I made quite a bit, but my roommates and friends ate more than I did. I didn't follow any sort of recipe, but here's what I did, feel free to improvise since I just made it up as I went along with no real plan so feel free to adjust quantities as you see fit and enjoy.
Ingredients:
2 medium sized beets julienned
one can of beets(don't throw away the juice)
2 white onions quartered and sliced
copious amounts of coarsely minced garlic
2 pretty large potatoes
about 2 1/4 pounds of chuck steak cut into bite size pieces with all of the excess fat saved
half a cabbage chopped about the same size as the onion
4 or 5 carrots into about 1/2" long slices
3 tomatoes chopped
6 scotch bonnets minced(or however many of whatever pods you choose)
coriander
caraway seed
dill
parsley
salt
black pepper
2 beef bouillon cubes
a couple tablespoons of distilled vinegar
vodka
butter
flour
I meant to get celery too but forgot when I was at the store.
First I heated some olive oil and put in the onion and garlic. Once it was getting caramelized I added the beef. Once the beef got browned I added the beets(vinegar now too to maintain their color), potatoes, carrots, and pods and started to add in all of the seasonings(which I did slowly throughout the process to adjust to taste). After about 5-7 minutes I dumped in the beet juice, cabbage, tomato, bouillon, and a few cups of water to just barely cover everything.
That pot was then turned down to low to medium-low, covered and allowed to simmer and finish cooking everything(I ended up leaving it for about 2 1/2 hours).
All that fat from the beef I then sliced up and put in a shallow pan with a little water, and another 1-2 tablespoons of vinegar, around 2 shots of vodka, and let that go for quite a while. This was just something I came up with on the fly to melt down and extract a lot of flavor from the fat. The acid in the vinegar and alcohol were mostly added to help break down the fat and get more flavor out. I let that go for maybe an hour and a half covered.
Now that all of that was just chilling on its own, I broke out a frying pan and heated about 3/4 stick of unsalted butter. Once that was good and hot I slowly started whisking in flour until I had a nice and thick tan colored roux for both flavor and thickening.
Once all that was done, I took a little sample of the broth and reseasoned to taste. I then removed the fat, discarded it, and added the fatty goodness liquid to the main pot and stirred in the roux. I let it simmer and reduce/thicken maybe another 30 minutes and there you have it.
Serve in bowls with some fresh dill sprinkled on to and depending on your personal taste a dollop of either sour cream or plain yogurt(optional). I recommend serving it with a good hearty rye bread sliced thick.
Everyone that tried it loved it, and like most soups/stews, it was even better the next day.
Well there you have it. If anyone decides to recreate my concoction, I'm eager to hear how it comes out.
Dobrou chut!
I would like to have the recipe--see if it contains things that I might enjoy eating. 