Polish Night

Today is Try it Tuesday so I am going to try my hand at Beet Soup.  Now I am not a big Beet Soup fan but Frank is, so I am going to try this and hope it turns out.  I am making this for him today because yesterday he was served Spinach Pie.  I am a huge fan of Spinach Pie, Frank....not so much....

I adapted this recipe from a cookbook called "The Best of Polish Cooking".  There are several recipes for Barszcz in this book.  The one I used it called "Christmas Eve Barszcz" or "Barszcz Wiglijny".

Frank gave it an A.

He said he would have given it an A+ but then I wouldn't strive to make it better.

Beet Soup
adapted from The Best of Polish Cooking by Karen West

1 med. onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, sliced
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
1/4 head cabbage, thinly sliced
6 c. Beef Broth
salt and pepper to taste
6 Beets, trimmed and roasted, then peeled and slivered.
1 T. sugar
1 c. sour cream

Combine onion, celery, carrots, cabbage, broth and beets in a large soup pan over high heat.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 40 minutes.  Add salt, pepper and sugar.  Simmer an additional 10 minutes.  Taste and adjust seasonings.  Remove from heat and stir in sour cream.  Using a stick blender, puree about half of the solids.  Taste again for seasonings and serve.
Print Recipe

Since I am not a beet soup fan and since I wasn't sure how it would turn out I made the soup for our first course and I followed it up with Roasted Fresh Kielbasa that I had gotten from our Brother in Law, Ron, who makes a batch each Christmas and Pierogi that we get from Srodek's.  We have tried a lot of Pierogi and we believe theirs is the best.

Having made Chinese food on Sunday and now Polish food on Tuesday made me think of how many different cultures have different versions of the same food. Since this is List it Tuesday and since we had Polish Dumplings tonight.  I thought my list would be of dumplings from different parts of the world.

1. Poland- Pierogi
 

2. China- Potstickers

3. Russia- Pelmeni



4. Italian- Gnocchi



5.  French- Quenelles

 

6.  American- Dumplings

7.  German- Kartofellkloesse

8. India- Samosas

 

I am sure there are many more....these are just a few off the top of my head.  Can you tell that I LOVE carbs!!