This last recipe is an adaptation of one from Marc Sommers, executive chef of Parsley’s Custom Catering in Kennesaw, who demonstrated it at the Morningside Farmers Market a year or so ago. He says he “borrowed” this recipe from his Belarusian mother-in-law. I just had a beet-and-potato salad at an Ethiopian restaurant last night and I can’t wait to try this one.
This recipe is adapted from one by Martha Rose Shulman and published in the New York Times.
I’m always surprised by the number of people who think you can’t eat beets raw. Of course you can!
And if you scrub them well, you don’t even need to peel them. Just trim up the stem and root ends and that’s all the prep they need. Especially if you’re going to grate them.
Sadly, I do not know where this recipe came from, but as the beet harvest is winding down, thought you might enjoy one more way to use those beets. It provides very detailed directions for dealing with your beets. For those of you who are not fans of goat cheese, substitute any soft cheese, even cream cheese. This recipe is a bit of trouble, but would make a great entrée or side dish for entertaining. You can prepare everything ahead of time and refrigerate, then bake just before you need it for dinner.
This recipe came from Fine Cooking magazine, I don’t remember when! Makes 4 lovely sandwiches that will serve up some of your beets and cilantro. The recipe suggests whole wheat bread, but any loaf of bread that’s handy, sub roll, baguette …. will do. The combination of salty, tart, sweet and herbal – fabulous.
This very simple salad comes from Fine Cooking magazine. The simplest way to “roast” a beet is to cut off the leaves, leaving about an inch of stem, scrub the beet and put it into some covered container in your microwave, making sure the beet is still wet. Steam for as long as it takes it to get tender, which is going to vary by the size of the beet. 10 minutes? 20 minutes? Depends. Carefully remove from the microwave and let it cool. Properly done, the skin just peels right off. No muss, no fuss.
Elizabeth Schneider, the author of “Vegetable from Amaranth to Zucchini: The Essential Reference” (William Morrow & Company, 2001) loves root vegetables nested in their greens. She does something similar with hareuki turnips.
As best I can tell, we didn’t do a recipe for pickled beets last year, so here’s one from Linton Hopkins of Restaurant Eugene. He demonstrated this at the Peachtree Road Farmers Market Memorial Day weekend. If you’ve hoarded your beets for the past few weeks you should have plenty to make this recipe.
So after reviewing the box, I’m ready to make a salad, but not with the lettuce. How about something with cooked grains, the Chinese cabbage, and roasted beets? You can use any grain you like here – rice, bulgur, farro, millet, couscous, whatever you have on hand. The cabbage is nice for salad because every bit of that leaf is tender.
Finally, Marcia, intrepid MB photographer, helped me remember that I’ve been neglecting the beets. I tend to just roast them whole and unpeeled whenever I have the oven going, and then keep the roasted beets in the refrigerator to add to whatever appeals. But she mentioned beet soup, and that reminded me how much I like borscht.
I’m also a huge fan of Jane and Michael Stern. Do you know them? This couple from New Haven, Connecticut travels the United States eating in the most interesting places and they’ve been doing it for decades. Way before that Guy guy was torturing diners, drive-ins and dives, the Sterns were sitting down at booths in the most out-of-the way spots eating the local specialties. They really celebrated the cuisine of America and wrote a number of books. You can find them on the web at roadfood.com.
Anyway, this recipe is from their 1986 book, “Real American Food” and comes from the tradition of New York dairy restaurants. (You do know what a dairy restaurant is, don’t you?)
This is a recipe from Anne Quatrano of Bacchanalia and was published in June in Southern Living.
