Wash beef ribs under cold running water. Place the ribs into a pot, cover with cold water and bring to a boil. When it starts to boil, take out all the foam that appears, add brisket meat and bring to a boil again. Skim off all the foam, reduce heat to low and let it simmer for 2 ½ hours. After 2 ½ hours take the meat out and cut into ½ inch cubes and set aside. Keep boiling the ribs for another 2-3 hours. Add salt 30 minutes before turning the heat off. Strain the broth.
Cut your beetroot, celery root, carrots and onions into fine strips. Heat butter on a skillet on medium heat and add onion first, cooking it until it becomes translucent. Then add beetroot and continue to cook it for 10-15 minutes, stirring quite often. Lastly, add carrots and celery root and cook for another couple of minutes.
Melt butter in a skillet and add all purpose flour. Fry it constantly stirring until the flour acquires light golden color. Add 4 tablespoons of broth one by one, stirring constantly and keep cooking the flour for 10 minutes. Strain the mix.
Bring your broth to a boil and add stewed vegetables and chopped celery. Cook for 5 minutes and add butter-flour mix, sorrel, cubed potatoes, peppercorns, salt and cook for another 15 minutes. Before turning the heat off, add sour cream.
Boil sausage links separately for 7 minutes. Take them out of the water and cut into rounds.
When serving the borscht, add a few pieces of saved brisket meat and a couple of sausage rounds to a bowl. Sprinkle with chopped parsley.
You will need:
For broth:
- Water – 12 cups
- Brisket – 12 oz
- Ribs – 16 oz
- Salt – 1 ½ teaspoon
For borscht:
- Beetroot – 14 oz
- 2 medium potatoes
- 1 carrot
- 1 celery root
- 1 yellow onion
- Sorrel – 4 oz
- Butter – 3 tablespoons
- All purpose flour – 1 tablespoon
- 4-5 peppercorns
- Sour cream
- Salt – to taste
For serving:
- 2-3 Sausage links of your choice
- Chopped parsley
- Chopped celery greens
Options:
You may want to cook beetroot a little different:
Heat butter in a skillet and add beetroot cut in strips. Cook until beetroot becomes darker. Transfer into a pot, add white vinegar (2 tablespoons) and 2-3 tablespoons of beef broth and stew for 2 hours on low heat, stirring occasionally.
Cut your carrots, celery root and onions and cook them with butter until they all develop light golden color.
While the vegetables are stewing, bring your broth to a boil and add cubed potatoes there. Cook it for 10 minutes and then add stewed vegetables. Follow the original directions after this step.
You may fry flour on a skillet not adding any butter at all. Just be sure not to burn it and use low heat.
You may add sugar and beetroot color to a borscht when it’s nearly done. In order to do this, shred the beetroots (10 oz) with a shredder and press all the juice out with the help of cheesecloth. Pour the juice and add sugar into the borscht. Do not boil it after this step.
You can substitute sausage links with any ham or boiled meat. Cut your ham or meat into bite sized pieces and add a couple of them to a bowl when serving the borscht.
This borscht is also known as: Lithuanian Borscht; Borscht with Meat and Sausage; Baltic Borscht
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