make an AMAZING difference. Trust me.

Perfect White Cake from scratch

Pre-heat oven to 375 F
Grease and flour two 9 inch round cake pans

Sift together:

• 2 1/2 cups cake flour
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt

Beat until foamy, in a small bowl:

• 4 eggs whites

Gradually add in:

• 1/2 cup white sugar

until mixture forms soft peaks!

In a large bowl cream together gradually:

• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
• 1 cup white sugar

In a measuring cup, combine:

• 1 cup plus 2 Tbsp milk
• 1 tsp real vanilla extract (also good with almond or coconut extracts)

Into the shortening mixture, beat in flour mixture 1/4 at a time alternated with milk mixture 1/3 at a time. Mix ONLY until just barely smooth. Gently beat egg whites into the batter; don't worry about folding them in, just beat them on slow speed until combined.

Turn into prepared pans and bake for 25 mins. Remove from pans and cool on a wire rack.

I like to split the layers each in half horizontally to add more filling to it to keep it nice and moist. I HATE dry cake.

I made this cake last year for my yearly birthday extravaganza and filled it with a mixture of cream cheese, crushed pineapple, flaked coconut, and whipped cream, and then covered the top with big dollops of whipped cream.

A fresh start

For anyone who's read through my old recipe blog, this will be the replacement. As such, the old one will not be updated anymore. I know, I know.. it's not like I updated much ANYWAYS, but you know how it is.

This blog is hopefully not just going to be a list of recipes though, I hope to actually talk about cooking and food related topics in general. I hope that you find some of them interesting and maybe even a little amusing.

Welcome to the experiment.