Tell us about your borscht recipe
There are probably as many borscht recipes as there are families in Ukraine, and it’s a truly traditional dish! In Ukraine, you can eat it with fish, or even cold as gazpacho, but in general, it is made with pork. I like to make it with beef cheek. This winter, I will make it in a wood oven, and I will serve it in traditional terracotta pots, with hand-painted wooden spoons.
I add a smoked crème fraîche, and a pampouchka, a brioche with garlic and dill, which is traditionally served with borscht.
What wine would you suggest with this complete family dish?
I would say a shot of vodka, that’s what they serve in Ukraine! But if I had to choose a wine, I would suggest a fairly powerful red wine, because you have to accompany the fat of the borscht, you need a wine that sticks well, that has body. I would go for a Saint-Joseph, and at the restaurant we serve one from the François Villard estate, called “Poivre et sol”, which would go very well.
Is this the style of recipes that you offer in your Malva restaurant in Lyon?
Not quite. At Malva, I revisit Ukrainian dishes by adapting them to French tastes and local techniques, making them in an almost gastronomic way. But this borscht is really the typical dish, so it’s the little moment of history that we kept almost as is on the menu.
Ukrainian borscht
Ingredients
50 g of brown poultry stock
5 g of concentrated tomato
200g potatoes
200g onions
500 g beetroot
1 clove of garlic
500 g of white cabbage
500 g orange carrots
150 g beef cheek
100 g beef bones
10 g of poultry fat
Preparation
Cook the beef cheeks in water for 6 hours over low heat. Fill a saucepan with water, add the beef bones and bring it to the boil to make the broth, cook for 2 hours over high heat, skimming from time to time.
Then remove the bones and add the cabbage. Grate all the vegetables and cut the potatoes into cubes of 10 mm x 10 mm, sweat the onions in a pan with the carrots, beets, add the tomato paste, garlic, put everything in the water with cabbage and poultry fat.
Let it boil for about 30-45 minutes until the potatoes are cooked. Add the beef cheeks, serve and eat with crème fraîche.
Borscht is traditionally served with pampouchka (brioche with garlic and dill).
By Illia Vasvutinski, Malva, Lyon 6th
