Can this be borscht?

"Put water, beets, halved potatoes... in a large pot and bring to the boil... When potatoes in the pot are cooked, remove them and the beets.  Discard the beets..." 

But... but... DISCARD THE  BEETS?! 

The Whitewater Cooks cookbook, Whitewater Cooks: Pure, Simple and Real Creations from the Fresh Tracks Cafe,  had mouthwatering photos, delicious sounding taste combinations, and enthusiastic recipe descriptions (look at all those "!").  All this added up to more than enough charm for me to overlook some of the more exotic and likely difficult to find ingredients.



Paul's photo of our version of Chicken Marbella

Once the book was home though, I did have to admit there were some ingredients I just wasn't going to find (or be willing to pay for).  But maybe it didn't matter too much.

The Chicken Marbella called for figs and capers... the Whiskey-Smoked Salmon Chowder required  whiskey and smoked salmon. 



Whiskey-smoked salmon chowder...
without the whiskey or smoked salmon.

I tried both recipes with my substitutions (and in some cases, straight omissions) and... I think they were still pretty tasty. Especially without having experienced the authentic dish to set us straight ;)

Now, nothing ingredient-wise about Baba's Borscht's recipe is really out there, and I can admit the book hasn't steered me wrong yet*, so maybe I should just I should follow Baba's advice and remove those beets this time.  Paul might actually eat it then.  (And I'll just eat the beets on the side.) 



* Though it was rather shocking to realise just how much food there is for a 10 person recipe -- the biggest pots in the house had to be used and were filled to the brim -- and how House Hippo and Coconut managed to eat it all.