The Cooks: Sophia/Sheva (GUREVICH) AISIN

By Eliana

Related to: General, 

The Aisin family around Sophia GUREVICH AISIN in Bahia, Brazil. The picture was taken in the year 1918, in the city of Salvador, the state of Bahia, Brazil. My grandmother Sophia/ Sheva (née GUREVICH) AISIN is sitting in the centre, with her eight children around her. Sitting at her right are her grandchild and her son-in-law. - Eliana Aizim

My grandmother with her family, in the time she made this soup called Borsch. Her husband passed away soon after her arrival in Brazil, and life was very difficult then. She prepared only one food for the day, in a very large pan, and that was usually Borsch. There were some ingredients that she used in Ukraine but they couldn't be found in Brazil, so she adjusted the recipe. Among others, in Bahia she cooked with a kind of oil called "azeite-de-dende" and the pepper called "pimenta-malagueta", which are native in this region.

My father Aron is the youngest of the eight children, he's the little boy in the left. When he married my mother, Raie VATNICK, she learned how to cook with his mother and his sisters, and Borsch was one of the things she learned. Besides the delicious taste of the soup, the well-cooked meat and bones are extremely soft, and the meat breaks up by itself.

Her recipes

Cabbage Borsch

Beetroot Borsch