Recipe #20: Komstborscht

I believe this should also be credited to Reuben Epp, as it's written in the same style and also ends with Low German. If so, danke, Reuben!

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To begin with, a "Komstborscht," Mennonite Low German name for a cabbage Borscht "Soup," is in fact a soup that starts out with at least part of a head of cabbage, to which are added numerous other vegetable, grain and meat ingredients to make a delicious and wholesome soup, there named "Komstborscht," perhaps erroneously.

Item No. 1 is a large soup pot of at least two gallon calibre for a family-sized pot of Borscht.

Then:

1. 1 lb. (pound of beef) stew or barbecued steak. If it is stew, brown it thoroughly in a frying pan or if in the form of a cooked steak, cube into pieces of 3/4 inch or smaller.
2. 2 or 3 cooking onions, chopped fine and pan-browned in butter before adding to the cooked stew or steak pieces.
3. Allow beef and onions to simmer together in the pot for the better part of an hour, just covered with water, before adding other vegetables.
4. Add 1/2 of a medium rutabaga turnip, peeled and diced in small cubes.
5. Cut into small pieces 1/2 head (or more) of regular white or green cabbage, and add to the pot.
6. In the meantime, peel and dice 4-6 medium-sized potatoes and place them in the soup pot to boil (simmer.) Add water as needed to keep vegetables barely covered.
7. Chop fine about 1/2 of a whole garlic (8 cloves) and add to the pot.
8. Peel and dice 4-6 carrots and add to the potatoes to low  boil or simmer.
9. Chop up and wrap in cheese-cloth two or three full grown stalks of fresh or frozen green dill weed, in the yellow flower stage. Fish this bundle out of the pot when the Borscht is fully done.
10. Add 200-250 ml of pearled or potting barley.
11. Add 4-6 stalks of celery, diced in small pieces.
12. Add 1 green bell pepper, chopped into small pieces.
13. Add several sprigs of broccoli, stems and heads, chopped.
14. Add several sprigs of cauliflower, stems and heads, chopped.
15. I often add two cups or more of pre-cooked mashed yam.
16. When rutabaga, potatoes and carrots are about done, add 800 ml of canned or home-canned tomatoes.
17. Add one 300 ml can of tomato soup.

While simmering this Borscht, keep the water in the pot about level with the top of the vegetables, but not more.

I have listed the various components of this Borscht approximately in the order in which they should be potted to provide appropriate cooking time. The experienced cook will recognize and adjust this schedule appropriately. There is no end to variations possible in such a thumb-rule recipe, but no one will dispute that the ingredients make good soup (Borscht).

Seasonings are somewhat optional in this Borscht: I usually use steak spices, granulated garlic and seasoned salt to prepare the meat, but add no other seasonings to the Borscht.

Total cooking time about 2 hours plus, or until the rutabaga, potatoes and carrots are well done.

Un nu, lot et goot schmaikje!