How To Cook Shchi - Russian Cabbage Soup

I am starting a series of 'Cooking Russian Style' posts because I have a friend in my church who adopted a Russian boy when he was just under 2 years old. He is 6 now. She and her husband want to learn authentic Russian cooking. We decided to do one recipe per month (me cooking in their kitchen, them watching and learning).

So, here it goes:

That's how you serve it - with a dollop of sour cream, black pepper to taste, and Russian rye bread, of course.

To cook shchi you will need:

1. Veal ribs for the broth
2. 1/2 head of cabbage
3. 1/2 big onion (yields 1 cup of diced onions)
4. 1 carrot (yields 1 cup of shredded carrots)
5. 1 big tomato
6. 4 big red potatoes
7. 2 bay leaves
8. 2-3 table spoons of vegetable oil (ideally - sunflower oil)
9. 2 table spoons of salt

Here's how veal ribs look in International Store in Alpharetta:

I bought top left piece to cook shchi tonight.

I cut of all the meat and fat off that bone and cut it into small pieces. My grandmother taught me that it is much easier to cut meat which is almost frozen. So that's what I did - I put my meat into the freezer for a couple of hours before I cut it like this:

I poured some water into a pot, put all the meat and bone into it and brought it to a boil:

VERY IMPORTANT:  no violent boiling!!! As soon as your broth starts boiling, turn the heat down so your soup simmers.

After about 10 minutes of your broth boiling, remove all foam (impurities) from your broth with a spoon, and add 2 table spoons of salt to it.

Now it's time to slice your cabbage really fine:

While your broth is cooking, chop up your 1/2 onion really fine. 

Put a frying pan on the heat and pour some vegetable oil into it (2-3 table spoons). Ideally, sunflower oil.

  

Add your onions to the oil and saute them:

While your onions are getting ready, shred your carrot:

Add your carrots to the onions, mix them up and saute some more while you are slicing a tomato:

 

Next step is to put your cabbage into the broth, bring it to a boil, and turn the heat down so your soup simmers:

When your onions and carrots look cooked, add tomatoes into the frying pan and let the mixture simmer:

Now is the time to peal and slice your potatoes. Note, everything (except for tomato, maybe) is sliced real thin. My university mate told me when we were cooking together back in 1979 'remember, we feed people, not horses' - and it stuck with me. :-)

By the time your potatoes are sliced, your onion/carrot/tomato mix should look like this and you can add it to your soup:

Add your potatoes right after onion/carrot/tomato mix to the soup, bring your soup to a boil, turn the heat down, add 2 bay leaves and cook 10 more minutes. Absolutely no violent boiling!

Enjoy shchi!

PS My dog Jak was waiting for the bone - yes, I pulled it out of soup, cooled it off and gave it to him - the smell was just killing my little buddy while I was cooking :-)