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Ukrainian borscht produces flavors that have dazzled for generations

Timothy Grayson Correspondent

I like to call my wife, Iryna, the “borscht whisperer.”

Her Ukrainian borscht always turns out excellent – with a hearty mix of meat, beets and cabbage and that signature, deep reddish purple-hued broth that’s cherished by anyone who loves a good bowl of borscht.

Iryna and her family are from Chernovtsy, Ukraine, in the far western part of the country, close to both Romania and Moldova, in a region called Bukovina. It was once part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and has been populated since Neolithic times, or 4,500 to 2,000 B.C. Throughout the centuries, the area’s cuisine has been influenced by a combination of traditions, including Russian, Polish and Turkish.

My wife learned about cooking from her mother and grandmother, both of whom used recipes handed down over many generations. In the Ukrainian home, cooking is a large part of the culture. Many ingredients are either grown at home in a garden or at the “dacha,” a country cottage used especially in the summer.

Another source is the local farmers market or bazaar, full of products that come from surrounding villages in either Ukraine or Romania. When I visit the main market in my wife’s hometown, I find items ranging from handmade sour cream and kefir, a fermented milk beverage, to cheeses, fresh berries, locally foraged mushrooms and wild honey. I’m always interested in the tanks that hold fresh fish, usually local types of freshwater carp still swimming.

Other widely used ingredients include beets, radishes, cucumbers, pickles, horseradish, dill, apples, plums, cabbage, the yellow-flowered space tormentil and cowberries, a red-colored berry the size of a blueberry and produced by the Ukrainian national tree.

Some of the most popular traditional dishes include varenyky, or boiled dumplings with potatoes, meat, mushrooms, sauerkraut, cottage cheese, cherries or other berries; salo, or salted or smoked pork fat with garlic or other spices; and holubtsi, or stuffed cabbage rolls filled with rice, carrots and meat.

Borscht is most well known. The soup is usually served with sour cream and piroshky, stuffed buns made from yeast dough and filled with meat, vegetables or sweet ingredients such as fresh fruit.

When I’m in Seattle, I like to stop at Piroshky Piroshky Bakery near Pike Place Market, which specializes in the stuffed buns.

While I haven’t been able to find a piroshky place in Spokane, there are a few specialty grocers that sell Russian and Ukrainian products. (See sidebar.)

Iryna has said some of her best childhood memories are of the Sundays she awoke to find her mother in the kitchen, preparing multiple dishes for the extended family. Those long lunches were filled with traditional Ukrainian food and lots of people talking loudly, laughing, telling stories and singing songs in Ukrainian and Russian.

In America, she makes a big pot of her Ukrainian Family Borscht two or three times a year. It’s always a special treat.

Ukrainian Family Borscht

4 teaspoons olive oil, divided

2 pounds boneless beef bottom round (or 3 pounds bone in)

14 cups of water

3 bay leaves

1 teaspoon salt

3 medium-size beets, peeled

Juice of 1 lemon

1 large onion, medium diced

2 cups carrots, peeled and shredded

3 tablespoons tomato paste

3 medium russet potatoes, peeled and diced

1  medium head of cabbage, cut into 1-inch strips and core removed

16-ounce can of white beans drained and rinsed (Great Northern, Navy or cannellini beans)

For serving, for each portion

1 tablespoon sour cream

1 teaspoon parsley

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 teaspoon green onions

Ground black pepper to taste

Warm 2 teaspoons of olive oil in skillet over medium-high heat, then add beef and brown the outside of the bottom round on all sides. Remove meat and set aside.

Bring water to boil in soup pot, then add browned meat, bay leaves and salt, and allow liquid to come back to a boil, then reduce to simmer and cook for 2 hours.

Remove meat and set aside. Strain and reserve broth.

Julienne beets, sauté in skillet with 1 teaspoon olive oil over medium-high heat for 3 to 4 minutes, and thoroughly drizzle with lemon juice. (Lemon juice prevents beets from losing their dark color, so the borscht will have an intense and bright burgundy hue). Place beets into a bowl and set aside.

Sauté onion and carrots over medium-high heat in skillet with 1 teaspoon olive oil until onion is translucent.

Mix tomato paste with 1 cup of the broth, and boil for 3 minutes. Add the carrots-and-onion mixture to the broth, and set aside.

Place reserved plain broth in large soup pot and bring to boil over medium-high heat. Add potatoes and cook for 5 to 7 minutes. Add cabbage, reduce to medium heat and let boil for 10 to 12 minutes. Add cooked onion-and-carrot mixture.

Cut meat into medium cubes (debone first if necessary) and add it to the soup along with the beans. Turn off heat, add cooked beets and let borscht rest for 1 hour.

