Borscht Belt Routine

It's a really cold day out here (23 degrees), so I am making a big pot of Russian Borscht. Yum! This is a time-tested Times recipe, folks. It's from the Craig Claiborne NYT cookbook of 30-odd years ago, and I've been making it every winter for about that long. The bottom photo is what it looks like before the cabbage cooks down and the beets infuse it all with a lovely magenta color.

They used to serve something like this at the old Russian Tea Room, and I adapted this recipe to satisfy my craving for that version. (This is probably an atavistic craving for whatever my ancestors made when they lived in Minsk or Pinsk.) I add lots of dill, and I make it with prepared beef broth instead of meat. I don't shred the vegetables--I cut them in large julienne. I've made a double batch--it freezes very well. Below, how it looks when it cooks down more.

I hate the I Hate to Cook Book

There's nothing like inedible food to make you stick to your diet. I tried making this chicken dish last night, because I had had something like this once at someone's house, and it was good. Well, this was bad. (I used chicken cutlets rather than chicken pieces, but I don't think that was the problem.) Against my better judgment, I followed the recipe's advice to quarter the mushrooms instead of slicing them thin, and they had a disgusting texture. And that's just one problem. I ended up discarding a lot of chicken and sauce.