I think that Valentine's day is a good excuse to make red things, to get messy, to experiment, etc., etc. And he wanted soup. And I wanted red. We've made borscht before, and it went pretty well, but this.
This belongs in the recipe arsenal of every aspiring seductress. I think we managed to make borscht sexy. I think we may have proven ourselves capable of making something that rivals a reservation at a 4-star table. And where I tend to taste my meals with thoughts of "next time I'll [insert recipe modification here]", this time there was none of that. There was just pink stained porcelain, rich broth and a brilliant wine pairing.
Makes 4 settings
1/2 lb. ground beef
2 tablespoons salted butter
1 small onion, minced
4 garlic cloves, minced
4 cups beef stock
1 cup grated carrot
1 1/2 cups diced beet
1 cup red cabbage, shredded (approx. 1/4 head)
4 cloves
pepper to taste
4 springs dill for garnish
Start browning the ground beef in a skillet over a low flame with the butter. As the red fades, add the onion and garlic to the skillet and continue browning the meat.
In a separate pot, pour in the beef stock and set the flame low. Add the remaining ingredients save the dill, transferring the beef/onion/garlic blend to the stock lastly. Fit a lid, one that lets out as little of the steam as possible is best, and let simmer for one hour.
(Options for the interim: sex. Game of Thrones, spelt crackers and wine)
Ladle the borscht into bowls and garnish with dill. And cheese, if that's your thing.
We'd been sipping on Les Hérétiques (one of Château d'Oupia's) and we highly recommend it, grudgingly, because you should know that this is our wine. This is a wine over which I told him that I wanted to translate, over which we plotted New York, over which we both tasted something that you could dip a pen in, to write something you'd only whisper.
