Posted on 02/11/2016 4:03:51 PM PST by Jamestown1630
I've always liked canned beets, pickled or plain, and usually in salads; but I've never cooked or eaten fresh beets before. I decided to try a simple roasted beet for my first experiment.
Beets peel better if they're roasted first, so I didn't peel them at the start. Cut off the stem ends, leaving about an inch for a 'handle' (what to do with the greens will be a later project). Also, cut off any long, skinny root, and then wash the beets well - dirt seems to especially collect up near the stem.
Place the cleaned and dried beats in a bowl, drizzle with olive oil and kosher salt rubbing both all over the beets, and wrap the beets tightly in aluminum foil. Place the beet packet on a rimmed baking sheet that is also lined with foil - easier cleanup in case the beets 'leak'. Bake in a pre-heated 400-degree oven for one hour, or until a sharp knife pierces them easily.
Let the beets cool, and then remove the skins (do this in a bowl in the sink, to keep pink juice from going all over the place.) You can then slice or quarter, and salt and pepper them; and they are ready for a quick heating at serving time. They have a different, rounder flavor than canned beets, buttery and sweet - just greater 'dimension'.
There's no getting around the fact that beets are a mess to deal with; and I'm not sure I'd do them very often. But I'm not making that decision until I try making a real Borscht (does anyone have a favorite recipe?) and until I try this recipe from McCormick:
http://www.mccormick.com/Gourmet/Recipes/Salads-Sides/Roasted-Balsamic-Beets
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Another recipe I had time to try this past week was Beer Bread. A recipe by Gerald Norman has been going around the Internet for many years, so that's the one I used.
I was surprised at how this came out. I had imagined that it would have a texture like muffins, or any quick bread; but the dough looks like yeast-raised dough as soon as you stir in the beer, and the baked bread has a texture that's sort of a cross between a quick bread and an English Muffin. Even though mine was cooked a little too long, it came out very flavorful with a lovely texture.
The recipe suggests that if you like a softer bread, you should mix the melted butter into the dough, instead of pouring it on top, and I think I would prefer it that way - the outside of the bread basically 'fries' in the melted butter if the butter is poured on top, and this tends to make the outside hard.
I halved the sugar, because I wanted a more savory bread (it seems to me that you could play around with this recipe a lot, with all kinds of savory additions like herbs and cheese); and mine resulted in one that would be great with jam, just butter, or as an appetizer with almost any kind of spread:
http://www.food.com/recipe/beer-bread-73440
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We have become interested in the health benefits of Bone Broth. Last weekend we tried making it for the first time, and now have many containers of rich, gelatinous 'goo' in the freezer, ready for recipes.
I'm going to be experimenting with this and will post about the results, culinary and salutary; but for now, here is a recipe for Cream of Mushroom Soup that I'm going to try this weekend. We found it in the almost encyclopedic book on Bone Broth, 'Nourishing Broth', by Sally Fallon and Kaayla Daniel. (I've seen other FReepers mention Fallon's first book, 'Nourishing Traditions', and am anxious to get a copy of that, as well):
http://www.blogher.com/homemade-cream-mushroom-soup-recipe
-JT
Your babies sound delightful. All of ours are nesting throughout the house. It’s so tiring being spoiled & loved ; )
Another idea, are you familiar w/ nutritional yeast? My parents were old hippies & we had it on salads, popcorn, etc. It is so good on popcorn! Addictive good. Anyway, animals love the stuff! It is crammed w/ every nutrient & protein. Our 15 year old dog had a stroke around Thanksgiving & we have been hand feeding her. At Christmas I found a great pate dog food....buy one get one free! I add a bunch of yeast & mash w/ a fork & make torpedoes & she Hoover’s those down. The combo has given her a new lease on life!!!! For your cats, just sprinkle over the dry. I am using Frontier coop that my sister in love ordered from Amazon. It’s amazing stuff. You will pee electric yellow because of all the b vitamins! I took today off which is why I am posting.
Those look great! I added them to my favorites to make another day. Today I am craving bagel dogs made with little smokies. Thank you bialy thread from last night.
Me too. Liquor in this house has been pretty much reserved for cooking and baking. When my father used to bring over beer, it would end up in beer batter for onion rings. His wine is the best though!
My freezer if always full of stock but I don’t have a patience for bone broth. To extract more calcium from the bones, add a spoon of vinegar while cooking (or that’s what the internet says but either way it’s a plus with the vinegar).
Chocolate cake made with beets is really good.
Back in the 70s, I had a 1, 2, 3 beer bread recipe that was good. It used something like 1 can of beer, 1 stick of butter, 2 T sugar and 3 C of Bisquick but that might be all wrong. Whatever it was, it doesn’t work these days because they’ve changed the ingredients in Bisquick so that the dogs won’t eat it.
Back in high school, there was a guy in high school who was a royal pain in the backside who’d toss his empty beer cans out in my yard and eventually every guy in school followed suit. I’d have to pick them up every morning before school so I smelt like a brewery. One day I told him to throw out a full can and I’d make them beer biscuits. They were such a hit, I could have opened a biscuit stand. Today, the guy might have one six pack a year in the fridge. I know this because I married him. The way to a man’s heart is with beer biscuits, lol.
Your post was really helpful, thanks! I love your family calling it garbage soup. Your mention of t bone bones made me realize I haven’t had one in forever. I am now saving every single meat bone.
