Uncle Roman’s Ukrainian Borsch

It wasn’t done on the egg but I wanted to make sure the recipe was posted more for the benefit of my friend Ayako who gave me the idea as I was shopping for ingredients this morning. So, Aya…this one’s for you!
Now, traditional borsch can be made several different ways…purely vegetarian (as it is for Christmas), with various types of meat (pork, beef, chicken), and with sour cream etc… What I’ll share today is my recipe that has proven incredibly easy and super tasty.
So here’s Uncle Roman’s Ukrainian meat borsch:
Ingredients and method:
800 grams of stewing pork (on the bone of course)
30 grams of dried porcini mushrooms
4 tbs vegetable oil
2 onions, chopped roughly
2 carrots, diced and chopped
2 celery stocks, chopped
3 medium beets, cut into julienne strips
2 medium potatoes, diced
1 can of white cannellini beans
half a medium sized cabbage, shredded
1 can of Hunt’s diced tomatoes
1 head of garlic, minced
2 cups mushroom stock (from the dried porcini)
1 cup V8 vegetable cocktail
1/2 cup of Heinz ketchup
6 cups water
2 cups of pork stock (from the stew meat)
1 tbs white vinegar
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste