plate 23: russia

I absolutely love cooking in my kitchen, but there's a monumental advantage when cooking in my mother's kitchen: superior equipment. I discovered this with overwhelming clarity while preparing plate 23: the famous Russian beetroot soup, borscht.

It would have taken me at least half an hour to prepare most of the vegies, but not with D Rose's wizz (aka food processor). Right before my eyes, the wizz worked its magic grating three huge beetroots and two carrots before I could say Mikhail Gorbachev.

While devouring leftovers of this vegie-loaded meal that's beefed up with a bit of ... beef, a little research has revealed there's some debate over its origins. The Ukrainians claim it as their own, while the Russians say they invented it, but I'm not bothered by this culinary tug-o-war, because there's no fighting over how it tastes: fantastic. And, I can almost taste how good it is for me. (I can't actually substantiate this with hard nutritional analysis, but I reckon it's pretty nutritious.) Aside from the mandatory dollop of sour cream on top, but use light sour cream and you'll make yourself feel better.

Aside from its great flavour - and supposed health benefits - there are a few other bits of brilliance associated with borscht: it's ridiculously easy to make; it feeds many; freezes well; and it's just what's needed when its cold and rainy outside. Sure, a Sydney winter has nothing on a Russian one, but it does the trick when it's freezing by anyone's standards.

But by far the best aspect of this particular borscht, was that is was a recipe from my grandma's collection and I cooked it for my family, who loved it and said it was just like how she used to make, awww.

Jacq's grandma's borscht

1. Cut 2 beef steaks into little cubes and cook them in 10 cups of water in a stockpot until tender.

2. Shred 1/4 cabbage. Peel and grate 4 beetroots (raw) and 2 carrots. Slice 3 onions horizontally.

3. Add the vegies, 1/2 cup tomato paste, 1 tbs salt, 1/4 tsp white pepper, 1/4 tsp celery salt, 2 to 3 bay leaves (don't omit - my grandma said they're essential), 1/2 tsp allspice, 3 beef stock cubes and 2 vegetable stock cubes to the meat and cook for about 30 minutes or until soft.

4. Add the juice of 1 lemon and 2 tbs sugar. Cook for another 10 minutes.

5. Eat and enjoy x