This week, Beets, Beer Bread, and Bone Broth!
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-JT
Oh sure. Make it seem easy to do!
Bon APPETIT!!
Bless those who feed the masses.
Two things about beets, and I love beets. The tops are supposed to be very nutritious and I use them in green smoothies. They have a mild flavor that blends well with fruit.
The other thing is I roasted fresh beets and didn’t know that if you take Nexium or another acid reducer, the beet color passes right through. This scared me to death thinking I was passing serious blood....and it was a Friday night. Thank goodness for the Internet.
I love beets, but fresh ones are so expensive. I tried growing some last summer and only got teeny ones, but they were wonderful and beautiful roasted with some carrots. Next year I plan on actually preparing the soil, so my root vegetables have a chance.
Bone broth? Never heard of it, but it sounds a lot like the stocks I’ve been making for years ;) I just made some chicken stock from some chicken leg quarters that were cheap - $.29/lb. I love deals like that. I simmered ‘em for 30 min, took the meat off, them threw everything left in the pot and simmered another hour or two, with some leftover veggies. I simmer gently only, never boil. Alton Brown, who if course is never wrong, says that boiling makes the stock cloudy plus tightens up the... whatever the animal part is in the bones... so it doesn’t release as much gelatin.
I strain it, then stick it in the frig overnight, then skim off the solidified fat. If I don’t use the skin or fat, this isn’t necessary.
I put vegetables in a Ziploc bag in the freezer anytime I peel a carrot, trim celery, peel an onion. I just add them to the bag each time, and use some when I make stock. Beware that onion peels make stocks brown. Red onion peels would be an interesting addition too, wouldn’t it?
I made ham stock last week too - same process. I use it in pasta e fagioli and pea soup.
I adore canning stocks! It seems to really enhance the stock flavor and having a shelf stable stock on hand is great.
Mmmmm, Borsch!
When I was in high school I spent a year as an exchange student and lived with a Russian Jewish family in Argentina. They taught me about borsch. What we ate was like a beef vegetable soup with beets in it. Dollop with a spoonful of sour cream and it is wonderful! I usually make it with the leftover meat and juices from a chuck roast dinner.
1 1/2 lb chuck roast (small pieces, well trimmed)
4-5 C water
1 Tbsp sugar
2 small cans tomato sauce (or 1 large)
2 beef bouillon cubes
1 med onion, chopped
3 average sized potatoes, cut in 1/4” strips
2 average sized carrots, cut in 1/4” strips
1 small can butter beans
1 can beets (I use 2)
1 parsnip (optional)
2 C cabbage, chopped
Cook beef in oven until tender and browned. Let sit in refrigerator over night, and remove fat (or use left overs).
Put all in pot except beets and cabbage. Simmer until tender (maybe an hour).
About half hour before serving add beets with their juice and cabbage. Taste for salt and pepper.
Cook until cabbage is tender (20 minutes).
Serve with sour cream and black bread.
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.
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?
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
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.