Tchi Russian Meat Soup - As well called Borsch and SCHI
1 small cabbage
1/2 lbs of beef flank
3 or 4 medium size potatoes.diced
Juice of one lemon
1/2 teaspoon of salt or to taste
Soak cabbage in a cold salty water for an hour or two and then shred. Put the shredded cabbage into the kettle with a good piece of the beef flank. Just cover the cabbage and meat with the cold water. Then you add salt, and some lemon juice, and cook the cabbage very very slowly,- until tender, for about 2 and 1/2 hours. One half hour before taking up the borsch of the stove, you add diced potatoes. Cut the meat into small portion pieces and serve a piece of meat in the soup in each plate. This is used as the meat dish for dinner and is very good.
We usually add some vinegar- apple vinegar if do not have the lemon juice on the hand. As for the potatoes- they will be softer if cooked aside and then added into the schi soup at the end of cooking. Potatoes stay hard if they cooked in acidulee borsch, so we usually cook them aside- the whole ones and serve as a side in a separate plate. We cook them unpeeled- the whole dinner is elevated to the level of the nice event this way.
SCHI- IS ALWAYS ACIDULEE.
SCHI - IS TRADITIONAL AMERICAN AND RUSSIAN, LITHUANIAN, UKRAINIAN AND POLISH DISH AS THE EVENING MEAL OF THE WHOLE FAMILY. SCHI CAN BE MADE FROM SOUR CABBAGE OR IT CAN BE MADE FROM THE FRESH CABBAGE, BUT THEN YOU SHOULD ADD SOME LEMON JUICE OR APPLE VINEGAR INTO THIS SOUP- AS USUAL- THE PROPORTIONS ARE OF YOUR OWN- BUT SCHI SHOULD BE SLIGHTLY ACIDULEE- THE PROPORTIONS ARE VERY DELICATE AND ALWAYS THE MATTER OF YOUR OWN PREFERENCES.
THIS IS TRADITIONAL RECIPE OF THE GRAND AMERICAN CUISINE.-HISTORICAL RECIPE WHICH DATES 1800DS. THE SCHI OR BORSCH SOUP WAS CONSIDERED AS THE SAFE AND SCROMPTUOUS AND ALLOWED FOR THE LITTLE CHILDREN AND TODDLERS.