PROCEDURE : 1. Warm-up. Traditional foods. Ukrainian cuisine is varied and rich in taste and nutritional value. Its development was influenced by the same factors as the development of material culture: geography and climatic conditions, plant cultivation and animal domestication, technological change, cultural influences, and economic relations with other countries. Since ancient times Ukrainians have practiced a settled form of life based on farming. Archeological evidence shows that wheat, barley, and millet were grown in Ukraine 3,000 years ago. Rye was introduced about 2,000 years ago, and then buckwheat was imported from Asia in the 11th century AD. Already at that time cattle, sheep, hogs, and poultry were raised. Beekeeping, hunting, and fishing were practiced. The exceptional fertility of Ukraine's soil and its climate were favorable to the development of agriculture, which had a marked influence on the type of food eaten by Ukrainians.
Ukrainian borscht with smetana, pampushkas and shkvarkas. Borscht (also borsch, bortsch, borstch, borsh, borshch; Ukrainian: борщ) is a soup that is popular in many Eastern and Central European countries. In most of these countries, it is made with beetroot as the main ingredient,[giving it a deep reddish-purple color. In some countries, tomato is used as the main ingredient, while beetroot acts as a secondary ingredient. Other, non-beet varieties also exist, such as the tomato paste-based orange borscht and green borscht (sorrel soup).
Etymology The soup is a staple part of the local culinary heritage of many Eastern and Central European nations. It made its way into North American cuisine and English vernacular by way of Ukrainian immigrants, as well as Slavic and Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe. Alternative spellings are borshch and borsch. It is called in various languages: Azerbaijani: borș, Belarusian: боршч, boršč, Czech: boršč, Estonian: borš, German: Borschtsch, Latvian: borščs, Lithuanian: barščiai, Polish: barszcz, Romanian: borș, Russian: борщ, borshch, Slovak: boršč, Turkish: Borç (due to the emigration of White Russians to Turkey after their defeat in the Russian Civil War), Ukrainian: борщ, borshch, and Yiddish: באָרשט, borsht. The name was earlier applied to hogweed soup,and originally to the hogweed plant itself.
Hot borscht. Hot borscht, the kind most popular in the majority of cultures, is a hearty soup. It is almost always made with a beef or pork broth. It usually contains heavy starchy vegetables including potatoes and beets, but may also contain carrots, peppers. It may be eaten as a meal in itself, but is usually eaten as an appetizer with dark rye bread.
Cold borscht. The vivid pink colour of cold borscht. In Lithuania, it is often eaten with a hot boiled potato, sour cream and dill. Borscht is served cold in many different culinary traditions, including Lithuanian (šaltibarščiai), Belarusian, Polish (Chłodnik) and Ukrainian (kholodnyk, literally 'cooler') and Russian (swekolnik). Other cooked soups are served cold in various parts of Europe, such as Hungarian cold tomato and cucumber soups, and meggyleves.
Cold borscht. In these countries it is called: Latvian: Aukstā zupa. Lithuanian: Šaltibarščiai. Polish: Chłodnik or Chłodnik litewski. Belarusian: Chaładnik / Хaлaднiк "khaladnik"Ukrainian: Холодник kholodnyk. Its preparation starts with young beets being chopped and boiled, together with their leaves when available. After cooling down, sour cream, soured milk, kefir, or yoghurt may be added, depending on regional preferences. Typically, raw chopped vegetables, such as radishes or cucumbers, are added and the soup is garnished and flavored with dill or parsley. Chopped, hard-boiled eggs are often added. The soup has a rich pink color which varies in intensity depending on the ratio of beets to dairy ingredients.