Romanian Beef Borscht
Veal Budget Recipes Romanian Soups and Stews
This is a Transylvanian's take on a Moldavian beef borscht. From here in Transylvania, I see it as a very successful pairing between a beef soup and a beef sour soup. From the soup, it borrowed the intense beef flavor and the noodles, while from the sour soup, it took some of the vegetables and the tangy sourness.
This time I didn't have homemade bors from Moldova, but I tried the Olympia brand bors and was very pleased with it. Clean, pleasant, sour taste. What it lacked compared to the Moldovan one was the pleasant lovage aroma. So I improvised and flavored it with lovage (frozen) when I boiled it. Then I chose to strain it before adding it to the soup, because I wanted just a subtle lovage aroma for my borscht. Lovage is a plant with quite an intense aroma and I thought that if I added too much, it would overpower the pleasant beef soup taste, which honestly takes quite a bit of effort to achieve: choosing the right meat, making a fairly concentrated soup (fewer servings indeed, but I prefer quality over quantity), roasting the meat for 1 hour and then simmering it for three hours... So a subtle lovage aroma and finally just chopped parsley for freshness and color seemed like the right choice. I told you from the beginning... this is my vision, but those who tried it were delighted.
Ingredients
500g beef shank with bone
1kg beef ribs (or beef brisket)
3 carrots
1 onion
1 parsnip
1 parsley root
1/3 very small celery root
2-3 potatoes
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
300ml bors (fermented wheat bran liquid)
1 tablespoon chopped lovage
100g thin noodles
parsley
salt
Servings: 7
Prep time: 4 hours 45 minutes
How to prepare romanian beef borscht
- Wash the meat and place it in a baking pan. Roast in the oven at 250C (480F) for about 45 minutes.
* if you roast the meat beforehand, the soup will have a more intense flavor and color. - Place the roasted meat in a pot and cover with 11 cups of cold water.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low. It's important to simmer gently, just enough to bubble lightly. Simmer like this for 2 hours.
* if needed, skim the soup during the first hour; since the meat was roasted beforehand, it won't produce as much foam as if you put raw meat directly to boil; don't be surprised by the lack of foam - Add the cleaned vegetables (except the potatoes) cut into large pieces. Add the onion whole. Add the peppercorns and 2 teaspoons of salt.
- Simmer the soup for another hour, still on low heat.
- Strain the soup through cheesecloth. Return some of the vegetables to the soup (I put back the carrots and some pieces of celery; I eat the rest of the vegetables separately, right after finishing the soup - that's my portion and I don't share it with anyone).
- Remove the meat from the bone and cut into suitable pieces. Return it to the soup.
* you don't need to put all the meat back in the soup; for example, this time the beef ribs were so meaty that I kept some aside and ate them with horseradish, otherwise the borscht would have had too much meat - Add the potatoes cut into cubes and simmer until they're done (about 20 minutes).
- Meanwhile, boil the bors together with the lovage for 2-3 minutes.
- When the potatoes are cooked, add the hot bors (strained) to the soup. Add gradually, so the borscht is sour according to your taste. I used 300ml of bors. Adjust salt to taste.
- Cook the noodles in salted water according to package instructions. Drain and add to the soup when serving.
* I only cook as many noodles as I serve at one meal; I don't keep noodles in the soup so they don't get soggy and don't cloud the soup - When serving, sprinkle the soup with chopped parsley.
