Ukrainian Borsch with Duck and Dried Smoked Pears

 It was time to try out the dried smoked pears from my previous post.  (Click here to visit the post.)

The recipe was from Olia Hercules' book, Summer Kitchens, on page 132.

ISBN 978-1-68188-570-4

Borsch with duck and smoked pears

1/2 cup beet kvas or 1/4 cup good-quality red wine vinegar

2 small beets, peeled and cut into thin matchsticks

1 medium onion, finely diced

1 medium carrot, scrubbed and cut into thin matchsticks or coarsely grated

7 oz canned diced tomatoes

10 oz potatoes, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch dice

1/4 cabbage (anything from green to Savoy), sliced

2 garlic cloves, crushed

Sour cream to serve

Stock

2 duck carcasses or 6 duck legs

1 onion, roughly chopped

2 celery ribs, roughly chopped

2 carrots, scrubbed and roughly chopped

Handful of parsley stalks

2 bay leaves

A few sprigs of thyme

4 - 6 dried smoked pears or Agen prunes

Pour the beet kvas or vinegar over the beets and set aside.

Next make the stock.  Put all the stock ingredients except the smoked pears or prunes into a large stockpot and cover with 2 1/2 - 3 quarts of water.  Bring to a boil, skimming off any froth as it appears and, if you are using duck legs, season lightly with salt - this way the meat will be properly seasoned.  Add the smoked pears or prunes and simmer for 1 - 1 1/2 hours over low heat - if using duck legs, the meat should be falling off the bones.

When the stock has been simmering for about an hour, use a ladle to skim some of the fat from the stock and put it into a frying pan over medium heat.  Add the onion and cook until soft and taking on some color, then add the carrot and cook until the vegetables start caramelizing - keep skimming and adding fat if the pan seems dry.  Now add the beets together with the liquid they have been pickling in, and cook for 2 minutes, then add the tomatoes and cook over high heat for another 3 minutes.  Take off the heat.

Strain the duck stock into another saucepan, returning the smoked pears or prunes to the stock.  Discard (or compost) the vegetables - and the duck carcasses, if that's what you used.  If you used duck legs, take the meat off the bones and put it in with the stock as well.

Now add the contents of the frying pan to the stock and bring to a boil.  Add the potatoes and simmer for 5 minutes.  Stir in the crushed garlic at the very end, when you are ready to switch off the heat.  

Ladle into soup bowls and serve with a spoonful of sour cream.

My Notes

I used 6 duck legs.  I keep homemade pickled beets in my kitchen often, so I used those instead of pickling fresh beets.  I had to guess what quantity two small beets would be.

I also chose to use 8 ounces of fresh tomatoes instead of the canned.  I used 1/4 of a purple cabbage I had handy, and put in 6 dried pears.

My interpretation of "lightly salting" the duck legs was to use 1/4 teaspoon sprinkled over the meat before the water was added.

It is just so wonderful to make my own stock, starting with all those fresh ingredients and cooking them into a rich, complex liquid. 

Pre-water

At the beginning of the cooking process

At the end of the cooking process

Taking stock

It took a total of 2 hours of slow cooking to get the meat to fall off the bones.  I took the instructions to cook over low heat seriously, which was probably too low!  I bumped up the heat to medium low and that is what got me over the line by two hours.  The difference was simmering versus barely simmering.

After the one hour of simmering mark passed, I skimmed fat from the pan and started cooking the soup vegetables.

Caramelizing onions and carrots.

Now with beets

Next up, the tomatoes

All cooked and ready for the soup pot!

Once the stock was ready to be strained, the duck legs sat draining over a bowl for a little while so they could cool to a comfortable-to-handle temperature.  Then I deboned them and was pleased with the amount of meat they produced.

I estimate 1 1/2 to 2 cups of meat.

The borsch was assembled with the stock, meat, pears, and vegetables from the frying pan.  Then I added the potatoes and cabbage as directed.

Everything went on hold until the entire meal was ready to be served, so the garlic waited until just before serving.  

The Verdict

I served the borsch with homemade French bread and pinot noir.  Sour cream was available to those who wanted it, which was everyone.  Dessert was a peach and sour cherry cobbler with French vanilla ice cream on top.

The pear is the brown item to the right of the sour cream.

I had an extra guest taster, NK, as well as my usual guest taster.

First, I have to say that I probably underestimated the quantity of beets.  I think I should have doubled the amount I put in.  The beet slivers had lost all their color, as expected, but the broth was not as red as the picture in the cookbook had it.  

Next, everyone added salt to their bowls, including me.  This tells me that I probably should have used 1 teaspoon of salt when making the stock.  But it really wasn't a problem -- I typically like to undersalt my dishes so everyone can make it salty to their own taste.  (I like less salt than my usual guest taster.)

I made sure everyone got at least one dried pear in their bowl.  We were all very interested in knowing what it would be like.

The flavor of the borsch was excellent.  There was plenty of duck meat and it was cooked just right -- I know how easy it is to overcook meat once it was at the "falling off the bones" state, so I was happy that I didn't cross that line.  The meat was tender and flavorful.  

The vegetables added so much interest to the dish.  Some were tender and others were tender-crisp, making for a variety of textures to experience while eating.  NK noted that having so many of the vegetables cut into small pieces was good because it helped to unify the soup, which big pieces do not always allow. 

The amount of garlic was pronounced as "just right."  I love garlic, so I would be tempted to put in much more than was listed in the recipe.  However, we all agreed that it added a nice backdrop flavor without being dominant, and that was best.

