Apron Strings

BY GAIL GORDON OLIVER

My late grand­mother, Debbie Chodos, who immi­grated to Montreal from Lithuania as a child, made deli­cious soups, and her cab­bage borscht was a favourite. Because she never wrote down her recipes, it took me a bit of time to repli­cate the spe­cific fla­vors of her ver­sion. She used “sour salt” (cit­ric acid crys­tals) instead of lemon juice, and chuck instead of short ribs. And she often elim­i­nated the stew­ing meat alto­gether, plac­ing raw meat­balls into the sim­mer­ing borscht instead, where they’d soak up the soup’s flavours as they cooked. This can be a meal in itself, served with fresh, crusty kim­mel bread (as seeded rye is called in Jewish bak­eries in Montreal) or challah.

Makes 8 servings

2 pounds beef short ribs (flanken), each strip cut in half
1 large onion, roughly chopped
2 large car­rots, roughly chopped
2 stalks cel­ery, roughly chopped
1 clove gar­lic
1 bay leaf
8 cups water, plus more if needed
1 small head green cab­bage, halved, cored and cut into 1/2-inch chunks
2 medium onions, finely chopped
1 large can (28 ounces) whole toma­toes
3 cups tomato juice
2 table­spoons gran­u­lated sugar or light brown sugar, plus more if needed
1 tea­spoon kosher salt, plus more if needed
1/4 tea­spoon freshly ground black pep­per, plus more if needed
2 table­spoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, plus more if needed (or sour salt, adding 1/2 tsp at a time, to taste)

1. In a large pot or Dutch oven, com­bine the beef, the roughly chopped onion, car­rots, cel­ery, gar­lic, bay leaf and water, mak­ing sure the beef is well sub­merged in the water (add more water if needed). Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and sim­mer, par­tially cov­ered, for 90 min­utes, occa­sion­ally remov­ing scum from the surface.

2. Using a slot­ted spoon, remove the beef from the pot and place it in a bowl. Strain the broth through a fine mesh strainer into a con­tainer; dis­card the veg­eta­bles, bay leaf, and any loose bones. Separate the beef meat from the bones and mem­brane; dis­card the bones and mem­brane. Cut or shred the meat into bite-sized pieces; set aside. (Note: At this stage, you may wish to refrig­er­ate the beef broth overnight and remove the con­gealed fat before pro­ceed­ing with the recipe. Be sure to refrig­er­ate the meat in a sep­a­rate container.)

3. In the same large pot or Dutch oven, com­bine 5 cups of the strained beef broth, the cooked beef, cab­bage, diced onions, toma­toes and their liq­uid, tomato juice, sugar, salt and pep­per. Stir well, lightly break­ing up the toma­toes, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, par­tially cover the pot, and sim­mer, stir­ring occa­sion­ally, until the cab­bage is ten­der, 70 to 90 min­utes. Stir in the lemon juice. Taste the borscht and adjust sea­son­ings as needed. Serve hot.

This recipe was first pub­lished in the Winter 2008/09 issue of Edible Toronto mag­a­zine.