So I thought I would start this thread specific to recipes and cooking. I know that these forums have people from all over the world, people from difference places and different cultural back grounds. We all have our favorites or recipes we could share. Any way I hope this thread takes off because no matter what the language is few things break barriers like food and laughter. 
This is a copy of an old post I made at a different forum.
Ok this is not my recipe but I did adjust things, change certain ingredients and such. I hate beets with a passion and the only time I can eat them is when I am sick.
So I decided to make Borscht as it always makes me feel better when I am sick, go figure. The original recipe is in black while what I changed or adjusted is in red.
Russian Borscht recipe
Ingredients :
3/1/2c. canned tomatoes
4 cups canned tomato's (no salt added)
5 or 6 med.size potatoes cut in halves
8 small - medium purple potato's (these potato's give anything they are cooked with a nice buttery texture, flavor and aroma so you can pretty much cut any butter you may need to add by half)
1 large carrot cut fine
3 medium carrots that are pointed on the end not blunt (don't ask me why or how they just taste better)
1 small peeled beet
3 medium beets peeled
salt to taste
(I did use a tiny bit)
1 small onion chopped
1 large red onion
butter
(about 2 tbsp)
4c. shredded cabbage
6 cups of shredded red cabbage (going for the pinks and purples in color of soup)
3/4c. sweet cream
1.5 cups of regular cream for whipping
1/2c. fresh green pepper chopped
1 whole green bell pepper
2tbs. fresh or dried dill
3.5 tbsp of fresh dill
1 celery chopped fine
6 celery stalks cut into chunks
2/1/2 qts. water
About 2 liters
1/1/2c. diced potatoes
(did not add any more potato's)
black pepper
(probably used 3 full tbsp)
2 lbs of whatever meat you like I chose lamb.
Method:
Put water to boil in large kettle.Add 1/2 c. canned tomatoes. When water is boiling drop in 5 or 6 med. size potatoes,chopped carrot and the beet. While this is cooking add 3 tbs butter in frying pan. When melted add chopped onion,cook tender but do not brown. Add 3c. canned tomatoes and let simmer with onion and butter until a thick sauce. Set to back of stove.
Into a separate frying pan put 2-3 tbs. butter to melt. Add 2c. shredded cabbage and fry. Cook tender but do not brown. Shred another 2c. to add later to the borscht. When potatoes are tender remove them to a bowl. Add 2tbs. butter, mash well,then add 3/4c. sweet cream and mix well and set aside.
Add 1/1/2c. diced potatoes to the stock and the remainder of the shredded cabbage. When diced potatoes are tender, add the onion-tomato- sauce, then add the cooked cabbage,and the potato-cream mixture. Add 3 tbs. butter to the borscht. Stir well.
Add fresh chopped fine green pepper. Add 3tbs fresh or dried dill. The more fresh dill the better the flavor. Remove beet, one hour later after borscht is ready. Borscht is ready to serve. Serve hot.
Serve with chopped garlic in your soup bowl and a fresh piece of bread and butter...
Cydney's (<--- that's me) method:
The way the recipe explains how to cook it makes the Borscht turn out really delicious. You can taste the different things you have cooked together and the onions are almost caramelized it is the better way to cook it.
Ok that said and done... all that is great but in the real world when you are sick all you want to do is fire and forget. I chopped all that crap up measured everything out and threw it in the slow cooker bachelor style set the thing to cook for 2 hours on high and 8 hours on low and went to bed. I opened it a little early to try it out and it was still good but needed more cooking. You want the vegetables to be soggy just like grandma used to make but instead of cooking all the nutrients out of your food it is transferred to everything. The meat kind of turns this into a stew but who cares.
Couple things to take note of: The cream around the first hour or so will curdle a little bit in places but this will work itself out when you stir it around and soon gets melted again. The color will be a weird reddish pink. If you are really health conscious you might want to cool it off and then skim the fat off the top from the meat. At the time of this writing I didn't care I was only concerned with not sneezing in my food. This made about 6 quarts.
Enjoy...
I got the original recipe off the net but if you like it and want to try others speedbump is the SWAT cook and you can go to the SWAT website and check out her recipes.
I rarely cook and have a rather simplistic outlook on the whole cooking of things. "If I cannot cook it in a microwave or it does not fit in the microwave, then I was not meant to eat it!"
