How Two Sisters Revived a Borscht Recipe Lost During the War

Photo by Yoni Nimrod

Shared by Jacky Boudreaux
Recipe Roots: Proszowice, Poland > New York City and Denver

Jacky Boudreaux’s mother Helen and aunt Rose “looked like twins, but they were extremely different people,” Jacky recalls. Rose lived in Queens and rarely cooked, immersing herself in city life, while Helen lived in Colorado and collected copies of Gourmet and Bon Appetit magazines, cooking often. “My mom used to call [our families] city mouse and country mouse,” Jacky says. Despite the distance and their differences, Helen and Rose, who were born in 1924 and 1922 respectively, were very close and visited one another often when Jacky was growing up. 

On visits to aunt Rose’s small apartment at 93rd Street and Northern Boulevard in Queens, the sisters would go to Waldbaum’s, a supermarket in the neighborhood, and pick up flanken, beets, carrots, and celery to recreate their mother Esther’s recipes for borscht that they remembered from Poland. There were other recipes too like “Moishe salad” made with string beans, hard boiled egg, sauteed onions, and mayonnaise. “My aunt would remember something and my mom and her would figure it out,” Jacky says. 

Rose and Helen (Left to right in the back row) and their mother Esther (center) in Prosczowice, Poland in 1938.

Those culinary memories trace back to a childhood in a one-room stucco house in the small town of Proszowice, 40 kilometers outside of Krakow. When the war broke out, the family fled the town to the Krakow Ghetto. “You were lucky if you could get in there,” she adds. The family did, but was ultimately torn apart. Their father was sent one way, and Rose, Helen, Esther were moved between a series of camps and a factory where they were forced to inspect munitions. During the war, Esther passed away. The sisters also tragically lost two brothers, one before the war and another right after it. 

The remaining family members, Rose, Helen, and their father, reunited after the war and moved to the United States. First settling on the Lower East Side, Helen went to Colorado for treatment when she fell ill with tuberculosis. It was here, at a Jewish hospital, that she met Leon, a survivor of Dachau from Berlin also being treated for TB. “They courted in the hospital,” Jacky says and married, building a new life for themselves together in Colorado.

“I had wonderful parents. They weren’t victims, They were victimized, but they were never victims and I think that’s a really nice thing that I’ve learned,” she adds. 

In their home, Helen kept alive recipes from Leon’s childhood, learning to make stuffed cabbage, rouladen, or beef rolled around a mixture of sauteed onions, parsley and breadcrumbs, and Linzer tortes. She also made exceptional blintzes and gefilte fish, shopping at a Japanese fish market run by individuals who were forced into internment camps during the war. For Hanukkah, she made fried Polish cookies called fattigman, that were supposed to look like a deer antler. “My mom could remember Polish recipes and adapt them a little bit too,” Jacky says. 

She made the family borscht for Passover and anytime beets and carrots were in season. “Maybe she had red fingers four or five times a year,” Jacky says. And Jacky was always there, in the kitchen with her mother learning from her. “I don’t even know when I started to cook things at her hand. It’s like breathing. I was always at her side cooking.”

Borscht

Photo by Yoni Nimrod

Makes: 4 to 6 servings
Total Time: 3 hours

Ingredients
For the soup:
2 pounds bone-in beef ribs or or flanken, cut into 3 inch pieces
2 pounds beef bones, cut into 3 inch pieces
4 celery stalks, chopped into ½ inch cubes
4 carrots, peeled and chopped into ½ inch cubes
1 large yellow onion
1 whole clove
1 bay leaf
2 sprigs fresh thyme
4 sprigs fresh parsley 
½ tablespoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoon olive oil
½ of a green cabbage, thinly sliced or shredded
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
½ yellow onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 beets, peeled and grated
1 ½ cups chopped canned tomatoes
¼ cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar

For the garnish:
4 sprigs fresh parsley

Preparation:
1. Stick a clove through the skin of whole onion. Press firmly to ensure the clove is secured into the onion. Tie the sprigs of thyme and parsley into a tight bundle with butchers twine. Set aside.

2. Add the beef ribs or flanken, beef bones, celery, carrots, the whole onion, bay leaf, thyme and parsley bundle, salt, pepper and olive oil into a large stock pot. Add enough water into the pot to reach about 1 inch under the top edge of the pot. Place the pot over high heat and bring the mixture to a boil. Partially cover the pot with a lid. Reduce to medium low heat and continue cooking with a gentle simmer for about 2 hours. Skim the impurities that rise to the surface of the soup during cooking. 

3. Meanwhile, place 2 tablespoons olive oil into a skillet over medium or medium low heat. Add the cabbage, garlic and onion and sauté until the vegetables are soft and translucent, about 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer the sautéed vegetables to a plate and set aside. 

4. After 2 hours of cooking the soup base of the borscht, add the sautéed cabbage, onions and garlic, the grated beets, canned tomatoes, vinegar and sugar. Stir the soup until combined and increase the heat to high. Bring the soup to a boil and reduce the heat to medium low. Continue cooking the soup partially covered on a gentle simmer for an additional hour. 

5. Before serving, discard the beef bones, whole onion with clove, the bay leaf and the thyme and parsley bundle. 

6. Serve the borscht hot and garnish with a few parsley sprigs. 

Vegetarian Borscht

In more recent years, Jacky created a vegetarian version of her family’s borscht for vegetarian guests at her table. It also makes for a lighter alternative on warm days.

Makes: 4 to 6 servings
Total Time: 3 hours

Ingredients
For the soup:
6 stalks celery, chopped into ½ inch pieces
6 carrots, chopped into ½ inch pieces
1 large unpeeled onion stuck with one whole clove
1 bay leaf
2 sprigs fresh thyme
4 sprigs fresh parsley
½ tablespoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ head cabbage, thinly sliced or shredded
2 beets, peeled and grated
1 ½ cups chopped canned tomatoes
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
½ onion, finely chopped
¼ cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoons sugar

For the garnish:
4 sprigs fresh parsley
4 to 6 tablespoons sour cream

Preparation:
1. Stick a clove through the skin of whole onion. Press firmly to ensure the clove is secured into the onion. Tie the sprigs of thyme and parsley into a tight bundle with butchers twine. Set aside.

2. Add the celery, carrots, the whole onion, bay leaf, thyme and parsley bundle, salt, pepper and olive oil into a large stock pot. Add enough water into the pot to reach up about 1 inch from the top edge of the pot. Place the pot over high heat and bring the mixture to a boil. Partially cover the pot with a lid. Reduce to medium low heat and continue cooking with a gentle simmer for about 2 hours. Skim any impurities that rise to the surface of the soup during cooking.

3. Meanwhile, place 2 tablespoons olive oil into a skillet over medium or medium low heat. Add the cabbage, garlic and onion and sauté until the vegetables are soft and translucent, about 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer the sautéed vegetables to a plate and set aside. 

4. After 2 hours of cooking the base of the borscht soup, add the sautéed cabbage, onions and garlic, the grated beets, canned tomatoes, vinegar and sugar. Stir the soup until combined and increase the heat to high. Bring the soup to a boil and reduce the heat to medium low. Continue cooking the soup partially coved on a gentle simmer for an additional hour. 

5. Before serving, discard the whole onion with clove, the bay leaf and the thyme and parsley bundle. 

6. Serve the borscht hot and garnish with a few parsley sprigs and a dollop of sour cream.