Borscht

So - today we made borscht from start to finish...and we have pictures!  We started with a beef roast with a bone in it and a pork roast with a bone in it.  We boiled them in salted water for two hours and them cleaned all the meat off the bones...and included the bone marrow which our cook instructor (Lena Markelov) insisted we add for the delicious flavor.  We chopped up onions and cabbage and grated some carrots and a large beet.  We also cut up a few potatoes and cooked them in the meat broth.  After they were cooked we mashed them a little. Then the onions and cabbage and beets and carrots were cooked in a little oil and a couple tablespoons of vinegar was added to maintain the red color.  Mix it all together and simmer a few hours and voila, you have borscht.  There is a certain sequence everything happens in that I'm not too sure of...I think it's a Russian secret.  Everyone here has their own borscht recipe and this batch is different from the last batch we made with her.  I've included a couple of pictures of our helpers...Tonya, the shopper and Lena, the cook.  We're having borscht for institute Wednesday night.  Yes, of course we will make some for you when we visit...and if I eat it EVERYBODY eats it!