Perhaps it’s because the temperature where I live has soared to highs that one only sees in the middle of August that I have been seeking out cold soup recipes to keep my internal structure cool and well regulated, but stumbling upon a recipe for Allen Ginsberg’s Cold Summer Borscht seems to be not only a good way to swallow down some good-for-ya nutrients, but a lovely way to feed some starving bibliophiles who are also a bit, well snobby.
Yes, I have friends who model themselves as the reincarnated members of the Algonquin Roundtable and it can get a bit heavy-handed seeing as my home is peppered with comic books and action figures (not to mention an entire bookcase ode to Star Wars) and not thick tomes of Russian literature.
But come next week, when they all sit at my table and begin their asinine discussions on whether or not Fan Fiction is “Outlaw” writing at it’s finest (bleech), I’m pretty sure that they will finally accept me as one of their own when I serve them this cold Borscht…why I don’t know, but I think it’s quite possible seeing that it was created by Allen Ginsberg and they are easily swayed by such things.
Yay for me!
After the break is the recipe that will be your ticket to culinary literary excellence.
COLD SUMMER BORSCHT
Dozen beets cleaned & chopped to bite size salad-size Strips
Stems and leaves also chopped like salad lettuce
All boiled together lightly salted to make a bright red soup,
with beets now soft – boil an hour or more
Add Sugar & Lemon Juice to make the red liquid
sweet & sour like Lemonade
Chill 4 gallon(s) of beet liquid –
Serve with (1) Sour Cream on table
(2) Boiled small or halved potato
on the side
i.e. so hot potatoes don’t heat the
cold soup prematurely
(3) Spring salad on table to put into
cold red liquid
1) Onions – sliced (spring onions)
2) Tomatoes – sliced bite-sized
3) Lettuce – ditto
4) Cucumbers – ditto
5) a few radishes
Source: Dangerous Minds
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