Primavara promisings

Smiles all around from (shotgun?) wedding!
This is from a few months back. Took the editor a long time to turn us all into creamsicles.

Spring has sprung more or less with the first two days of April with the first glimpses of the sun. The sidewalk was full of all-wheel-drive baby carriages and stroller gangs, public intoxication and mini-skirts. It heated up to 70 degrees to fall back to tolerable damp, cloudy rainy days but its ok, Moldova needs all the rain it can get and I'm not quite ready to whip out my daisy dukes.

Best part of this week was the announcement of the Peace Corps grant winners this round of SPA applications. My partner and I headed to the capitol last weekend to sway two staff members and a panel of 4 PCVs on our small community gym project. We received the prized email this week congratulating us on being selected to receive $3,500 to put towards gym equipment. I'm not a fan of grant writing (with reasons that could take up an entirely different blog post) but it sure feels good to win this one.

I'm still in the move-in process of my new flat, not because there have been any problems but because after packing up one apartment and moving into another I've lost my Mrs. Clean motivation and there was a thick layer of dead spiders and dust between me and moving my clothes into a hallway closet (took me four hours to clean the fridge.. but I have a fridge! yey!).

Never the less, I invited a good friend over to help me celebrate the news with a bottle of Cabernet and chocolates sent from the states. I also invited her over to make sure I wouldn't mess up making Borscht for the first time. As my luck would have it, I fell into my normal role of assistant and watched her talents in the kitchen. From that, I've written up this recipe in case you are dying to get your hands on some healthy Russian soup.

*Disclaimer: If this recipe is wrong, I don't care. There are as many ways to make Borscht on food.com as there are ways to cook an egg if Kate instructions are distracting or crappy.

Borscht

For one medium size soup-cooking pot:

4 smaller beets cooked whole initially

¼ head of cabbage, sliced and diced thin

1 chunk of chicken, pork, beef or bacon cut up into lil chunks, they prefer meat still on the bone here or beans… or both if you’re going big

3 small onions diced(or to your preference as all of these ingredients are)

3-4 cloves of garlic grated

2 medium sized carrots grated

1 big tablespoon scoop of tomato paste

3 medium sized potatoes (I skipped these guys… dieting..)

1 bullion of chicken or beef soup broth stuff

Splooshes of vegetable oil

Salt and pepper to taste along with fresh parsley, bay leaves and any other seasonings you wish to add

¼ cup of Borscht acru (sour yellow looking water sold in a plastic bottle… in Moldova, maybe skip in America?)

1.       Grab a pot and start boiling the beets first. These guys take a long time to cook, around 45 min. When they are easily pokable with a fork they are done. Smaller beets will take less time to cook then the big suckers. When they cool down, peel/cut off the outsides and then slice the insides into little french fry strips.

2.       As the beets are boiling, throw the meat into the main soup pot with the bouillon cube and enough water to fill the pot half way. Some people add small uncut onions to this now; others go do the next step… I think grabbing a lean chicken breast was the wrong choice of meat. It ended up tasting like dry meat in the soup. I would go for fattier meat on the bone or fully skinned chicken legs/wings.

3.       Add minced garlic and onion to a big frying pan or pot and start frying with a big sploosh of oil on low heat. I added the spices and whatnot to this pot/pan now then added in the cabbage and carrots. Swirl all of that and add a little water or the borscht acru water stuff AND the tomato paste now so you are basically swirling around a mini really really thick soup. Towards the end add the beets and let it simmer.

4.       While all of that is going on you have to check on the meat cooking and skim off all “spumos” or foam that collects at the top of the water. When that crap stops conglomerating for sure, add the veggieness from the other pot and let it all cook for a while adding more spices, salt and pepper to taste. Fill the pot almost to the top with more water if needed.

You're on your own with when to add potatoes. I like my soup super thick so I added cabbage, onions and beets to my little thick-soup-hearts' delight. I also added Portuguese hot sauce I received the other week from a tenor in the choir (I knew there would be hidden benefits of joining the choir!). They will offer a mildly hot Chile on the side at restaurants here if you like to turn up the heat. They also like to add a chicken claw and sour cream. Those as well I have decided to write out of my soup creation. 

Poftă Bună!

-Kate