Okay, one more post about beets, and I promise I will be done for awhile. As a kid I wasn’t fond of beets, to say the least. The first time I really enjoyed beets is when I finally gave in and tried my parents pickled beets. They were a revelation. I couldn’t believe that I had disdained these bright red root vegetables for so long, although I don’t think at age 10 I actually used the word disdained. I doubt I even knew the definition of that word at the time. Well, for the first time in my life my parents did not have to force me to eat my beets. Since then, I’ve come a long way. I love beets, and find many ways in spring and fall to incorporate them into my cooking often.

Back in October 2009 I posted a recipe for Pickled Golden Beets. You can use the same exact recipe to pickle red beets if you want. The recipe I offer up today is almost the same as that older recipe with a few small changes. Use either recipe.

Pickled Beets
makes 1 quart

1 1/2 pounds Beets
1 cup Cider Vinegar
1/2 cup Water
1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
2 tsp. Canning Salt or Kosher Salt (do not use table salt)
1 each Cinnamon Stick
10 each Cloves, whole
1 1/2 tsp. Allspice, whole
1/2 tsp. Yellow Mustard Seed
2 each Bay Leaf
1 each Onion, small

Place beets in a deep baking dish. Add 1/4 cup of water, cover with aluminum foil and bake, at 375°F for 45-60 minutes or until just barely tender. Allow the beets to cool. Peel the beets and remove any stems. The skin should slip right off the beets. Slice or dice the beets to your liking. Personally I like to cut them into larger chunks about 3/4 – 1 inch in size. Peel and slice the onion into 1/4 inch rings. Toss with the beets and place into a sterilized glass canning jar. Meanwhile, combine the rest of the ingredients in a nonreactive sauce pot and simmer for 8-10 minutes. Strain, return to the pot and bring to a boil. Pour boiling liquid over beets and onions, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Top with sterilized lid and allow to cool to room temperature. Place in fridge and allow to mature for at least 2 weeks before eating.

While I usually just make these and refrigerate them, these beets can be easily and safely canned for long term storage. Follow the same directions as above, but leave the beets slightly undercooked. Once you have covered the beets with the pickling liquid, place the lids on the jars and place in a boiling water bath and process for 15 minutes. Make sure the water covers the jars by at least 1 inch, and don’t start timing until the water returns to a boil. After 15 minutes remove the jars from the water and allow to cool to room temperature. Immediately refrigerate any jars on which the lids did not seal properly. Store the rest in a cool, dark place and they should last a year.

It’s been a long, hard couple of weeks the last few weeks. Work has been difficult as I’ve had supervisor out sick so I’ve been covering her shift, along with all of my work. It finally culminated on Friday when I had to let go of one of my supervisors. While normally I have no problems firing someone (because most often it has been because they weren’t doing the job and I have no tolerance for that kind of thing) this one was different as she had been doing a good job. Unfortunately, a drop in revenue made it necessary to eliminate a position. While the rational side of me knows I had no choice as I had to do what was best for the company, and for my remaining staff (if I didn’t lay off one then they would all have had to go to part time) the emotional side of me was wrecked over this difficult task. Unfortunately, this scenario has been playing out way too often in the recent years. Too many people I know have lost jobs due to downsizing or loss of revenue. I feel lucky that I still have a job, but my heart goes out to the many that have been unemployed for months and months. It is my hope that our elected officals can come together, put their petty partisan politics aside and come up with a solution to help the economy and the American people get back on their feet.

While I could go on and on about politics and the crappy weeks I’ve had, that’s not what you are here for so I should probably bring it back around to food. In my last post I promised a number of beet inspired dishes so today’s offering is a wonderful Autumn time side dish, Roasted Beets. Add to those beets some onion and a few cloves of garlic and you have a dish that delights both the sense of taste and smell.

While this recipe works well with red beets, I prefer to use golden, Chioggia, or candy stripe beets. These beets tend to bleed off less color than your standard red beets, keeping the onions and garlic from taking on a pinkish hue. If that doesn’t bother you or you can’t find anything other than red beets go ahead and use the red.

