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Author Topic: FSU Soups, Borsch and Specialities  (Read 70166 times)

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Offline Rasputin

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FSU Soups, Borsch and Specialities
« on: November 24, 2007, 08:13:17 PM »
There are some nice things about mixing cultures, one of them is certainly food. I am discovering all the wonderful things that can be done with cabbage.

Today, my wife and I went shopping to a wholesale grocery store. We ended up buying a 50 pound bag of cabbage. The surprising thing is that have finished processing most of it today. In one hour, we made:

  • borsch
  • cabbage cooked in a slow cooker with carrots, onion and patatoes
  • salted package

The salted cabbage is the most interesting. I grated the cabbage in the food processor and then layer by layer added salt, whole black pepper and bay leaves. The cabbage then has to squeeze for the juice to come out of the cabbage. We bought a 24-quart enamel pot and filled most of it with cabbage. Once finished, my wife covered it with a large dish that and then put a jar of water on the plate to compress the cabbage. We then put it in a warm spot where the cabbage will ferment for a day or two until a froth form on top. Once this is done, the cabbage is put in empty jars and refrigerated.

And, we did this all with $13 dollars worth of cabbage. Not bad!
"Seems I live in Russia Rasputin visited" - Millaa
"So do I" - Molly35ru

Offline mirror

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Re: FSU Soups, Borsch and Specialities
« Reply #1 on: November 24, 2007, 09:07:43 PM »

The salted cabbage is the most interesting.


Did you like the taste of salted cabbage? Something new for you?

It is like a soup from radishes ( in Vietnam food)... strange taste  :D for Russians.  ;D


Offline Rasputin

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Re: FSU Soups, Borsch and Specialities
« Reply #2 on: November 24, 2007, 09:11:14 PM »
Did you like the taste of salted cabbage? Something new for you?

It is like a soup from radishes ( in Vietnam food)... strange taste  :D for Russians.  ;D



The one that my wife makes isn't really a soup: it looks like home made German "Sauerkraut." It took me a while to get used to if, but now I really like it. Somewhat like "kefir." At first, I could not stand it, but now I can't get enough of it :) Fortunately, my wife got some "griby" (fungul/bacterial culture) from a friend from Belarus to make our own kefir at home. Yum!
"Seems I live in Russia Rasputin visited" - Millaa
"So do I" - Molly35ru


Offline mirror

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Re: FSU Soups, Borsch and Specialities
« Reply #3 on: November 24, 2007, 09:17:58 PM »
The one that my wife makes isn't really a soup: it looks like home made German "Sauerkraut." It took me a while to get used to if, but now I really like it. Somewhat like "kefir." At first, I could not stand it, but now I can't get enough of it :) Fortunately, my wife got some "griby" (fungul/bacterial culture) from a friend from Belarus to make our own kefir at home. Yum!

My congratulation! Your wife is excellent cooker!  :) You have a good chance to add some weight like all men after the marriage!  ;D

Offline Rasputin

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Re: FSU Soups, Borsch and Specialities
« Reply #4 on: November 24, 2007, 09:19:33 PM »
My congratulation! Your wife is excellent cooker!  :) You have a good chance to add some weight like all men after the marriage!  ;D

LOL She is doing her best to make me lose weight. One of the reasons why we are buying a lot of cabbage :)
"Seems I live in Russia Rasputin visited" - Millaa
"So do I" - Molly35ru

Offline mirror

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Re: FSU Soups, Borsch and Specialities
« Reply #5 on: November 24, 2007, 09:26:31 PM »
LOL She is doing her best to make me lose weight. One of the reasons why we are buying a lot of cabbage :)

OH! I logged off but after seeing your post I could not resist to answer.

Cabbage can help you to loose a weight but you will have a stomach like a balloon, my dear. ;D Eat meat with pineapple and no any suggar,pastry,pies and fat.

Offline Rasputin

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Re: FSU Soups, Borsch and Specialities
« Reply #6 on: November 24, 2007, 09:30:54 PM »
OH! I logged off but after seeing your post I could not resist to answer.

Cabbage can help you to loose a weight but you will have a stomach like a balloon, my dear. ;D Eat meat with pineapple and no any suggar,pastry,pies and fat.