As for the pears, they were a lovely addition!  The dried pears before cooking was hard as rocks.  The cooked dried pears were tender and moist.  We all would use a spoon to cut off a small piece to include with a mouthful of soup.  The pears added a little burst of sweet and pear flavor to the meat and vegetable flavors.  I didn't taste the smoked flavor but that was probably because I didn't do as good of a job smoking them as I could have.  Practice makes perfect, so I will consider doing it again.

I enjoyed the pears so much that I was sad there were only six to go around.  The next day I made a chicken soup, so I cooked more pears in it and then added them to the leftover borsch just to have more.  I think I would add more pears initially if I make the borsch again.

This was definitely a success.  What a lovely soup!  

I had some leftovers, so when I heated those up, I added a generous spoonful of pickled beets, including some of the pickling juice.

More beets!

Then I reheated it.  The result was an even better (beeter?) borsch:  the beet flavor was more obvious and the pickling juice added a bright acid tang to the broth.  It was lovely!  I should have put the container of pickled beets on the table the first time, to give everyone a chance to up the beet flavor of their serving.  Now I know!

Ms. Hercules states on page 120 that "For every Ukrainian, borsch triggers deep memories and feelings of kinship.  A delectable meal in itself, a bowl of borsch represents family and sustenance, and connects us to home, wherever we find ourselves."

NK brought these.  Thinking of you, Ukraine.

Pear and Fig Jam - a Pinedo recipe

My fig tree is producing this year -- not the huge amounts I read about for people with mature fig trees, because mine has been on my property for only about 6 years.  But it is making enough to make me happy.  I love fresh figs!  The variety I have is Violet de Bordeaux, which is a semi-dwarf, and its figs are purple.  They are also so sweet and flavorful, they are like eating candy.

This morning I picked all the ripe fruits I could reach.  That gave me about 3 pounds of fruit, with more on the way.  Breakfast was greatly enhanced by consuming fresh figs!

I decided to check out my translation of Encarnacion Pinedo's book, The Spanish Cook, to see if there were any fig recipes I wanted to use.  I chose her Pear and Fig Jam on page 162.

My Redaction

1 pound granulated sugar

2 cups water

2 pounds Bartlett pears; peeled, cored, and chopped into small pieces

1 pound fresh figs; stemmed and chopped

I forgot to peel the pear for the picture.  That was done afterwards.

Mmmmmm!

Mix the sugar and water well, and bring to a boil.  Turn the heat down and simmer for one minute.

Add the pears, bring to a boil, the reduce the heat and allow them to simmer for two hours.

Add the chopped figs.  Cook until the jam thickens or the temperature reaches 210 degrees F.

Put into canning jars, cool, then refrigerate.  Makes 3 to 4 cups.

My Notes

Preparing the fruit was easy and straightforward.

Chopped pears

Pears and syrup

Brought to a boil, then simmered

After two hours of simmering

I was surprised that the pears hadn't disintegrated with all that cooking.  They appeared candied, and they tasted that way, too, but they were very soft.

The recipe did not specify to peel the figs, so I chopped them and hoped for the best.

Chopped figs

Jams are usually cooked until they reach 220 degrees F.  I tried to get this mixture to that temperature, but it seemed to be thickening too much without achieving it.  I was worried I was making the jam too hard.  At best, I got it to 215 degrees.

What I did was keep it cooking over a low heat (about 3 out of a scale of 10), stirring and checking the temperature every five to ten minutes.  Sometimes I took out a spoonful and let it cool to check for thickness.  Stirring seemed a good idea; only a little of the jam stuck to the bottom of the pan, and that was at the very end of the cooking.

The Verdict

After the jam chilled overnight, my guest taster and I tried it.

It was very firm, as you can see on the spoon.  It was a little spreadable but not as soft as I normally think of with jam.  I don't think it was too firm, but could have been cooked less.

The color was a rich burgundy; very pretty.

The flavor was amazing:  both the pear and fig came through.  The seeds added a nice crunch.  It was sweet but not too sweet.  I think I got the sugar content just right.

The pear pieces were still mostly as pieces -- I was right, they were candied and stood out as slightly more chewy than the rest of the jam.  I liked it, even though I wasn't sure at first.  My guest taster agreed that the chewy pear was surprising but not bad.

Success!

I had a new guest taster, SD, try it without being told what it was or what was in it.  She felt it was too sweet -- so if you think it might be for you, I would reduce the sugar by up to half, but use the same amount of water.  SD also thought the texture was interesting -- the firm bits caught her attention.  I think she was surprised to find out that it was from pears and that they were candied.

What my usual guest taster and I both really enjoyed was the bright flavor of the fruit, and that it wasn't overwhelmed with the sugar.  When I read the recipe, I thought spices would be a good addition, but now I believe they would not let the fruit flavor shine through.  If I was making a big batch of this for canning, I might add some candied ginger or a splash of lemon or lime juice to some of the jars.

SD agreed with this -- she felt the mixture would be improved with some acidity, like a little apple cider vinegar, and with some spices like pepper to make it more savory.  I liked her suggestion, and wondered if adding nuts, too, to make it more like a chutney.

She had imagined how she would use this spread and thought it would pair nicely with pork or chicken, or with cream cheese or brie on crackers.

I have only a little experience cooking jams the "usual" way, that is by cooking the fruit and adding sugar to it.  I have even less experience starting with a syrup and cooking the fruit in it.  I believe that when starting with syrup, achieving a lower temperature is better than the standard 220 degrees.  

I looked up more advice in the internet.  Several websites suggest cooking until the mixture thickens slightly.  Others say to watch for when the mixture changes from a foamy, roiling boil to a more sedate bubbling without changing the heat under it.  There were times when I was watching the cooking that I thought it was done -- and that was around 210 degrees.