THE COVER STORY
'And this brings me back to the table in our kitchen. It is true that one can't gather around a poem in quite the same convivial way; yet a good poem can make, of a dinner-table gathering, an occasion....'
- from "‘Yes, Honey, I Can See You,' or On Poems and Occasions," in TNQ 100
For the occasion of The New Quarterly's 100th issue, we chose a cover-image with an occasional theme.
The Occasion: A dinner party
The Place: The apartment of the photographer, St. John's, Newfoundland
The Menu:
IVAN'S TERRIBLY EXCELLENT BORSCHT (see recipe, below)
The Cast of Characters:
John Haney, photographer; Amanda Jernigan, sous-chef; Erin Brubacher, Vivien Jaboeuf, and Melanie Hamilton, friends, artists, & borscht-eaters of exceptional style & grace. One of the guests hates beets, but was beeten-down and came around.
The Readings:
‘Trashing the Datsun' (our title), by Michael Winter (an excerpt from ‘Archibald the Arctic') - because the story takes place in Newfoundland, as do we, and because it was once published in The New Quarterly (XXI.2/3);
‘Elm', by Richard Outram (a poem from the series ‘Arbor,' in The Promise of Light) - because the poem's the thing, and because the book is beautiful;
‘Rules for the Behaviour of All Those Entering These Doors,' by Catherine the Great - because discipline must be maintained. And for thematic reasons, i.e. Borscht. The recipe could alternately be called BORSCHT FIT FOR A GREAT CATHERINE.
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IVAN'S TERRIBLY EXCELLENT BORSCHT
VEGGIES: Chop and set aside
- 5 large beets, peeled, chopped into smallish-medium sized chunks (please wear your beet-coloured shirt).
- 3 or 4 medium potatoes, chopped the same way. Be hearty; leave the skin on.
- 3 large carrots, cut in diagonal rounds (which I suppose means ellipses).
- 1/4 - 1/2 head of green or red cabbage, diced into long, thin pieces.
- 2 or 3 good-sized cooking onions, diced.
- 1 bulb of garlic (YES, a full bulb), chopped fine but not too fine. This is the mile of track that puts THIS Borscht in front of the rest.
- 2 medium tomatoes, seeded and chopped in small chunks.
- 2 or 3 or 5 T olive oil and/or a good-sized slab of butter.
- 1 T brown sugar.
- 3 or 4 T red wine vinegar.
- 6-8 cups vegetable stock, or any stock. There was a vegetarian in my group who would have given me big trouble if I'd tried to pull one over on her. Don't bother with the low-salt variety--that's for ninnies.
- Salt to taste.
- A ton of fresh, coarsely-ground black pepper.
- A full container of sour cream.
- Lots of fresh, chopped dill and/or basil. The more the better.
GARNISH
- More fresh dill, chopped slightly, but not too much.
OR,
- An orange's worth of zested orange peel.
FIRST:
- A glass of red wine for the chef. The bottle must remain on the chopping/cooking surface.
- Mix the freshly-chopped herbs and mix them into the sour cream, set aside.
1. Olive oil into medium-heat large soup pot. Remember: cool oil in hot pan means no stick. Put a little butter in too. Or not. Depends on your cholesterol. If your cholesterol is high, eat lots of raw almonds, which supposedly works miracles on this problem.
2. Garlic, onion in for five minutes, until slightly soft.
3. Sugar, vinegar in. Cook until the vinegar evaporates. This smell will stay in your kitchen until you kick out your guests.
4. Beets, potato, carrots, cabbage, tomatoes in. Mix around for a couple minutes.
5. Stock in. Perhaps start with about six or seven cups, keep an extra in case the Borscht is too far on the stew side of the soup/stew line. I suppose this line traditionally varied depending on whether the Borscht was being eaten during the Russian Summer, or the Russian Winter.
6. Bring everything to a boil, then turn down and simmer, covered, until everything is relatively tender, but so that the beets still have a decent bite to them.
7. Transfer a few cups into a blender and puree, then return to big pot. This will make a nice, chunky Borscht with a fairly creamy quality to it.
8. Serve in a nice, big bowl, with a big dollop of the sour cream and herbs placed artfully un-centred in bowl, and sprinkle the dill and/or orange rind garnish, particularly over the sour cream.
IMPORTANT: WINE!
- As an appetizer, we had a sliced baguette and a couple of nice cheeses. With this we had Pelee Island Gewurtztraminer. A great wine. Fairly sweet, and cheap.
- With the Borscht, we had a Chilean Carmanere. A little too sinewy. If I tried it again, I might go for something spicy with a soft texture, medium-bodied. At this point, I'm only pretending to know what I'm talking about, but what the hell--I'd say a Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon, Australian Shiraz, or California Zinfandel. It's advisable not to spill as much wine on the table as was done for the cover photograph.
Enjoy!
OH YES, for some real whackiness, you can put on Tom Waits's album The Black Rider, skip to the incredible song "Russian Dance", and play it on repeat for the duration of the meal.
J.H.
