HOTEL UTAH BORSCHT RECIPE

Borscht served at Hotel Utah 100th Year Anniversary Gala.

 In June, I wrote about the Hotel Utah's 100th anniversary. During my 10 years as the Deseret News food editor, several people asked for the recipe for the old Hotel Utah's borscht. But I was never successful in getting one.

When the soup was served at the anniversary dinner, I thought I might have some luck getting the recipe this time.

Neil Wilkinson and Don Sanchez of Temple Square Hospitality emailed the recipe to me. Chef Sanchez noted that for the gala, he made some changes to the legendary Chef Girard's original recipe.

"We used chicken stock in stead of the beef stock and we pureed the beets instead of just using the juice from the cooking process. Also instead of adding the sour cream we used it as part of the garnish because I didn't like the color when we added the sour cream."

So, here's the original recipe, and you can feel free to switch it up as Sanchez did.

CHEF GIRARD'S HOTEL UTAH BORSCHT

4 cups beet juice

31/2 cups chicken or beef broth plus 1/2 cup
Juice of 1 lemon
Sugar to taste
Salt to taste
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 cup sour cream
1 or 2 egg yolks
Sour cream
Chopped parsley
Hard-cooked eggs, diced
Lemon wedges
Bring beet juice and 31/2 cups broth to boil. Stir in the lemon juice, sugar and salt. Combine the remaining 1/2 cup broth and cornstarch until smooth. Stir into soup. Cook and stir until thickened.
Combine sour cream and egg yolks. Gradually stir 1 cup of the hot beet juice mixture into egg mixture. Then, stirring constantly, slowly add warmed eggs back to hot liquid. Heat without boiling. Strain.
Serve hot or cold.
Garnish with sour cream, parsley and eggs. Serve with lemon wedges.
Makes 8 servings.