Borscht with Duck and Mushrooms
Duck stock gives borscht a different foundation than pork or beef: poultry fat melts at a lower temperature and stays suspended in the liquid, so the soup turns velvety with no thickening at all. Dried porcini pile natural glutamates on top of that, which is why the pot tastes so substantial when it holds only half a bird.
Never pour away the mushroom soaking water. Two or three hours in cold water pulls most of the aroma into the liquid; strain it through cheesecloth to leave the grit behind and add it to the stock along with the porcini, sliced into thin strips.
Braising the beet separately is chemistry, not fussiness. Betanin, the pigment that makes borscht burgundy, breaks down during long boiling in a neutral pot; the tablespoon of wine vinegar and the tomato paste acidify the beet and lock the color in. It joins the pot at the end, together with the sautéed roots.
A few notes for a Western kitchen: parsley root is the pale, carrot-shaped root sold in Eastern European and Turkish groceries — a small parsnip plus a handful of parsley stems is a fair stand-in. The 4 tablespoons of rendered lard (about 60 g, or 2 oz) can be butter, at some cost in authenticity. And smetana, the sour cream stirred in at the table, is a thick cultured cream of roughly 20-30% fat; full-fat sour cream or crème fraîche behaves the same and won’t split in hot soup the way a light one will. Skim some fat off the stock first — duck can run very rich.
Part of Ukrainian cuisine — 464 more recipes in the section.
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Ingredients
Instructions
Peel and rinse the vegetables. Dress the duck, simmer a stock from it, and strain.
Shred the onion, carrot, parsley root, and celery root and saute them in lard or butter until tender, adding broth as needed.
Braise the beet separately with the tomato paste and vinegar.
Soak the dried porcini in cold water for 2 to 3 hours, then boil and cut into thin strips.
Add the potatoes to the boiling broth, season with pepper, cook for 15 minutes, then add the shredded cabbage.
Once the borscht returns to a boil, add the prepared mushrooms along with the sauteed and braised vegetables and simmer over low heat until done; at the end season with salt and pepper and add the bay leaf.
Serve the borscht with sour cream, placing pieces of duck and chopped herbs in each bowl.
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