Borsch is a national dish of Ukrainian cuisine, it is loved in many countries of the former CIS and not only. It is very difficult to determine which of the recipes is classic and original. The thing is that in different regions borscht is cooked differently, and all people believe that their recipe is the right one. If you want to know the recipe how to cook red borsch so that it turns out to be tasty and rich, you must follow the step-by-step instructions exactly. Here will be presented several variations of this dish, which recipe to choose - it's up to you.
Product Preparation
First of all, it is necessary to prepare all the products. It is recommended to use pork cheeks for the broth , they will give a good fat and after cooking they are an excellent meat addition to borsch, you need to take about 500-700 g of this product. The weight of all products is indicated for a borscht pan of 5 liters.
For cooking, you will also need 500 g of potatoes, 300 g of ordinary cabbage and 150 g of carrots and onions. To make borscht red, use beets. If summer is outside, it is recommended to take a young vegetable, then the color of the dish will turn out to be a pleasant raspberry. The required amount of beets - 350 g.
It is impossible to prepare dressing for borsch without ingredients such as apple cider vinegar (2 tbsp.), Tomato paste (3 tbsp. L.) And sugar (50-100 g). At the end of cooking, be sure to add chopped garlic. For such an amount of borsch, you need to take 3 cloves of garlic.
According to the collection of recipes, Bulgarian pepper is also used in borsch, but in Ukraine it is added only in the southern regions. In the western part of the country, this ingredient is not used. Add it to you or not, decide on your own, based on personal taste preferences.
How to cook red borsch: step by step recipe with photos
So, when all the ingredients are collected, you must proceed directly to the preparation of this dish. If you do not know how to cook red borscht correctly and where to start, you must follow the step-by-step instructions exactly.
- You need to collect water in a saucepan and put it on fire. While the liquid is warming, the meat should be thoroughly washed and cut into several parts. Throw cheeks into water and bring to a boil. After a few minutes, you need to drain the liquid, rinse the meat again, collect new water, put on fire, wait until it boils, and reduce heat. Cook the broth for 1-1.5 hours.
- While the meat is being cooked, it is necessary to wash the beets, put them in a saucepan, add water and add 100 g of vinegar. Cook the vegetable until cooked. After that, put under cold water and clean.
- When the time allotted for cooking the meat passes, you need to put the necessary amount of potatoes into the pan. Cut the vegetable with medium or small cubes.
- Now chop the cabbage and add it to the rest of the ingredients.
- Cut carrots into cubes, and onions into strips. Fry these two ingredients in vegetable oil. After put in the pan.
Cooking borsch dressing
While all the products are boiled, it is necessary to prepare a dressing. To do this, peeled beets must be cut into cubes and put in a deep frying pan. Immediately pour about 50 ml of water and add the required amount of tomato paste, vinegar and sugar. Mix everything thoroughly and simmer for 25-30 minutes.
Beets are recommended to taste, it should have a distinct taste of vinegar and tomatoes, but it is not sour, but has a slightly sweetish flavor.
Next stage
At this stage of cooking, the meat is already completely ready, it can be pulled out. After tearing (if it does not work out, cut into small pieces) and throw it back into the pan. This procedure may not be carried out, but still it is much more convenient to eat a dish when you do not need to pick meat from bones or divide it into parts.
Now it is already possible to throw a dressing for borsch, which has been stewed for 30 minutes. Add the required amount of chopped or grated garlic. Put 3 bay leaves, allspice, ground black pepper and salt. To give a more original taste, you can use bouillon cubes, but not necessarily. Mix everything thoroughly and bring to a boil.
Recent manipulations
Now the borscht already has all the necessary ingredients, the cook only needs to taste it. If necessary, you can add salt and spices, if you like spicy dishes, it is recommended to add a small amount of garlic, by and large it will only add a dish of flavor and zest.
If everything is good with taste and you like it, then you need to add a small amount of chopped greens directly to the pan. For red borscht, it is best to use dill or parsley. Turn off the heat and cover, let the dish stand for at least 30 minutes.
After this, the borsch should be poured into portioned plates and served with sour cream. Many also like to use it with mayonnaise.
Various additives
As already reported a little higher, a little other ingredients can be added to the borscht. In the dish, bell pepper has a very good taste, it gives a certain zest. In some regions of Ukraine and Russia, dried porcini mushrooms can be used in the preparation of red borsch. They have a very pleasant aroma that just nicely explodes the taste buds.
In the case of adding dried mushrooms, they must first be boiled in a separate pan. When the water begins to boil with them, it needs to be drained and a new one is collected, and only after that they can be boiled until tender. If desired, a small amount of liquid in which mushrooms were boiled can be added to the pan with borsch for aroma.
If there is no apple cider vinegar at home, then it can be replaced with ordinary citric acid, it will also give the borsch dressing the necessary acid.
In this recipe, borsch is prepared from boiled and then stewed beets, so it will not have a pronounced smell in the dish. But this is not the only way to prepare the ingredient. Borsch can be prepared from baked beets, or it can be cut into cubes and immediately put in a pan with the rest of the ingredients. But then the color of the dish will not be so rich red.
Note! If you pour beets directly into the pan, then tomato paste and vinegar should be added only at the end of cooking. The thing is that vegetables are not cooked in an acidic environment, so the dish will be spoiled.
Conclusion
Now you know how to cook red borsch, in the photo you can see this wonderful dish when it is completely ready. Despite the uniformity of the recipe, two people have never managed to cook two identical borscht, so do not be upset that you cooked it differently than your neighbor’s. This is the beauty of this first dish.