The best part of the day today was my beet salad. I don’t care how Obama feels about them, I’m crazy about fresh beets and could eat several pounds of them in one sitting. I started by steaming fresh beets—if you get the leafy kind, cut off leaves which can be steamed separately—whatever you do do not substitute with canned beets, keep the peel on for now and cut beets in half to cook them faster. When they’re done and cooled, peeling the skins off is a cinch. Slice them, dice them, cut them up as you like and put in a bowl. Add the best virgin olive oil you can get your hands on, lots of wine vinegar and pepper (I have a 5 pepper mix which is really good), add fleur de sel or sea salt to taste. Make sure you put in enough dressing ingredients to coat the beets well and also so you have extra dressing in the bottom of the bowl. Mix well. Mix some more (you want every piece of beet to be well coated with dressing). I did that part yesterday then stuck it in the fridge to marinate overnight. Today stirred and served the beets with sliced fennel bulb & apple, added some feta cheese, et voilà! Had a heaping serving of it tonight while watching Slumdog Millionaire (rented from iTunes). The movie was good—I’d say very good if it hadn’t gotten quite so much hype—a nice fairy tale, but the beets were the true stars tonight. I had to restrain myself from going in for seconds which left me room for a sorbet dessert.
Of course, if you hate beets, you’re out of luck today, because this post won’t do you much good. Then again, maybe if you try them my way, you’ll end up craving them too.
June 6, 2009
Beets Please!
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10 gave their feedback:
Obama's loss is my gain:I radically accept that other serving of your beet salad.Yum.( xxx)
I like beets but am not a lover of them but your recipe sounds really tasty and just right for summer. Pity it's raining here right now so my body is craving carbs.
Glad you had a good evening - great food, a good film, kitty company (and perhaps a glass of wine) sounds perfect :)
BTW - a new pic of Max is up on my blog if you want to take a peek.
I'll have to try it your way!
I like marinated beets once in a while as an addition to a plate of food, I find they taste quite like... earth? so it's an acquired taste.
They're so good for you though! Oh and I love them in home-made borscht, mmm!
I watched Slumdog two nights ago and loved it, even if I was prepared not to. yey!
Mum: I have one more large-ish serving left and of course was tempted to have it today but delayed gratification can be so, well... gratifying that I've decided to wait until tomorrow. After that I'll just have to buy several bunches of fresh beets and start over!
Bob-kat: I had all but the glass of wine. It's kind of strange, but for the past couple of years I very rarely even consider alcohol as an option. Maybe having spent some time with a recovering alcoholic who kept falling off the wagon has something to do with it?
I'll be right over to check out your little Maxi-boy!
Borscht is very very very yummy. Some have it cold, but to me it's a winter recipe and should be served steaming hot with a dollop of sour cream or yogourt and a thick slice of earthy bread—like pumpernickel or rye, say—spread with a generous amount of butter. Oh, I've just made myself very very hungry.
If I'd been prepared to NOT like Slumdog, then I'm sure I would have enjoyed it a lot more too. Crazy how much expectations influence our appreciation or lack thereof.
Ah, beets, a fundamental ingredient in an eastern European diet. I grew up on beets and have a pronounced fondness for them.
As a matter of fact, I love all richly-hued foods. The deeper the color the greater the appeal. It's as if I need to fill my belly with, not just nutrients but, colors as well...to always have rainbows inside of me.
Jonas: must be a wonderful feeling to always have rainbows inside you. No need to even walk down the yellow brick road to get there! :-)
I can only wish, Smiler. Most days the rainbows lurk behind gray clouds. That's why I rely on any trick available to coax them out.
Jonas: I understand more than you know. Sometimes I feel like my rainbows are trapped inside a dark cave... of coal for example. It's a long process prying them out of there without breaking them up. But sometimes for me, just having a bite of something I think is heavenly (like my beet salad or homemade sorbet or warm goat cheese on toast with really fresh mesclun salad) it does put me in touch with the fact that the rainbows are indeed still there.
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