EDIT: I forgot to mention that if you are lactose intolerant than you can substitute the cream for Soy milk or some other lactose free milk type product.
This is a copy of an old post I made at a different forum.
Ok this is not my recipe but I did adjust things, change certain ingredients and such. I hate beets with a passion and the only time I can eat them is when I am sick.
So I decided to make Borscht as it always makes me feel better when I am sick, go figure. The original recipe is in black while what I changed or adjusted is in red.
Russian Borscht recipe
Ingredients :
3/1/2c. canned tomatoes
4 cups canned tomato's (no salt added)
5 or 6 med.size potatoes cut in halves
8 small - medium purple potato's (these potato's give anything they are cooked with a nice buttery texture, flavor and aroma so you can pretty much cut any butter you may need to add by half)
1 large carrot cut fine
3 medium carrots that are pointed on the end not blunt (don't ask me why or how they just taste better)
1 small peeled beet
3 medium beets peeled
salt to taste
(I did use a tiny bit)
1 small onion chopped
1 large red onion
butter
(about 2 tbsp)
4c. shredded cabbage
6 cups of shredded red cabbage (going for the pinks and purples in color of soup)
3/4c. sweet cream
1.5 cups of regular cream for whipping
1/2c. fresh green pepper chopped
1 whole green bell pepper
2tbs. fresh or dried dill
3.5 tbsp of fresh dill
1 celery chopped fine
6 celery stalks cut into chunks
2/1/2 qts. water
About 2 liters
1/1/2c. diced potatoes
(did not add any more potato's)
black pepper
(probably used 3 full tbsp)
2 lbs of whatever meat you like I chose lamb.
Method:
Put water to boil in large kettle.Add 1/2 c. canned tomatoes. When water is boiling drop in 5 or 6 med. size potatoes,chopped carrot and the beet. While this is cooking add 3 tbs butter in frying pan. When melted add chopped onion,cook tender but do not brown. Add 3c. canned tomatoes and let simmer with onion and butter until a thick sauce. Set to back of stove.
Into a separate frying pan put 2-3 tbs. butter to melt. Add 2c. shredded cabbage and fry. Cook tender but do not brown. Shred another 2c. to add later to the borscht. When potatoes are tender remove them to a bowl. Add 2tbs. butter, mash well,then add 3/4c. sweet cream and mix well and set aside.
Add 1/1/2c. diced potatoes to the stock and the remainder of the shredded cabbage. When diced potatoes are tender, add the onion-tomato- sauce, then add the cooked cabbage,and the potato-cream mixture. Add 3 tbs. butter to the borscht. Stir well.
Add fresh chopped fine green pepper. Add 3tbs fresh or dried dill. The more fresh dill the better the flavor. Remove beet, one hour later after borscht is ready. Borscht is ready to serve. Serve hot.
Serve with chopped garlic in your soup bowl and a fresh piece of bread and butter...
Cydney's (<--- that's me) method:
The way the recipe explains how to cook it makes the Borscht turn out really delicious. You can taste the different things you have cooked together and the onions are almost caramelized it is the better way to cook it.
Ok that said and done... all that is great but in the real world when you are sick all you want to do is fire and forget. I chopped all that crap up measured everything out and threw it in the slow cooker bachelor style set the thing to cook for 2 hours on high and 8 hours on low and went to bed. I opened it a little early to try it out and it was still good but needed more cooking. You want the vegetables to be soggy just like grandma used to make but instead of cooking all the nutrients out of your food it is transferred to everything. The meat kind of turns this into a stew but who cares.
Couple things to take note of: The cream around the first hour or so will curdle a little bit in places but this will work itself out when you stir it around and soon gets melted again. The color will be a weird reddish pink. If you are really health conscious you might want to cool it off and then skim the fat off the top from the meat. At the time of this writing I didn't care I was only concerned with not sneezing in my food. This made about 6 quarts.
Enjoy...
I got the original recipe off the net but if you like it and want to try others speedbump is the SWAT cook and you can go to the SWAT website and check out her recipes.
I rarely cook and have a rather simplistic outlook on the whole cooking of things. "If I cannot cook it in a microwave or it does not fit in the microwave, then I was not meant to eat it!"
EDIT: I forgot to mention that if you are lactose intolerant than you can substitute the cream for Soy milk or some other lactose free milk type product.
