With Christmas rapidly approaching I would be remiss not to share my sister-in-law’s recipe for Borscht. We have had a couple of opportunities to share this delicious Christmas Eve tradition from Mary Ann’s family and may have to adopt it ourselves.

Borscht from Kiev

Stock:

• 1 ½ pounds beef chuck roast boneless
• 1 pound beef marrow bones
• 1 pound ham bone meaty or pork hocks with added ham meat
• 1 onion large grated
• 1 carrot grated
• 3 quarts water
• 1 turnip peeled and grated
• 1 celery rib w/leaves sliced
• 3 dill sprigs
• 12 peppercorns whole
• 4 bay leaves

Soup:

• 3 beets large, peeled and grated
• 16 ounces plum tomatoes, coarsely chopped
• 1 onion large chopped
• 1 carrot slice or chopped
• 1/4 cup sunflower oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 cups cabbage shredded
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste
• 6 prunes pitted and chopped
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1 teaspoon black pepper freshly ground
• cider or rice vinegar to taste
• ½ cup sour cream
• 2 bacon strips
• 3 tablespoons parsely
• 3 tablespoons dill

Place meat bones, meat, water in large stock bot and bring to boil over high heat. Skim as needed. Add the remaining stock ingredients, cover, reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Wash, dry, peel the beets. Wrap them in aluminum foil and bake in oven for 1 hour. Allow to cool, and dice. Remove the ham bones from the stock. Set marrow bones aside. Strain the stock through a fine sieve. Discard the solids. Bring the stock to a boil, add the tomatoes, salt and peppper on low heat covered. Cook the onions, carrot in a skillet for 5 minutes. Stir in the cabbage and continue to saute for 10 more minutes. Remove the vegetables from heat and add to the stock. Sprinkle the juice of a lemon over the beets and add them to the stock. Add tomatoes, tomato paste and home. Remove the meat from the bones, strip the marrow. Cube the meet and add all of this to the stock. Remove from heat and add vinegar to taste. Serve with sour cream, bacon, parsley, dill.