What people don’t realize about Russia, is that Russians eat much more than borsch and potatoes. If you happen to go to Russia, nothing screams tourist quite like a giddy foreigner ordering borsch. Anyone with an interest in beet soup can imagine how to make it as it doesn’t require a lot of imagination. Fortunately, this is not a post about the betaine-rich root vegetable, but rather a dynamic soup called solyanka.
This is a picture of the solyanka that we made in our Russian cooking class while visiting St. Petersburg this past summer. I know you think it looks like a hodge podge of random leftovers found in your refrigerator thrown together in a pot and called soup. However, that is often a description suited for Midwestern hot dishes. Solyanka contains layers of flavors that are unearthed on every bite. It is hearty enough to serve as a main meal (lunch) but is adequette to serve as a first course. Solyanka can be made in three different ways: vegetarian, meat or fish based, all of which are savory and hit the head on the umami factor. However, I decided to make this version beef based, just as we were taught on our trip by Chef Tsvetkov Oleg.
an intimidating character
I mostly followed this recipe and then tweaked it according to my memory of what we ate in the motherland, as well as what could be surmised from the first photo of this post. In order to ensure the best possible solyanka, I drove all over th city gathering ingredients. My first stop was Kowalski’s to take advantage of their fresh olive bar – much to my delight they also had gherkins! A little over $9 later, I was heading toward my favorite neighborhood butcher, Everett’s where I ordered a fresh-cut sirloin steak (~ 1#) and a hot polish sausage (I know that everyone in South Minneapolis is all about Clancey’s, but we closer to East Lake than…a lake. Moreover, the guys at Everett’s are top-notch AND they smoke some killer jerky). Eleven dollars later, I was out of there and on my way home to start making soup.
I cubed the sirloin in to pieces measuring no more than 1/4″ on each side and threw them in the pot with about eight cups of water. Because I bought more steak than the recipe required, I compensated by adding an extra two cups of water. As the beef and water became broth, I fried up some bacon, threw that in the pot, as well as sliced the Polish and threw that in as well. With all of the meat accounted for, I moved on to the vegetables.
I cut up an onion and the pickles and sautéed them in the same pan as the one I cooked the bacon in, leaving just enough grease to cook these veggies. When the onions started to become translucent, I added a generous amount of tomato paste and continued to sautée all of it for a few minutes before dumping the entire contents of th pan in to the pot with the water (now broth) and meat. I felt as though something was still lacking. There were so many delicious flavors and textures roaming around in the pot, but I wanted something more substantial. With that I cubed up two or three medium sized Yukon potatoes and threw them in the pot as well. After which, I added four bay leaves (ZOMG I know! It’s so many!!!) and let the soup cook itself on low heat until it was time to serve. In the meantime I got to bask in the homey aroma emitting from the large pot on the stove. Thirty or so minutes before serving, I added fresh olives to the pot and let it finish cooking.
I garnished the soup with some fresh sprigs of dill, a generous squeeze of a lemon wedge (as well as the wedge itself) and a dollop of sour cream. This soup has it all: a savory base with the meat, sour with the lemon, gherkins and olives, rich and creamy with the sour cream and a hint of fresh with the dill sprigs. With the complexities contained in this soup, I don’t understand why borsch is solyanka’s constant rival. Who says there is no diversity in Russian food?
Because I did not have enough apple cider vinegar, I was forced to half the recipe. I also did not have any mace or cayenne. I proceeded without the mace, but in place of the cayenne I added one part paprika and one part pepper. Then for the hell of it I added a teaspoon of chili powder.
Everything went in the jar, I gave it a good shake then I put the date on the lid. Every couple days (or sometimes everyday…) I give it a good shake. I’ll take a picture each week and post it so you can see if it looks any different or not.
