Save the Pickled Beets!

Sometimes, but not so much lately, I worry about foods disappearing.  I know, some foods should disappear, like fried liver and doorstop fruitcakes.  But you know what I mean:  You're savoring a lovely slice of spicy pickled beet and suddenly, without warning, you think, "What if people stopped eating beets?  And farmers stopped growing beets?  And there would be no more pickled beets!"

I'm not saying everyone has episodes of food paranoia like me, but in case the whole worrying-about-food-disappearing thing is due to the cosmic resonance of some underlying potential universal truth, now and again I like to make, and enjoy, pickled beets. And if you do it, too, maybe we'll keep pickled beets alive!

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PICKLED BEETS

This recipe is easily increased for more beets, and all the ingredients can be played around with according to your taste.  Makes about a quart.  If you put striped or golden beets in with red ones, the whole mixture will be more or less red!

About 6 medium-sized beets, or 12 smaller ones, either red, gold, striped, or a mix
2/3 cup cider vinegar
1 or 2 tablespoons agave nectar or organic sugar (I sometimes use apple juice concentrate)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon horseradish
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
A few grinds of black pepper

Wash the beets and either trim the stalks off or leave an inch or so on.  Lay beets on an aluminum foil-covered pan and roast at 350 degrees for an hour or so.  If beets are varying sizes, some may need to be removed before others are done.  Beets should be tender when pierced with a knife.

Alternatively, wrap the beets in aluminum foil and roast for the same amount of time.

Alternatively again, boil the beets in a big kettle of water until they are tender when pierced with a knife.  This is the method I use most often, because the beets peel more easily than they do when roasted.

Cool the beets, and trim off the stems and root ends and any weird spots.  Rub the peelings off (a paper towel works nicely for this) and cut the beets into your preferred shapes ... slices, dices, you call it.  Toss them into a quart jar.  You can have the vinegar and spice mixture already in the jar, or you can toss it in on top of the beets and shake gently.  Store in fridge, turning and tossing jar gently now and then to keep the beets coated in the pickly mixture.  They'll be pickled in about a week. Enjoy without fear.

Beet and Saffron Rice Timbale with Spinach and Leeks

Ms. Eating the Scenery is smitten.  She stumbled across this chef who, apparently, has been cooking in England for some time without Ms. Eating the Scenery's knowledge.  What a funny name he has!  And how creative are his culinary combinations!  Quinoa and fennel salad with mint, coriander and dill!  Lentils, radiccho and walnuts with manuka honey! 

Ms. Eating the Scenery is the devoted slave of anyone who can find new and tasty, nay, soaringly scrumptious dishes using vegetables, herbs, grains, nuts, legumes in simple yet magical ways! 

Even Ottolenghi's recipes, however, are but a starting point.  Inspiring, but endlessly revisable.  Which of course all truly great recipes are.  Ms. Eating the Scenery's addition of leeks to the sauteed spinach, she thinks, elevated this dish to truly splendid.  Her sidestepping of several of the more fussy steps resulted in a different looking dish than Ottolenghi's, but it satisfied on every level of taste.

Next time, Ms. Eating the Scenery will consider assembling this dish in a glass casserole in reverse order, so that it looks neat and contained, showing off its colorful layers.  

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BEET AND SAFFRON RICE TIMBALE
WITH SPINACH AND LEEKS
Adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi

3/4 teaspoon saffron threads
1/4 cup boiling water

3 medium beets (but roast a few more while you're at it, for pickled beets)
2 teaspoons olive oil
Salt and pepper

2 cups basmati rice
1 teaspoon salt
Grated peel of one lemon
Freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons butter
1 or 2 leeks, white and light green parts only, thinly sliced
8 to 10 ounces spinach, washed and spun (thick stems removed)
3 cloves garlic, chopped
Salt and pepper

Pour the boiling water over the saffron in a small cup or bowl.  Leave to infuse.

Wash the beets and either trim the stalks off or leave an inch or so on.  Lay beets in a Pyrex baking dish, add a quarter inch or so of water, cover the dish with foil, and roast the beets at 350 degrees for an hour or so.  If beets are varying sizes, some may need to be removed before others are done.  Beets should be tender when pierced with a knife.

Alternatively, wrap the beets in aluminum foil and roast for the same amount of time.

Cool the beets, rub the peelings off (a paper towel works nicely for this) and dice them in 1/2-inch-or-so sized chunks.  In a bowl, toss the diced beets with the olive oil, salt and pepper.

Rinse the basmati rice 'til the water runs clear.  Cook according to package directions, adding the 1 teaspoon salt, until rice is fluffy and liquid is gone.  Stir in the lemon peel and pepper.

In medium or large-ish skillet, melt the butter over medium heat.  Saute the leeks until they begin to soften.  Add the spinach, and continue to cook until spinach is comfortably wilted.  Sprinkle chopped garlic over, and salt and pepper to taste, and stir. Cook just a few minutes more, then remove from heat.

For timbale, butter a 3-quart round or oval dish well.  Lay the beets in the bottom.  Cover with half the rice, pressing down firmly.  Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of saffon water over rice.  Layer the spinch on next, followed by the remaining rice.  Press it down firmly.  Sprinkle remaining saffron water over rice.

