Yesterday we mentioned Allen’s Cold Summer Borscht Recipe.
Here it is (a tentative transcription)
COLD SUMMER BORSCHT
Dozen beets cleaned & chopped to bite size salad-size Strips
Stems & leaves also chopped like salad lettuce
All boiled together lightly salted to make a bright red soup,
with beets now soft – boil an hour or more
Add Sugar & Lemon Juice to make the red liquid
sweet & sour like Lemonade
Chill 4 gallon(s) of beet liquid –
Serve with (1) Sour Cream on table
(2) Boiled small or halved potato
on the side
i.e. so hot potatoes don’t heat the
cold soup prematurely
(3) Spring salad on table to put into<
cold red liquid
1) Onions – sliced (spring onions)
2) Tomatoes – sliced bite-sized
3) Lettuce – ditto
4) Cucumbers – ditto
5) a few radishes
for Summer Dinner
Then there is Allen’s last legendary soup.
No slouch in the creative cooking department, Mr Ginsberg!
I bet that recipe comes from his mother Naomi
It is a variation of a Lithuanian dish, šaltibarščiai. Most Lithuanians would not include lettuce, tomato, or radishes.