Borscht (Evgeni Malkin's mom's receipe)

The weather is changing so crazily in Salt Lake. It was warm and sunny 2 weeks ago and now it is windy and snowing again. Without the sun, I feel a bit depress. Maybe it's not the weather made me depressed but the lost of Coach Sloan and D.Will plus the continuous 5 games "lost strike".

With all these Utah Jazz drama in the past several weeks and their poor performance, I haven't followed the Jazz closely like I used to be. I admit I am not a loyal fan ~_~". Instead, I have been watching hockey with my sister or I should say I have no choice. The TV is always occupied with hockey game now. My sister becomes a hockey fan since last year Winter Olympics. Since then, she's been tightly followed the NHL and constantly update with me on the NHL news and any interesting thing she found out about Canada (sounds like I care). So, the other night, when the weather was cold and I couldn't watch the Jazz lose and I had to listen to my sister's "hockey update", I felt like I need to cook something to comfort myself. For some reason, Borscht came up in my head.

Borscht is a common soup back home. It can be found on the menu in any western restaurants. Sometime even in cafe. I remember it was once offer in McDonald's (yes, the same McDonald's in US) during winter but I always ordered the chicken noodle soup instead of Borscht. My blurry memory only allowed me to recall the Borscht contains tomato, carrot and onion. I am not a creative cooking person, so, I went to search for the recipe and so many recipes came up! I know Borscht is a Russian soup because it's Cantonese name, 羅宋湯, is a vocal translation of "Russia". It simply means "Russian soup". But there are actually many versions of Borscht, Russian, Urkrian, Polish, Lithuanian, Romania, etc. I just don't know which one to choose. Then, one of my sister's "hockey update" section becomes helpful.

I remember during one of those "hockey update" from my sister, she mentioned some sort of soup recipe from a Russian's player's mom leaked out and becomes very popular. My sister gave me the player's name and I Google about it. Bingo! It is an Russian Borscht recipe! The recipe is actually from the mother of Evgeni Malkin, the center of the Pittsburgh Penguin from Russia. According to Malkin, it's his lucky soup before any game. I scan through the recipe. It looks reasonable. So, I made it.

Evgeni Malkin's mother's lucky borscht

The recipe was translated from Russian and the direction is a bit confusing. So, here is my interpretation of the receipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 pound stew beef, cubed
• 3 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1/2 medium head cabbage, cored and shredded
• 1 can 8-ounce diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 3 medium beets, peeled and shredded
• 3 carrots, peeled and shredded
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 can 6-ounce tomato paste
• 3/4 cup water
• Salt and pepper to taste
• sour cream for topping
• fresh parsley for garnish

Cooking Direction:

1. Fill a large pot with 2 quarts of water (about half way of the pot), add the meat and bring to a boil
2. Add the potatoes and bring to a boil again. Then, add the cabbage and the diced tomatoes. Reduce heat and cover. Simmer until tender, about 15 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Cook the beets until tender. Then, add the carrots, the white sugar and the minced garlic. Stir in the tomato paste and water until well blended.
4. Add the entire skillet contents to the soup and bring to a boil, cover and turn off the heat. 
5. Let stand for 15 to 20 minutes. Season with salt, pepper and additional sugar, if desired.
6. Top with sour cream and garnish with chopped parsley when serve. 

The Borscht is very red in color and taste different than the one I had back home. I am pretty sure there are no beets in the Borscht back home as it is not as red but I bet this recipe is more authentic. I do like it better. It tastes not as sour but also not sweet. Very mild soup with loads of vegetable which is prefect for lunch with some toasted bread. The original recipe said you can use any kind of meat but I chose beef. The beef blend perfectly with the Borscht and still tasty after 3 days! I also used the red potato instead of the regular potato. It's just because I had red potato at home. I assume it didn't affect the taste too much. The recipe is in big portion, probably about 8-10 servings. Unless you want Borscht for a week, cut the recipe in half and enjoy~

Still good after 3 days!