Comments for J. Dickinson – Language, Culture and Smak

Comment on The Power of Soup by Chocoholic

Chocoholic — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 00:12:35 +0000

Mmmm borsch.
You want unorthodox – my Ukrainian partner will make no dish without experimenting, and he once made borsch with pineapple. It tasted kind of like…borsch, with pineapple.
I’m more traditional. Everyone always told me to add a tablespoon or so of white vinegar to the beets before adding the water “to preserve their color.” I have no idea what this means since regardless it all ends up looking pretty red. But I still do it.
Get well!

Comment on The Power of Soup by jadickin

jadickin — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 15:17:52 +0000

In reply to pennifer. As you know celery as we have it in the US is not really available or used in E. Europe, although celery-root stems are sometimes used in green borscht similar to the way you might use parsley leaves to add flavor. I added celery here to beef up the vegetable stock and add a bit more flavor. I meant to put a footnote saying that it is definitely an innovation and would not be used in a regular borscht...

Comment on The Power of Soup by pennifer

pennifer — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 03:43:45 +0000

The old Kiev khozyaika Sveta told me to grate a fresh tomato into the soup. Celery! I’ve never put celery in my borshch before.

Yum. This is on the To Do list after Thanksgiving at some point.