Russian soups was Re: [Sca-cooks] Gazpacho?

[Susan Fox-Davis]

Beety Borscht and Shchi, the traditional cabbage soup, are both served hot or
cold.

Here are a couple of recipes I've found online that look good
<http://www.russianfoods.com/recipes/item000EC/default.asp>

Cold Sweet Borsch
Source: Olga, RussianFoods.com Editor
Mail to: cuisine at russianfoods.com


Description
Cold Sweet Borsch is a traditional
summer dish. Light, refreshing and rich
in vitamins, it will diversify your summer table.

 Ingredients

400 g beet.
400 g potatoes.
4 tb dried fruits.
3 tb vinegar.
2 ts salt.
3 1/2 ts sugar.
pepper.
sour cream.
hard-boiled eggs.
spring onion.

Method
Wash dried fruits carefully, pour over
cold water, add sugar and cook on
medium heat. Cut beet into strips,
pour over hot water, add vinegar and
salt and cook until beet is soft. Add
cooked fruits with water and cubed
potatoes to beet, boil for 20 minutes.
Cool down. Serve in deep plates with
chopped eggs, green onion and sour cream.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Shchi (Russian cabbage soup)
OK so this particular recipe contains tomatoes, they can probably be omitted.
The margin notes include a reference to shchi in a Baba Yaga tale.  What an
interesting web site this is, full of literary, historical and mythical
references to Soup in all its forms, from Aesop to Garrison Keillor!
<http://www.soupsong.com/rshchi.html>

Shchi can be made with meat or without it--with sauerkraut or with cabbage
or with both. The only thing all cooks seem to agree on is that it should sit
and cure for as long as possible, up to a day or two, before eating. This
particular recipe is meatless--and can be vegetarian if you use water or
vegetable stock instead of beef stock--but it is unusually rich and hearty, full

of flavor and textures, using both sauerkraut and cabbage. Serve hot as a meal
to 6-8 people, with lots of pumpernickel or rye bread and butter on hand.

Souptale: There is evidence that shchi was known in Rus long
before 988 AD, when Christianity was accepted--so long before
that shchi actually meant "liquid food" in the beginning, and
only came to mean specifically "cabbage soup" when that
vegetable was cultivated there. As has been described in Faves
of the Stars, shchi has been a favorite soup of characters as
diverse as a 13th century Mongol khan, Ivan the Terrible,
Nicholas II, his assassin Lenin, Stalin, Mao Zedong, and
Vladimir Zhirinovsky. Alexander Dumas liked it so much in
the 19th century that he included it in his cookbook. Lewis
Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland, found it "quite
drinkable, though it contained some sour element, which
perhaps is necessary for Russian palates." When Russian
soldiers marched into France in 1812, they were so desperate
for the taste of fermented cabbage that they picked vine leaves
and started pickling them so they could make shchi. Its
associations, always, are with peasants, the earth, common
soldiers, ordinariness. Thus when Russians call someone "a
professor of sour shchi," they mean he's a fraud--cause you
can't earn respect by making something so common.

8-10 dried mushrooms, preferably cepes/porcini, but even
shiitakes are okay, hydrated in 1 cup hot water for an hour
3 Tablespoons butter
4 cups shredded cabbage
2-3 cups sauerkraut (cold pack--not canned, if possible),
rinsed well with cold water and squeezed dry
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
12 cups beef or vegetable stock
3 Tablespoons butter
1 carrot, peeled and cut into a julienne
1½ cups onions, chopped
1 stalk celery, diced
1 large turnip, peeled and diced
1 16-ounce can tomatoes, drained, seeded, and chopped
salt and pepper
1 large clove garlic, minced or pressed

Garnish: chopped fresh dill mixed into sour cream

Begin by soaking the mushrooms in water. In a large Dutch
oven, melt 3 Tablespoons of butter over medium high heat,
then toss in the cabbage and sauerkraut and sauté for 15
minutes, stirring often. Stir in the tomato paste and 1 cup or so
of stock, cover, and simmer of low heat for 40 minutes.

Meanwhile, squeeze the mushrooms dry and slice finely. Melt
the other 3 Tablespoons of butter in a skillet and sauté the
carrot, onions, celery, turnips, and mushrooms until soft and
slightly brown--about 15 minutes. Seed and chop the tomatoes,
reserving them.

When the sauerkraut and cabbage are nicely stewed, stir in the
sauteéd vegetables, the tomatoes, and the stock. Season with
salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a low
heat--cover and simmer for about 20 minutes. Add garlic and
cook 5 more minutes.

Let stand at least 15 minutes--but ideally a day or so in the
refrigerator to cure. When ready to serve, reheat slowly. Ladle
into bowls and garnish with spoonsful of dilled sour cream.







XvLoverCrimvX at aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 8/29/01 10:39:43 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
> debra.dunbar at aspenpubl.com writes:
>
> > Maybe I'm hallucinating, maybe I'm just insane, but I swear I read in some
> >  book that there was a form of Russian (or maybe Hungarian) cold soup -
> spicy
> >  with veggies sans tomato, etc that was an early type of Gazpacho.
>
> If anyone knows about it, send me the recipe!!!
>
> Misha
> The hungry Russian
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