Quickly and carefully unmold the timbale onto a serving platter.  Alternatively, layer everything in reverse order, ending up with beets on top, and serve like a casserole.

Makes 6 servings

Fresh Beet and Carrot Salad

The cinnamon in this recipe really creates a different, spicy tone to the salad.

Having only four small beets, I made this salad, that was supposed to be mostly beets, with mostly carrots. I added an apple because I wasn't sure I had enough carrots for the proper volume to absorb the dressing. And having all that gorgeous CSA parsley prompted me to up the quantity of it. So feel free to play with your beet, carrot and parsley amounts! The apple adds sweetness, so if you're looking for a tangier salad, leave it out.

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FRESH BEET AND CARROT SALAD
Adapted from an old Martha Stewart Everyday Food magazine

1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3/4 teaspoon salt

1 pound raw CSA beets, peeled
2 carrots, peeled
1 apple (optional), cored
3/4 cup torn CSA parsley

Whisk dressing ingredients in medium bowl. Shred beets and carrots (and optional apple) in food processor (I used the fine shredding disc). Mix into dressing and toss well. Toss in parsley.

Makes about 6 good-sized servings.

Beet Soup with Nine CSA Legumes

Yesterday I started craving raspberry-nectarine pie, so I know that it's season-shifting time. Could be that's why this soup, with its absolute orgy of greens, attracted me. A bunch of parsley! Spinach and chard! A bunch of scallions! Fresh mint!

I have a low tolerance for recipes that call for "one scallion, sliced" or "a tablespoon of chopped parsley." I had to trust Deborah Madison again on this one, but when I saw that I could use all the types of CSA legumes (chickpeas, lentils, 7-bean mix) , I was in. It was icing on the cake to read that "... the aromatics are added at the end, breaking the clean surface with a net of golden speckles."

I defy any adventurous cook to resist "a net of golden speckles."

Smugly, I pulled my gallon-size freezer bags of cooked chickpeas and cooked 7-bean mix that I froze from the last couple of CSA boxes. If you didn't cook extra, you'll have to start earlier to make this soup.

The finished soup is quite bracing, with the mellow but spicy onion topping a wonderful sweet contrast. All the greens and parsley give this soup a hint of spring ... and only the faintest echo of its sturdy winter cousin, borscht.

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BEET SOUP WITH NINE CSA LEGUMES
Adapted from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison

4 medium beets, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice
1/3 cup CSA lentils, sorted and rinsed

1-1/2 cups cooked CSA 7-bean mix
1 cup cooked CSA chickpeas
2 cups chopped chard or beet greens
2 teaspoons salt

1 bunch scallions, including green parts, sliced
2 cups coarsely chopped spinach
1 small bunch parsley, finely chopped

Salt and freshly ground black peper

Garnish:
3 tablespoons butter, preferably ghee
1 CSA onion, cut into 1/2-inch dice
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint
1/2 cup yogurt

Put beets, lentils and 7 cups water in a soup pot. Bring to boil, lower heat and simmer, partly covered, for 25 minutes.

Add the 7-bean mix, chickpeas, chard, 2 cups water, and 2 teaspoons salt. Cook about 5 minutes or until chard is tender.

Add scallions, spinach and parsley, and cook until spinach is wilted and bright green. Grind a little black pepper in. Taste for salt and turn off heat.

For garnish, melt butter over low heat. Add onion, turmeric and cayenne; cook until onion is soft, about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in fresh mint.

Ladle soup into bowls. Top each serving with a spoonful of garnish and a dollop of yogurt.

Golden Borscht

Winter CSAs will, I think, lend themselves nicely to soup. About the time you're looking at the bits and pieces left in your fridge, soup starts to sound good.

And I have officially used everything from the First Box! Tomorrow I get to pick up the Second Box!

I had three golden beets left from the summer farmer's market, plus some potatoes from my CSA farmer's booth, and the CSA bok choy, and some Granny Smiths from my husband's parents' orchard ... yep, it's a go. Recipe is a hybrid of six I found in various cookbooks. This borscht was so good I made a second batch of it with more beets (organic from Yoke's Market) and the other CSA bok choy. It's robust, which I think was the original borscht inventors' idea.

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GOLDEN BORSCHT

Saute 15 minutes:
1 tablespoon butter or olive oil
1 large onion, chopped or halved and sliced thinly
3 carrots, diced
6-8 kale leaves, sliced (I used one of my CSA bok choys)
or 1/2 head cabbage, sliced
1 cup diced celery

Sprinkle on and stir in:
3 tablespoons smoked paprika

Add and simmer for 1 hour:
2 quarts beef broth (I used Imagine brand organic)
1 Granny Smith apple, diced
3 beets, golden or red, diced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 can tomato paste
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 bay leaves
a few grinds black pepper

Add:
2 local potatoes, diced
pinch crushed red pepper, more if you wish

Yogurt or goat cheese
Dill

Cook 'til potatoes are tender. Remove bay leaves. Taste for salt and pepper. Serve with sour cream (or yogurt or crumbled goat cheese) and chopped dill (fresh is best, dried is okay) to top each serving.