borscht

[frandroid]

I made Doukhobor borscht on Monday night. It wasn't too difficult. It resulted in a ton of borscht. But it turns out I'm not much of a borscht guy. And there's still so much more cabbage left. Maybe I should make a cabbage steak, because as a vegan, I'm obviously a masochist.

I stayed up all night yesterday until 7:30am this morning thinking I could finish my current task, and then I wasn't able to finish it off, and basically I excused myself from the morning stand-up, but the day was mostly a wash. I did manage to move forward on my current task but I think I'll put in an hour now before going to bed. Ugh.

Comments

[sabotabby]

Cabbage is delicious in all forms.

[frandroid]

I am partial to having it in okonomiyaki. When F was producing lots of castoff sourdough culture, I would make it regularly.

[ioplokon]

You could make cabbage and mushroom hand pies!

But you should probably sleep a bit before handling knives and stoves 🙀

[frandroid]

Hahaha yeah.

Do you have a recipe on hand to suggest? I'm intrigued by the idea. My mom has a classic broccoli and shroom hand pie but it's heavily egg-based so I haven't investigated... I just eat her pies at Christmas time 8)

[ioplokon]

I do - from the 6 Seasons Cookbook. It's vegetarian, but I think you only need to subtitute for the pastry dough.

Ingredients:

• Extra Virgin Olive Oil


• 1/2 lb mushrooms, thinly sliced


• coarse salt and finely ground pepper


• 1 large leek, white & light green parts only; halved lengthwize & cut into 1/4-inch half moons, cleaned well


• 4 cups lightly packed shredded savoy cabbage (but you can use any cabbage; I have)


• 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar


• Original recipe calls for 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce; I use 1 of soy sauce, one of red wine vinegar. I'm sure you have your own substitution


• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard


• The orginal recipe has 1/2 cup Parmesan Cheese - substitute w/ nutritional yeast or your own vegan cheese or nut mix; this adds mostly flavor, not texture


• 1/2 lemon - you can probably skip if you don't add fat/cheese


• Hot sauce


• Pastry dough - enough for 8 hand pies; probably starting from like 1 1/2 cups of flour. I just use one w/ flour, salt, water, and shortening


• All-purpose flour for dusting

Directions
Filling

1. Add olive oil to skillet on medium heat. When oil is hot, add mushrooms & season w/ salt and peoper. Cook until soft & fragrant - ~8 mins


2. Remove mushrooms from skillet & place in bowl. Add more oil to the skillet, then add leeks. Season w/ salt & pepper. Reduce heat to cook slowly until soft but not browned; ~3mins


3. Add cabbage to skillet & season w/ salt and pepper. Pour in 1/4 cup water. Cover skillet and cook on medium heat until cabbage has wilited - ~5mins


4. Uncover and cook the cabbage, tossing frequently, until it's very tender & turning golden. ~8mins


5. Add vinegar, "Worcestershife", mustard, "cheese", and a shake of hot sauce. Toss to combine


6. Taste and adjust salt, pepper, hot sauce, and lemon until it is delicous & savory.


7. Let filling cool completely in the fridge

Pies

1. Divide dough into 8 equal pieces. Shape until round and flatten with your fingers to get disks about 3 inches across; the dough should not be overly sticky during this process


2. lightly flour the work surface and roll out each disk until it is about 7" in diameter.


3. Scoop out roughly 1/8 of the filling and pile into the lower half of the dough round, leaving a 1" border on all sides


4. Brush the border lightly with water using a pastry brush or your fingertips. Fold over the top half of the dough, tucking it around the filling. Press gently to seel the two layers of dough


5. Crimp the edges by pressing with a fork (or fold in pleats if you are fancy)


6. Chill for at least 30 minutes

Baking

1. Heat oven to 375 F


2. Cut 2 slits in the top of each pie. Then arrange pies on baking sheet


3. Bake for 30-40 minutes until the pies are a rich light brown


4. Let cool on a rack and serve warm

They also freeze pretty well & can be reaheated w/o thawing by baking for 1 hour in a 350F oven. (You can reheat from the fridge in a real oven too, or in the microwave, though they get a bit damp that way...)

[frandroid]

Thank you!

> white & light green parts only

This kind of instruction tires me... I will always use the whole thing.

[ioplokon]

I save the big bits to make broth or to put in things I'm frying at higher heat. You can use them here, but just add first & adjust the cooking time.

Personally, I like to cut all the way up and then keep the other bits for different recipes bc then your chopping is already done...