Blood for your Blood?

My friends were doing a performance called After for the Streets of Melbourne festival over the weekend and I was their personal kitchen bitch for the time.

The first night saw a lot of clambering and hiking bags full of ingredients, fridge cramming and impromptu cooking.

I made a bastardisation of Borscht from the ingredients they had. I know, hiking bags full, and still no cabbage or oink-oink.

One of the reasons for the Borscht, other than these being the first ingredients found, that their hearts all exploded on CentrePlace. It only seemed fitting.

Borscht
Serves 6
(and then some)

1 lamb shank, salted
2 cloves of garlic
2 beetroots, trimmed and diced
1 large carrot, diced
1 large onion, diced
1 large leek, diced
1 large potato, diced
vegetable stock, to cover, and some extra
2 bay leaves
Salt
freshly cracked pepper
1/2 a bunch of parsley, chopped
yogurt


Seal the shank in a heavy pot, and reduce the heat. Add the garlic, onion, carrot, leek, potato and saute till translucent. Add the beetroot and cover with the vegetable stock and bay leaves. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 3 hours, skimming the scum off the top.
Scum bucket

When the shank is fork-tender, remove the meat from the bone, shred and return to the pot. Season to taste.
Stir in half the parsley.

Mix the yogurt with the rest of the parsley and dollop over the top of the soup when serving.