Eat Up, Me Hearties

I made this borscht based on a recipe I found on Epicurious (just search for borscht on the site). You start out by making a delicious beef broth using some canned beef broth, a beef shank with the bone still in it(cheap piece of meat but very good), and some onions. I simmered that for about an hour and a half and then I took out the beef shank and cut out the good pieces of meat (it's mostly bone and tendon, but it makes a very flavorful beef broth when you boil it).

Then came the carrots, beets, and potatoes with a tiny hint of dill and garlic (plus the obligatory salt and pepper) while they simmered. After about a half hour, it was ready to serve. I chopped up 3/4 cup fresh dill and put it in the soup. Then we served it in BIG BOWLS with plain unsweetened yogurt and a dill sprig on top. To go with the soup, we cut up a lot of pieces of bread really thin and put thin garlic slices on them. The sharp bite of garlic complements the earthy borscht flavor quite well.

Since we're geeks, we decided to research what wine pairings go with borscht. The answer? A Chianti. So we had that with the borscht and concluded that the wine experts we relied on were definitely right. Red wine with red soup. That's the way to go.

But our meal didn't stop with borscht and wine. I also made some flavorful swiss chard. It was a recipe I learned to make in the coops when I was cooking for sixty or so people per night. It's quite easy. You sautee some finely diced onions in butter, brown sugar and dijon mustard (to taste; I prefer more brown sugar personally). Then you add some chard and steam it. Finally, you top it off with some freshly chopped roma tomatoes (or whatever you've got available) and lots of capers. Delicioso.