LOL Yes, I noticed that. It is true that I am lucky that my wife is such a great cook. We even make our own pelmeni. With that, I am eating much less junk food and fast food and other fattening foods. So, life is good!  :king:
"Seems I live in Russia Rasputin visited" - Millaa
"So do I" - Molly35ru

Offline mirror

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Re: FSU Soups, Borsch and Specialities
« Reply #7 on: November 24, 2007, 09:56:40 PM »
LOL Yes, I noticed that. It is true that I am lucky that my wife is such a great cook. We even make our own pelmeni. With that, I am eating much less junk food and fast food and other fattening foods. So, life is good!  :king:

I am proud that another AM/WM proved RW are excellent wifes!!!  :)

Offline mendeleyev

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Re: FSU Soups, Borsch and Specialities
« Reply #8 on: November 25, 2007, 12:35:11 AM »
Rasputin, This all sounds delicious!  When are you inviting the rest of us over for dinner?!


Offline mirror

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Re: FSU Soups, Borsch and Specialities
« Reply #9 on: November 25, 2007, 01:28:16 AM »
Rasputin, This all sounds delicious!  When are you inviting the rest of us over for dinner?!



Right ,Mendeleyev! It is so delicious! Especially pelmeni with salad from salted cabbage. :)

Offline pup zemly

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Re: FSU Soups, Borsch and Specialities
« Reply #10 on: November 25, 2007, 04:32:17 AM »
My congratulation! Your wife is excellent cooker!  :) You have a good chance to add some weight like all men after the marriage!  ;D
Sonya, you should say " a good cook" and "gain some weight"
Guys, shame on you. We are here to improve our language and you don't correct our mistakes
 :offtopic:

Offline mendeleyev

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Re: FSU Soups, Borsch and Specialities
« Reply #11 on: November 25, 2007, 07:48:53 AM »
Julie, sorry and you are correct. 

Mirror, English grammar can be difficult sometimes and we appreciate your communication on this board.  Keep up your good efforts!

You may compliment someone as a "good cook" (хороший повар) or just as in Russian practice you may compliment the food itself:  "it is very delicious" (Это очень вкусно).  In normal useage we use "delicious" to describe вкусно instead of the more literal "tasty."


Offline Rasputin

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Re: FSU Soups, Borsch and Specialities
« Reply #12 on: November 25, 2007, 09:02:43 AM »
Rasputin, This all sounds delicious!  When are you inviting the rest of us over for dinner?!

Well, if you are ever in northern Canada, we will have to have you over "for tea." The one thing which I noticed, though, is that not all men are as open to foods from Russia. A few wives (or ex-wives) that I know complained that their husbands did not/do not like Russian food. This, of course, left the wives frustrated and certainly does not make for a stronger marriage. As for the non-Russian foods that I like, I usually cook them with my wife or we occasionally eat out. My wife now loves sushi. It really helps when both sides are open to cultural and culinary differences. 
"Seems I live in Russia Rasputin visited" - Millaa
"So do I" - Molly35ru

Offline Manny

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Re: FSU Soups, Borsch and Specialities
« Reply #13 on: November 25, 2007, 11:12:57 AM »
My wife makes something with cabbage she calls salted cabbage that is white cabbage water, sugar and salt I think left to ferment for a while?

Yummy!  :-*

She has developed a taste for the pickled red cabbage we have too.
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Putin often threatens to strike US with nuclear weapons.

Offline Chris

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Re: FSU Soups, Borsch and Specialities
« Reply #14 on: November 25, 2007, 02:48:34 PM »
There must be scope for a book here "1001 Things to do with Cabbage"   :laugh:

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Offline Manny

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Re: FSU Soups, Borsch and Specialities
« Reply #15 on: November 25, 2007, 02:59:59 PM »
There must be scope for a book here "1001 Things to do with Cabbage"   :laugh:

I often say to my wife "you should write a book entitled 101 interesting things do do with a potato and half a cabbage", she looks at me with a derisory sneer.  :laugh:

When I was first in Russia, she was making some food one evening. Being a northern "meat and two veg" kinda guy, (or if you are a Yank, and know Alan Jackson; a 'meat and potato man') I think no meal is complete without meat of some kind. I asked what she was cooking, her descriptive powers were not too hot back then and her reply was "vegetables", I asked "with what meat?" she said "just vegetables".  :duh:

Ya know what? I was astounded with what she did with a few simple vegetables!  :o I almost became a vegetarian!

I now eat salads that I would never touch before! A heap of garlic and some olive oil and some decent tomatoes and cheese can do wonders. In Estonia recently we had a couple of Russian pals over to celebrate our new kitchen  :duh: and two of them complimented her profusely on her salad. I thought it was only me and I am biased of course.

Manchester produced Russian salad, just $12-95 by mail order.  :laugh:

Read a trip report from North Korea >>here<< - Read a trip report from South Korea, China and Hong Kong >>here<<

Look what the American media makes some people believe:
Putin often threatens to strike US with nuclear weapons.