Serve with sour cream, and garnish with parsley, minced garlic and green onions. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Yield: 8 servings

Blinchiki

2 cups whole milk

1/2 cup sparkling water

4 eggs

4 tablespoons of vegetable oil

2 tablespoons sugar

A pinch of salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melted butter, for brushing

Combine all of the ingredients except butter in a large mixing bowl. Blend on medium speed for 15 seconds until the batter is smooth and lump free. Allow the batter to rest 30 to 40 minutes in refrigerator.

In a 9-inch nonstick skillet brushed with melted butter, pour ¼ cup of batter into the pan, and swirl it around, so it covers the bottom evenly. Cook for 30 to 45 seconds on medium level heat until the edges look crispy, and gently turn crepe with a thin metal spatula, cook for 20 seconds on the other side. According to a Ukrainian saying, the first crepe tends to be bad, which is absolutely fine.

Blinchiki are folded like a package after they’re filled, then slightly browned in butter over medium heat in skillet and served right away.

Note: Whatever filling you choose, it should have a thick consistency. Here are some sweet and savory, traditional and not-so-traditional ideas: peanut butter, honey, fruit compote, stewed cabbage, cooked ground beef with onion, rice with egg, jam, fresh berries, sautéed mushrooms, chocolate-hazelnut spread and farmer cheese with golden raisins.

Yield: 6 servings

Piroshky with Meat Filling

To save time, Grayson uses Grands Frozen Butter Tastin Biscuits from Pillsbury for the dough. When time isn’t an issue, there’s Grandma’s “Secret” Dough Recipe (see below).

A can of cream of mushroom soup – Grayson prefers Campbell’s – helps save time when it comes to the filling. Otherwise, make a traditional white sauce – butter, flour, milk or heavy cream, salt, nutmeg – with a variety of finely chopped sautéed mushrooms and sour cream in its place.

For the meat filling

1/2 pound ground pork

1/2 pound ground beef

Pepper, to taste

1/2 large onion, medium diced

1 (10.5-ounce) can cream of mushroom soup

1 teaspoon olive oil

For the dough

2 packages butter-flavored frozen biscuit dough

1 egg, for brushing

Thoroughly mix ground pork and beef with pepper.

Heat deep frying pan over medium-high heat, add meat and sauté until cooked, stirring consistently. Remove from heat, strain fat with colander, and set aside.

Sauté onion over medium-high heat in skillet with olive oil until onion is translucent. Mix onion into meat mixture. Add can of soup to meat mixture, and combine thoroughly.

Roll biscuit rounds flat with rolling pin. Hold flattened dough in one hand, and place 1 ½ tablespoons of meat mixture carefully in the center. Fold up opposite sides of the dough, pinch closed and repeat.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease baking sheet.

Place dumplings on greased baking sheet. In a small bowl, whisk egg thoroughly, and brush each dumpling with egg mixture using a pastry brush. Bake for 14 to 17 minutes, until the breading is dark golden brown. Best served warm.

Yield: 8 servings, 2 each

Grandma’s “Secret” Dough Recipe

5 cups of all-purpose flour, sifted and divided

3 tablespoons of sunflower oil

1 tablespoon of white granulated sugar

1 teaspoon of salt

2 cups of water, divided (1 cup very hot, 1 cup warm)

3 egg yolks, whisked

1 1/2 tablespoons of dry baker’s yeast

Combine ½ cup flour, sunflower oil, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Add 1 cup of very hot water, constantly whisking the batter to avoid lumps. Let the mixture cool to approximately 80 degrees.

Add 1 cup of warm water, yolks, dry yeast and 4 ½ cups flour. While sifting flour, gradually mix it in with a big spoon to avoid lumps. Knead the dough until it doesn’t stick to your hands.

Cover the bowl with a clean towel and let it sit in a warm place for 45 to 60 minutes. The dough has to become three times bigger. If the dough rises very fast (depends on quality of the yeast), you can start making piroshky in less than 45 minutes.

Note: It’s very important to make the dough in a warm place.

Garlic Buns, or Pampushky

To save time, as with the piroshky, Grayson uses Grands Frozen Butter Tastin Biscuits from Pillsbury for the dough. When time isn’t an issue, there’s Grandma’s “Secret” Dough Recipe (see above).

4 tablespoon of minced garlic

3 to 4 tablespoons water

1 package butter-flavored frozen biscuit dough

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease baking sheet.

Place garlic into a small bowl and mix thoroughly with water.

Break each biscuit into small bite-size pieces, roll them into balls, and dip them into the garlic mixture. Place in preheated oven on greased sheet, and bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

Serve warm with borscht (see recipe above), about 4 or 5 for each bowl.

Timothy Grayson is the district executive chef for Sodexo Dining Services and is based at Whitworth University. He and Iryna have been married 15 years.