So the other evening my girlfriend Martha calls sounding a bit panicked. The conversation played out something like this....
Martha: 'Mo, my husband, the romantic that he is, just came home with a bushel, yes a bushel of golden beets for me. What do I do with them?!?'
Me: 'Wow, such a romantic.'
Martha: 'Yeah, some women get diamonds and jewelry, I get beets.'
Me: 'Well, you did say they were golden....seriously, why don't you pickle them?'
Martha (with nose scrunched I am sure): 'Hum, not really a fan and seems like a lot of work.'
Me: 'I am not a fan of a store-bought pickled beet myself, but homemade? A completely different animal (or veg as the case may be) and couldn't be easier.'
This time of year I can't get enough of all the fresh fruits and veg at the farmers markets, especially knowing that cooler months will soon be here and there won't be a farm fresh tomato to be had. So how do I prolong my enjoyment? By preserving what the market has to offer now. From berry & peach jams, to green tomato chutney, to freezing kernels of shucked corn, to pickling just about everything, from beans, to brussels sprouts to beets. Might I add that the beans and brussels sprouts are perfect garnishes for a bloody mary. Oh, and let me not forget okra, another terrific bloody mary accoutrement.
And yes, I am not kidding. Easy. To think, years ago this was a way of life....but then again so was beheading and plucking your own chicken. Given those options I am thinking, let's pickle.
Now don't feel you have to buy a whole bushel of produce in order to pickle, start with small batches to test your pickling prowess, say ten cucumbers instead of ten pounds. You will need a pickling solution, typically a vinegar or brine or a combination of both. Any type of vinegar can be used from white or cider to balsamic, and just about any type of spice can be used. You say you want a sweet pickle? Sugar then becomes part of the pickling solution.
Here is an fast and easy recipe for garlicky dill pickles. And to my friend Martha (or any of you) with the beets? Let me know if you need that pickled beet recipe.
Garlicky Dill Pickles
8-10 small pickling cucumbers (not sure? ask yoru farmer whick cuke will work)
2 cups white vinegar
2 cups water
2 tablespoons pickling salt (personally I have found that kosher works)
4 tablespoons dill seeds
4 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon red chili flakes
Sterilize four clean pint size canning jars, and lids, either in a bath of boiling water or in the dishwasher.
Trim the ends of each cucumber. Combine the vinegar, water and salt in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
Place one clove of garlic, one teaspoon of dill seed and a pinch of chili flakes in each jar. Pack in cucumbers into each jar. Pour boiling pickling solution over the cucumbers to within a 1/2 inch of the jar rim. Put lids on the jars and then place in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Remove from the bath. When you hear the lid 'pop' you know that the jar is sealed and ready to store.
moira@efete.net
Labels: Beets, Chicago Farmers Markets, cucumbers, Green City Market, okra, pickling, preserving, seasonal organic produce
I am counting down the hours until "Julie & Julia" opens at movie theaters this Friday. I am so excited to see Meryl Streep bring to life one of my idols, Julia Child. Surprising, right? Not sure how Julia feels about beets but I have had a very mixed relationship with them thru the years.
As a kid and thru my early 30's I absolutely detested beets. Blech! Just the thought of them made me shudder. Yeah? Well you grow up with them being cooked into oblivion for cold beet borscht and you tell me how much the smell of that will make you want to gobble that up? NOT. That aversion extended into the commercial pickled and canned varieties as well. Nothing worse than a grown woman having a fit in a restaurant because a pickled beet was touching her salad greens, oh so becoming.
All this 'digging in my heels' against beets ended at the Farmers Market. Week after week for years I would be drawn to the beautiful array of beets displayed at the market, deep ruby red, to the candy cane stripe of the chiogga to the orange, golden and super sweet white beets. But still I resisted.
Well, I have Lloyd Nichols, of Nichols Farm to thank for finally giving me the kick I needed to just 'suck it up', buy some beets, roast or grill them up and give them another chance. What can I say but 'thank you Lloyd', I am among the converted. What a different animal a farm fresh beet is, sweet, sweet, sweet, like candy. Just a rough chop (don't even waste your time peeling, the skins are tender enough when this fresh, and who needs the red stained fingers anywho?), a bit of olive oil, salt, pepper and thyme, throw into the oven for an hour (at 350 degrees) or on the grill and voila, a tasty, sweet dose of fiber, folate, potassium, iron, vitamin C, and only 74 calories per cup.
I have now converted quite a number of folks. Perhaps I can even convert our Commander-in-Chief (known to have quite the beet aversion) as well? I will start him off like Lloyd started with me, slowly easing in, starting with roasted beets, then move onto a homemade pickled beet, and then to really enjoy at their purest (this one even I did not move toward until this year, credit food writer Mark Bittman for moving me in this direction), a raw beet salad.
Raw Beet Salad
(as inspired by NY Times article 101 Salads by Mark Bittman)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/dining/22mlist.html?scp=2&sq=bittman%20salads&st=cse
2 cups grated beets (I like orange or golden beets for this recipe)
1/4 cup toasted walnuts
1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese or soft goat cheese
1T sherry vinegar (no sherry vinegar? cheat and use a splash of real sherry combined with some white wine vinegar)
2T extra virgin olive oil
squeeze of lemon
salt & pepper to taste
Arugula
Arrange arugula on a platter. Mix the rest of the ingredients together in a bowl and then serve on top of the arugula.
moira@efete.net
Labels: Beets, Chicago Farmers Market, Nichols Farm, seasonal organic produce
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