I am not a fan of beets. I don’t know if it’s how they’ve been prepared for me in the States, but they have never tasted good to me.
I am a huge fan of borscht, at least the Ukranian version of the soup. Guess what the key ingredient is in borscht? Yeah, beets. I liked borscht so much that I asked a couple of the friends we’ve made here in Odessa if they would be willing to teach some of us Americans how to prepare it. Natalka, who loves to cook, was only too excited by our proposal. Anna, Kim, and I got to learn the secrets of the making of the Ukranian favorite. It starts with a meat. We chose chicken – a whole, raw chicken. For whatever reason, I volunteered to tackle the whole, raw chicken. As I crunched the knife down on the rib cage, I couldn’t help but cringe and think back to my high school biology class. Dissecting wasn’t fun then and I found out a few days ago that it still isn’t. (As a forewarning, the next little bit may be too much for those having weak stomachs.) As I got to the part where the legs had to be separated from the body, I just couldn’t get the knife to slice through. I tried to twist and pull the leg off, but God made a pretty robust design when he made the chicken. So, Natalka, having done this so many times before, gave the bird leg a good twist and off it came. The other ingredients were easier to handle, and were chopped and diced, with Natalka directing her sous chefs at each step. The entire process from start to finish took about 2 1/2 hours. I had never made soup from scratch before, so I was really excited for the final product. When everything was the right consistency, the fragrant borscht was dished out. It was soooooo good. I can’t wait to try to duplicate it at home.
Natalka and I are getting the raw chicken ready for cooking.
Anna, being a good sport, smiles just before slicing into some potent onions.
Kim’s preparing the beloved beets for the soup.
Here’s our good friend and head chef Natalka.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of the actual borscht when it was done, because we kinda just ate it and it was gone. But, trust me when I say that Ukranian borscht is excellent!!