We have an excellent Farmer’s Market in summer, I got into fresh beets - particularly golden which are delicious and not as messy as the red. I roast them and then peel. It’s messy, of course, but dressed in my Greek salad dressing, they’re wonderful served warm or room temperature. And very nutritional. Glad you’ve discovered them!
Bone broth has taken up some of the food magazines. I’m not quite sure what it is - I guess it’s a stock made from dog bones?
Is this yeast product anything like Marmite?
APPLE COBBLER
METHOD Toss 2 peeled/chp Granny Smiths w/ 2 tb sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Spread over 8x8" sprayed pan. Top w/ batter of combined flour, baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, granulated sugar, milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla....just slightly thicker than pancake batter. Sprinkle w/ Topping.
FINAL Pour 1 3/4 cups of very hot water over the top of the whole thing- it will look unappetizing; place it directly into your oven. Bake 30 deg 45 min. Now pull it out. Cut into squares; plate.
SERVE topped w/ vanilla ice cream; drizzle with the sauce from the pan bottom. The added water combines into a rich caramel sauce.
TOPPING, mix 3/4 c brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, tsp cinnamon.
INGREDIENTS 2 large granny smith apples, peeled and chopped 2 tablespoons granulated sugar 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1 cup flour 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt, divided 2 teaspoons cinnamon, divided 3/4 cups granulated sugar 1/2 cup milk 2 tablespoons vegetable oil 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 3/4 cups packed brown sugar 1 3/4 cups hot water
Stock made from chicken, beef or lamb bones; sometimes pigs feet; sometimes fish bones. All cooked down enough to release collagen, gelatin; a rich source of minerals.
When it’s done, it looks like golden brown jelly, and can be used in all kinds of recipes - soups, sauces, etc. Supposed to be very healthy; it’s very popular now, and lots of resources are on the Web.
-JT
I saved these recipes for a bumper crop of beets we grew in the garden. I made several of these recipes and really enjoyed them.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/12/beet-recipe-recipes-photos_n_4597961.html
I love this food magazine put out by the Ontario Liquor Board. There are some great recipes here that I have tried-beet and sweet potato fries, risotto etc. I love beets in any form.
Ok! I use chicken feet to make my chicken stock. Available in so many food stores today. Just cut off those toenails, folks! And don’t use all of them in your soup: it’s like putting shredded chicken and veggies into the Dea Sea - nothing will sink!
This reminds me of a question: 19th century cookery always made something called Calf’s Foot Jelly which was considered a cure-all. I’ve always been fascinated by this.
In that both are yeast products, yes. Marmite, which I had one time many years ago, is wet like a spread while nutritional yeast ones in flake form. Sort of like fish food flakes. I put so much on popcorn that I eat the leftover at the bottom of the bowl w/ a spoon.
Comes not ones
My recipe for beer bread is about the same-sweeter, and I have played with making it savory or herb flavored etc. It is great to make quickly and eat with lots of butter.
3 cups of self rising flour
7 Tbls of sugar (more or less)
1 12 oz can of beer(not lite or 3%)
Mix till moist-do not beat, and bake @ 350 for 45 min. Add 1/4 cup of melted butter if desired, and bake additional 15 minutes.
Good enough to use for sandwiches, if we run out of bread and need a quick fix.
Bone Broth - I have for years used every turkey or chicken carcus to make broth, and recently started using Sally Fallon’s recipes from my daughter’s cook book. I also used to buy wings and necks to make broth and chicken pie as they were very inexpensive.
Now wings are expensive, necks hard to come by, and bones from beef even more so. Whenever our super market happens to have some bones or short ribs, I buy quite a lot and stick it in the freezer. During the summer, the local farmers market sometimes has beef raised locally, and soup bones or shanks can be purchased.
I like pickled beets, and sometimes can some up from our garden, if we get enough. I really like a steak with a wedge of lettuce salad, and some beets sprinkled with feta or blue cheese.
We have lots of bone broth in the freezer too. When it’s strained and cooled I pour it into the red plastic party cups and freeze, then you can repackage them or whatever. Or just know how much is in each cup for recipes, and cut the cup off the broth when ready to use in a recipe.
I love beets and almost never get them too. Just seeing yours, I want to do a roasted root veggies dish soon. Same as the beets but add some chunks of any other root veggies you like, waxy potatoes, turnips, onions (but peel the paper off the onions first so they aren’t bitter. Throw some garlic cloves in there (under other things so they don’t burn). Nothing better than roasted garlic.
Sounds so good.
I save the peelings and bits of veggies in the freezer too. We need pure vegetable broth sometimes because we keep kosher so for a dairy dish that calls for stock, we use veg. So when I have enough veggie stuff, I will make a broth only with them. It’s so much better than the water like vegetable broth you can buy.
You both need to look at this soup cookbook. It is very healthful, very Weston A Price oriented, great recipes. Everything I’ve made from it is really good. I bought it last year and I just LOVE it.
I highly recommend it and I don’t say that a lot.
I can only find chicken feet at Whole Foods. And there isn’t a WF near me any more. They do wonders for the stock. Gelatin is so healthful.
That looks good.
Does anyone have an excellent yet easy chocolate cake recipe? It’s for my very fussy birthday boy, born on Valentine’s Day. He wants a straight up delicious chocolate cake.
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