Roasted Beets with Garlic and Onions
serves 4

2 pounds beets (I used a mixture of golden and Chioggia beets)
1 large onion
8-12 cloves garlic
3-4 small sprigs rosemary
3 Tbl. extra virgin olive oil
salt
fresh ground black pepper

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Peel the beets and cut into 1-1 1/2 inch cubes. Place in a baking dish. Peel the cloves of garlic and place in a bowl. Peel the onion and cut into bite sized wedges and add to the garlic. Add the olive oil to the garlic and onions and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper then pour over the beets. Add the sprigs of rosemary to the baking dish then cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake. After 45 minutes minutes remove the foil, increase the temperature to 400°F and continue to cook, stirring occasionally until the vegetables are tender and slightly browned (approximately another 20-30 minutes). Serve immediately.

It’s hard to believe that it’s October already. This year seems to have flown by. I’m still trying to figure out where summer went. Some would argue that we never really had summer due to the unseasonably cool weather we had. I wouldn’t disagree with that sentiment, but I am glad to see fall arrive. With the advent of Fall, I start to think of the holidays that are just around the corner. Yes, I know that they are still a ways away, but some preparations need to be made now. My family often gives “homemade” gifts for Christmas, and in my family that usually means food, and more specifically home canned goods and homemade cordials. These are items that need to be started now as they often take months to cure and/or mature. This also gets me to thinking of our holiday meals. Our meals tend to be traditional, but elaborate affairs complemented by a number of pickles and relishes, most of which take a number of weeks between initial preparation and the time they are ready to eat.

One of my favorite of all these relishes are the homemade pickled beets and the purple pickled eggs made using the liquid from those same beets. Normally these are prepared using standard red beets, but this past Saturday, while perusing the local farmer’s market I came across some beautiful golden beets.

These were too nice to pass up so I decided to use them instead of the traditional red. I imagine that later this month I will also pickle some red beets also, as Thanksgiving and Christmas just aren’t the same without purple pickled eggs. I also plan on using the liquid, from the golden beets to try and make some yellow pickled eggs also. Don’t know how it will work, but I’m sure I’ll share my attempts here. (continue reading…)

Last Saturday while shopping at the Fond du Lac farmer’s market I came across the first beets of the season. Well, at least the first beets to arrive at the market. Excitedly, I grabbed up a couple of bunches, just thinking of all the possibilities. Life interjected and we got busy with visiting friends, work, and the daily grind. I forgot all about them. This evening as I was driving home from work, in 90 degree weather, with no AC (I know you probably don’t care, but I thought I’d share my misery with you), I remembered buying them along with some beautiful baby spinach. Being hot out, salad sounded good so I threw this salad together for a refreshing late night dinner.

Beet and Spinach Salad
2 bunches Baby Beets, tops removed (if fresh you can add the tops to the salad)
2 pounds Baby Spinach
6 slices Bacon, thick cut
4-6 oz. Blue Cheese, crumbled
1/2 cup Pistachios, shelled
1 can French Fried Onion Rings
1/3 cup Maple Syrup
1/4 cup Malt Vinegar
1/2 cup Vegetable oil (any neutral flavored oil will work)
Salt
Pepper, freshly ground

Place the beets in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook until a paring knife, when inserted into the beet, encounters little resistance. For baby beets, this should take about 12-14 minutes, depending on their size. When done, remove from heat and run under cold water to cool them. Peel and quarter the beets. The skins should slip off relatively easily. Meanwhile chop the bacon and cook, in a saute pan until crisp. Remove the bacon, leaving the bacon fat in the pan. Add the maple syrup and vinegar. Scrape up an bits stuck to the bottom of the saute pan and cook 1 minute. Add the oil, salt and pepper, tasting and adjusting the seasoning as needed. Remove from heat. Combine the spinach, beets, and bacon in a large bowl. Add the warm, not hot, dressing to the salad and toss to coat. Add the blue cheese and toss again. Taste and season with more salt and pepper, if necessary. Divide among 4 large plates and sprinkle with the pistachios. Place a small mound of the onion rings on top. This recipe serves 4 as an entree salad or 8 as a first course.