• The Recipe: Peter's Borscht Recipe 2002
• The Song: Meditation from the Thin Space at St. Paul's Chapel

Last month I shared with you a Borscht recipe I got from my friend Ann Kelley. You can find that in the Musical Recipes Archive, but now I'm getting serious! I'm giving you my latest version of Borscht. Like a true musical improviser, my recipes are always changing. This is the one I've been cooking for the last year or so. It's the real thing (for now!).

Soak the beans overnight. Rinse and discard water before using.

Bring the beef bones to a boil in 2 quarts of water and let simmer for a few hours. Discard the bones, and skim off any fat and crud. Keep broth simmering and add the beans.

In a frying pan add 2 tablespoons of oil and saute onions until clear. Add the beef to the onions and saute until evenly browned.

Add the beef and onions to the simmering beef broth. Add the tomatoes, carrots, beets, potatoes and canned broth to the simmering broth. Add pepper (1 tbs). Let simmer 30 to 45 minutes, or until the beans and vegetables are tender.

Add shredded cabbage and 2 tbs. beef bouillon. Let simmer another 5 minutes.

It should be done! Taste for saltiness (beef bouillon is salty, so you may not want to add any additional salt). Serve with dollops of sour cream, fresh dark crusty bread like pumpernickel or rye, and of course, raw cloves of garlic (dipped in salt and eaten raw).

I also make this recipe using chicken or turkey. The only thing that would change is that you would need to substitute chicken stock and chicken bouillon. Rather than beef bones, I just get a whole chicken and simmer that in a pot for 2 hours to make the stock. Then cool the chicken and take the meat off the bones. Add the meat after the vegetables have cooked for 20 minutes or so.

Click here for the lyrics to my song "Borscht", where I sing out my original borscht recipe in rhyme. It's all there, and easy to follow. "Borscht" was recorded on an album called "Down the Streets of My Old Neighborhood" on Rounder Records. The recording was never issued on CD, but it is still available on cassette. You can order it from Rounder Records. The record number is #0227, and while you're at it, you can request that they put the record out on CD. If enough of you ask, then they'll probably do it.

I wrote Meditation from the Thin Space at St. Paul's Chapel after my wife Marge spent a few days there at the closing prayer ceremonies. She was interviewing some of the chaplains and workers (who had been at the World Trade Center for the last year since 9/11) for a radio show she produces called First Person. As she told me about her trip, I could see she was visibly moved by her experience at Ground Zero. She asked me to write a piece of music for St. Paul's Chapel, and using her emotions as a guide, out came this piece of music.

I performed it with Ritchie Dworsky on A Prairie Home Companion in June, and this was a chart that Ritchie wrote up. I wrote it for mandolin and piano, but the melody could be played on other instruments. I hope you enjoy it.

Comments, questions or other recipes for borscht or other fine treats? Write to me at PO Box 11952, Minneapolis MN 55411 or send an e-mail to Borscht@PeterOstroushko.com.