Offline Olga

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Re: FSU Soups, Borsch and Specialities
« Reply #16 on: November 28, 2007, 03:37:51 PM »
Russian Pickled Cabbage

1 big cabbage (4 kg)
1 big beet
1 small piece of hot pepper
1 whole peeled garlic
salt 50 g
8% vinegar 380 ml
water 620 ml
caraway-seeds 7g

Chop cabbage
chop beet
Cut pepper into pieces

Place in jar in layers with beet, pepper and caraway-seeds, (layers should be rammed) and put the garlics on top. Fill with boiling juice ( salt,  water and vinegar) Leave in a warm place 2 or 3 weeks

Russian salt Cabbage (grandma recipe)

10 kg cabbage (about 22 lbs)
750 grams carrots (1.65 lbs)
250 grams salt (8.8 oz)

Chop cabbage, chop carrots and mix with salt. Put in a jar and press it, put on a wooden circle(like a lid) and put a weight on top . Every day take the lid off and make holes with a wooden stick in the cabbage After 3 or 4 days put the jar in a cold place. After 2 to 3 weeks it's ready.



Offline bgreed

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Re: FSU Soups, Borsch and Specialities
« Reply #17 on: November 28, 2007, 05:36:06 PM »
I'm starting to think with all the yummy recipes that Olga has provided that maybe we should ask the administration to start a recipes section. :party0031:

Offline Rasputin

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Re: FSU Soups, Borsch and Specialities
« Reply #18 on: November 28, 2007, 06:29:00 PM »
Recipes section is not a bad idea. I can get a good pelmeni recipe from my wife.
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Re: FSU Soups, Borsch and Specialities
« Reply #19 on: November 29, 2007, 11:53:08 AM »
Ingredients: Meat, pork or veal with a bone in it ( at least two to three pounds)  Beets 2, Onions 2, Cabbage 1/4 of a head, potatoes 6, tomato paste 4 table spoons, salt-pepper to taste, a few laurel leaves, vegetable oil just enough to coat the pan with, parsley to taste, garlic 4 heads, carrot's 2, sourcream.

Instructions: Boil the meat for about 40 minutes, making a broth,  during this time cut the cabbage and start peeling and cutting the potatoes, Also boil the beets until tender. Take out the meat and cut the meat into small pieces add meat, cabbage and potatoes to soup, turn down the heat to low, let cook until potatoes are soft, during this time grate carrots and the boiled beets, cut onions into very small pieces. Add oil to a large frying pan add the onions and cook on low until they have a golden tint, add beets, carrots, and paste, cook for 4 minutes, then add to the soup. Add laurel leaves, salt, pepper, parsley cut to small pieces, let cook for a few minutes, then add garlic cook for just a few minutes. ( Serve with a table spoon of sour cream.)

                                                                                                      Enjoy Dave ;)

Just what you need for a Alaskan winter!

Offline Olga

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Re: FSU Soups, Borsch and Specialities
« Reply #20 on: November 29, 2007, 12:18:09 PM »
Do not heat beet long time. Heating the beet will cause the color to change.


I prefer to stew beets, carrots, onions, garlic (1-2 heads) and tomatoes together separate from meat. When the   cabbage  and  potatoes are almost ready I add stewed vegetables, spices, dill and fresh leek, a little bit more of salt and 1/2 tb spoon of sugar. You can cook borsch with prunes  :)

Offline Olga

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Re: FSU Soups, Borsch and Specialities
« Reply #21 on: November 29, 2007, 12:42:33 PM »
Also I like to use the beet tops in place of cabbage. I stew  the beet tops with vegetables.


I cooked the borsch for Thanksgiving dinner with our family and I was very glad that everybody liked it  :)

Offline mendeleyev

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Re: FSU Soups, Borsch and Specialities
« Reply #22 on: November 29, 2007, 01:32:27 PM »
Olga, thanks for the tips re:  borsch!

I make a pretty good meatless borsch for during the fasts but you have given me some great new ideas.  I will try them soon.

Offline bgreed

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Re: FSU Soups, Borsch and Specialities
« Reply #23 on: November 29, 2007, 05:50:06 PM »
Ok when you say heads of garlic do you mean a whole bulb which contain many cloves or just a few cloves?

Offline Olga

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Re: FSU Soups, Borsch and Specialities
« Reply #24 on: November 29, 2007, 05:51:25 PM »
Ok when you say heads of garlic do you mean a whole bulb which contain many cloves or just a few cloves?

cloves  :) whole bulb is too much  :o I think