Russian "Winter" Salad

Winter Salad
Made this for book club tonight, since we were discussing The Master and Margarita. A Russian said it tasted really authentic.

For once, I'm going to be really specific about the directions, so watch out.

Winter Salad

4 potatoes for boiling (Yukon Gold works)
3 hard-boiled eggs
2 medium-large carrots
2 spring onions
a handful of fresh parsley
4 small gherkins
peas, canned in sugar, salt, and water
a few slices of ham
a few dollops of mayo and/or sour cream
most of a medium Granny smith green apple

• Scrub but do not peel the potatoes. Do not cut them up.
• Peel carrots but do not cut up.
• Boil potatoes and carrots in the same pot.
• When potatoes let a fork pierce them without much resistance, remove from pot, drain, and set aside to cool.
• Meanwhile, dice the gherkins into tiny pieces, like relish size.
• And chop the green onions into small chunks.
• And boil the ham if you need it. The ham shouldn't be like lunchmeat, it should be more substantial than that. Cut it into thinnish rectangles.
• Dice the eggs.
• Chop the parsley.
  
• When the potatoes and carrots are cool, peel the potatoes and cut them into bite-sized pieces.
  
• Chop up the carrots bigger than the gherkins.

Okay, now here's a tip: you eventually will be mixing all this together. But the more you mix it, the mushier everything gets. So I worked in layers, adding potato, egg, gherkin, carrot, onion, parsley, ham, peas (drained), and mayo.

THEN, dice up a slice of the apple. Dice really finely, as finely as you can. Add that to your layer and then mix gently. I used a spatula, wriggled it under everything, and turned everything over five times.

Repeat until everything is in there. Refrigerate for many hours to get all the flavors to mix. Serve cold as a side.

--BONUS RECIPE--

I didn't make this, but Erik brought it, and it was great. It may have made me like beets.

Borscht

First, sauté:

• onions
• garlic
• potatoes
• red cabbage
• celery

Then add that to:

• beef broth
• canned diced tomatoes
• canned beets

Stew for a long time.