Pivdennyi Rybnyi Borshch (південний рибний борщ, southern fish borshch)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •A big modern stockpot, 6 to 8 litres
• •A fine sieve or muslin for straining fish broth
• •A wide pan for the zasmazhka
• •A box grater

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the fish

   Rinse the heads, frames, and bones under cold water, checking that the gills are removed; gills make broth bitter. Cut the fillets or steaks into generous pieces, salt them lightly, and keep them cold while the broth starts. Skin-on pieces hold together better, which matters because this pot should carry fish, not fish dust.

   If your fishmonger gives you only fillets, use a good unsalted fish stock for half the water and poach the fish gently at the end. It is a bit more modern, but dinner still lives.
2. 2

   Make the broth

   Put the fish bones, halved onion, broth carrot, bay leaves, peppercorns, and dill stems into a big stockpot with the cold water. Bring slowly to a bare simmer, skim the foam, then keep it at a lazy blip until it smells clean and sweet, more riverbank than raw fish. Strain through a fine sieve into a clean pot and discard the bones and aromatics.

   Fish broth is quick. Once it smells ready, stop; long boiling pulls bitterness from the bones and muddies the clean taste.
3. 3

   Cook the beets

   While the broth murmurs, cook the beets whole with their tails on in a separate pot of water until a knife slips through without pushing. Rub off the skins, grate them coarse, and moisten with a splash of fermented tomato mors or beet zakwas. The sour keeps their color loud and wakes up the earthiness.

4. 4

   Start the pot

   Return the strained broth to the stockpot, salt it lightly, and add the potatoes. When their edges stop looking chalky and begin to soften, add the shredded cabbage. The pot should sound relaxed, not busy; a hard boil will make the broth cloudy before the fish even arrives.

5. 5

   Sweat the zasmazhka

   In a wide pan, warm the sunflower oil and add the diced onions. Let them go glossy and translucent over low heat, then add the grated carrots, red pepper, and grated tomatoes or tomato paste. Cook until the smell changes from raw onion to sweet garden and the oil turns orange.

   The zasmazhka goes in near the end. Slow-sweated onion and carrot sit brightly on top of the sour broth; boiled from the start, they disappear into the stock.
6. 6

   Sour and redden

   Stir the grated beets and their sour liquid into the broth. Add the fermented tomato mors and beet zakwas by the ladle, tasting as you go, until sweet beet and bright sour are balanced. It should wake your mouth, not sting it. Salt now, remembering the fish was salted at the beginning.

7. 7

   Poach the fish

   Slide the fish pieces into the borshch in one layer if you can. Do not stir hard; nudge the pot instead. Keep it at a quiet blip until the fish turns opaque and flakes at the thickest part when pressed with a spoon. If it roars, turn it down; river fish does not like shouting.

8. 8

   Finish and rest

   Fold in the zasmazhka, smashed garlic, black pepper, and most of the dill. Taste once more for salt and sour, then pull the pot off the heat and let it sit so orange fat beads gather on the surface and the fish relaxes into the broth. This is still borshch, so every spoonful should bring fish, beet, potato, cabbage, and dill; my grandmother Vira would ask if the spoon stands up straight, and for this lean river pot I tell her it stands politely.

9. 9

   Serve generously

   Ladle into deep bowls without breaking the fish. Scatter with the remaining dill, add smetana if you're not keeping the fast, and pass black bread or pampushky. Tomorrow's bowl will be deeper; reheat gently, never to a boil.

Chef Tips

• •Carp gives sweetness, pike-perch gives clean firm flakes, catfish gives richness, and perch gives excellent broth if you are patient with bones. Do not chase eel unless it is legal, sustainable, and honestly sourced where you live; the dish knows how to live with today's catch.
• •In August we'd be drowning in tomatoes; in January we open a jar instead. Fermented tomato mors is not a substitute here, it is the southern habit doing its work.
• •If you make your own fermented tomatoes, use a 4 to 5 percent brine: 40 to 50g salt per litre of water, weighed against the water. Keep everything under the brine, set the jar on a plate, and wait until the liquid is sour, cloudy, and alive.
• •The fish broth and the poaching do not forgive a hard boil. The chopping forgives you, the cabbage width forgives you, even the exact fish forgives you. Boiling fish to rags does not.
• •For a Bessarabian-leaning pot, push the tomato and sweet pepper harder. For a Danube-side feeling, use whatever river fish is freshest and let the dill do more talking.

Advance Preparation

• •The fish broth can be made a day ahead and chilled. Strain it well, then bring it back gently before adding the vegetables.
• •The beet, potato, cabbage, and sour broth base improves overnight. For the cleanest fish texture, add and poach the fish on the day you serve.
• •Fermented tomato mors needs planning if you make it yourself: whole tomatoes usually take 2 to 3 weeks in a 4 to 5 percent brine. Beet zakwas is faster, often 5 to 7 days.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 650g)