Barszcz z Uszkami

Step 1

Scrub each beet under cold running water with your hands, rubbing off any dirt. Pat dry with paper towels.

Step 2

Place beets in a medium pot and cover with 4 cups vegetable broth. Set the pot on the stove, turn heat to high, and bring to a boil — you'll see large bubbles breaking the surface.

Step 3

Once boiling, reduce heat to medium-low and cover with a lid. Simmer for 25 minutes until a fork pierces the beet skin with no resistance, like piercing soft butter.

Step 4

Remove beets from the pot with a slotted spoon and place on a cutting board. Reserve the broth in the pot.

Step 5

When cool enough to touch, hold each beet under cold running water and rub the skin off with your thumbs — it slides off easily. Discard the skin.

Step 6

Cut each peeled beet into thin matchsticks by laying it flat on a cutting board, slicing lengthwise into thin slabs, then stacking the slabs and cutting them into thin sticks.

Step 7

Return beet sticks to the broth in the pot. Stir in 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar and a pinch of salt. Taste and adjust salt and pepper to your preference.

Step 8

Finely chop the onion into pieces smaller than a grain of rice — about pencil-tip dots. You should have roughly 0.25 cup.

Step 9

Place mushrooms on a cutting board and chop them into very small pieces, no larger than peppercorns. You should have about 1 cup chopped.

Step 10

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a skillet over medium heat until it stops foaming and looks clear, about 60 seconds.

Step 11

Add the chopped onion to the hot butter and stir once every 30 seconds for 3 minutes until it turns translucent and smells sweet.

Step 12

Add the chopped mushrooms to the onion and stir once every 30 seconds for 5 minutes until the mushrooms release their liquid and shrink down.

Step 13

Remove the skillet from heat and let the filling cool to room temperature, about 5 minutes.

Step 14

Pour 0.75 cup flour into a small bowl. Crack 1 egg into the bowl and stir with a fork for 30 seconds until a shaggy dough forms — it should look like wet sand.

Step 15

Turn the dough onto a clean, dry counter. Knead by pushing the dough away from you with the heel of your hand, folding it back over itself, rotating a quarter turn, and repeating for 2 minutes until smooth and slightly elastic.

Step 16

Roll the dough into a thin sheet, about 1/16 inch thick, by flattening it with a rolling pin until it's almost transparent and you can see your hand through it.

Step 17

Cut the dough into 2-inch squares using a knife or pastry wheel, making clean, straight cuts perpendicular to the counter.

Step 18

Place 0.25 teaspoon cooled mushroom filling in the center of each square. Fold the square in half diagonally to form a triangle, pressing the edges firmly so they stick together.

Step 19

Bring the two pointy corners of the triangle together underneath to form a small hat shape, pressing where they meet so they stick — this is the characteristic uszka shape.

Step 20

Fill a large pot with water and bring to a rolling boil over high heat — you'll see vigorous, continuous bubbles breaking the surface.

Step 21

Carefully drop the uszka into the boiling water. They will sink at first, then float to the surface after 2–3 minutes — this is when they are done.

Step 22

Using a slotted spoon, transfer the cooked uszka to a bowl and set aside.

Step 23

Reheat the borscht in its pot over medium heat until small bubbles appear around the edges, about 3–4 minutes.

Step 24

Ladle the hot borscht into two bowls, dividing the beet sticks evenly. Top each bowl with half of the cooked uszka.