I made borscht today which rocks, poverty food or not, thx for the push in the right direction
@Stan. I've been meaning to but kept on choosing other dishes that are less seasonally appropriate just because it's still hot as fuck here. Bit the bullet, don't regret it.
The way I make it is just the way I was taught, I do like about it that every family has a different variant so it's never a boring dish to be served.
I start just searing the cubed-up chuck roast, salted and peppered, in butter in batches. I have a gas stove and great enameled cast iron cookware, so I get a great sear even without flour. I reserve the beef on a plate, and deglaze the cast iron pan with beef broth, (or better than bouillon diluted in water if I'm out of the homemade kind, but it isn't as good) homemade mushroom broth if I have it, which I did today, and apple cider vinegar with bay leaves. I then reduce the broth and taste to make sure the flavor is good- reducing concentrates the taste quite a lot and enhances the soup's body.
In whatever pot I'm using for the soup, I melt butter, and add a yellow onion, about a head of finely minced garlic, a few chopped celery heart sticks, and I sauté them until aromatic, making sure I salt and pepper appropriately at every step. I add a few squirts of tomato paste, some of my friends swear by ketchup but I can't do it lmao. I like to cut up one or two roma tomatoes, it isn't necessarily traditional, but we've always done it and it tastes brighter to me with them. I add 3-4 waxy potatoes, 4ish large beets, usually I peel and grate 2 and cube 2 up because I like both textures, add my stock, and let simmer a bit.
I add about half a head of cabbage which I think is best when cut up as ''ribbons'', a few cut up homemade pickled beets and a bit of the brine for added acidity, chopped up parsley, and chopped up dill. I reintroduce the meat cubes and juices from the plate.
Simmer until the doneness of the vegetables, tenderness of the beef, and flavor/body of the soup is to your taste, and correct seasoning. Serve with homemade crusty bread, smetana or sour cream, and dill, and whatever acid elements you used in the soup (so in my case, apple cider vinegar and marinated beets, but some people use white vinegar, red wine vinegar, or lemon) at the table so people can customize their experience. I like my borscht vegetable-heavy and my method of reducing the stock prior to adding it to the soup gets me a less ''clear, soupy'' dish that almost feels like I've used an immersion blender to get a silkier ''cream of'' texture.
Probably making Hungarian goulash tomorrow, but tbh we could definitely just eat more borscht as dinner, I just haven't decided if it's going to be lunch for the rest of the week or dinner for one more night.
Three: The menu reeks of 1980, with plenty of room for comparison. (this lady made the exact same menu offering every year for as long as she was a member of the club.) Is this simply a way to compare me to the old chef? Like I should suck it up and have everyone bitch about my food, because it's not what they've had consistently for a long, long time? Sort of like a celebration of her life. I'm so confused.
I don't think it's to compare you to the old chef per se, it might just be what they're used to and they might be so set in their ways that it doesn't even occur to them that you might want to make dishes you enjoy making and excel at, or the club dinner might feel like ''her'' thing so it might bring up painful feelings to think of someone else picking it up after her passing, let alone changing everything up, almost like her legacy is being spat on. It wouldn't be logical, but if it's a close-knit club and everyone misses her, it might inform their knee-jerk reactions.
It does suck that you're held to her recipes when you wish you could put your own spin on it, but since it's the first year since her passing and it's bound to bring up some memories which can be both cherished and painful for long-standing members of the club, I think I'd eat it at least this year if people have the expectation of this menu (and specify that you wanted to honor her life this year with this menu so the expectation isn't set that you're just picking up the torch as the newest line cook) and then see if you can propose some changes next year, like saying that swiss steak is really not your specialty and you'd like to try another beef dish you think people will like and are more comfortable making, and based on the response of the people who organize this club and on the reaction of the people eating, I'd adapt further the next year. If you need help with serving, I'd also bring it up, maybe something like ''Hey, so I know (old chef) was running this thing seamlessly before, but this is my first year and I'm worried it might be a bit much to cook, plate, and serve, is there any way I could get some assistance with (task you'd like to hand off to someone else)?''
I do think that if this is a club with a tradition of a specific menu made by a specific lady every year, it would be compassionate to the people who shared a bond with her to go with the expected menu on this first year, but I definitely wouldn't fault you for choosing to do something else and if I were a member of said club, I'd just be happy that the dinners weren't stopping after her death and be excited about what new things you're bringing to the table. Just sharing thoughts about what I'd do in your position having been part of some groups with traditions and legacy members and whatnot, it can be a headache to navigate.
Probably with potatoes, onions, and carrots under the roasting rack as well as pan-blistered tomatoes on the side. Garlic, olive oil, fresh herbs on the outside.
