The Whole Beet and Nothing But the Beet

Roasted Beetroot with Sauteed Beet Greens

“…The beet is the ancient ancestor of the autumn moon, bearded, buried, all but fozzilized; the dark green sails of the grounded moon-boat stitched with veins of primordial plasma; the kite string that once connected the moon to the Earth now a muddy whisker drilling desperately for rubies.”

- Tom Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume

Tom Robbins, one of my all-time favourite writers, brings the lesson of the beet wonderfully alive in his novel Jitterbug Perfume. I love his imagination, his wordplay, and his unique appreciation of myth, humanity and vegetables. But, this is a blog for sharing recipes and not book reviews, so back to the beets.

I enjoy the whole beet and, when I am fortunate enough to get fresh whole beets, here is how I prepare them. One vegetable gives you two side dishes. Basically, the beetroots are roasted, which makes them sweeter and easier to peel, and the greens are sautéed. In the photographs here, I used both red and golden beets, because I was lucky enough to find them at a farmer’s market. Whatever their colour, beets are delicious, but I must admit having the two colours made for a more interesting plate.

Two Side Beets

Preheat oven to 350º F.

1 or 2 bunches of beets with greens (about 10-12 whole beets)

4 tbsp olive oil, divided into 2 tbsp and 2 tbsp

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp chopped onion

salt and pepper to taste

1 tbsp red wine vinegar or 2 tbsp melted butter

Slice the beet greens

Wash the roots and the greens of the beets thoroughly. Remove the greens and give them another rinse. Remove any large stems, tear the leaves or cut them into strips, and set them aside. Do not peel or cut the beetroots; leave them whole.

Toss beets in olive oil before roasting

In a baking dish or roaster, place the beetroots and toss them with 2 tbsp of olive oil. Use more olive oil, if needed, to cover all the beetroots. Cover the dish with foil and bake for 45 to 60 minutes, or until you can easily cut through the largest beet. Remove from oven and let cool slightly. If you want, you can peel the beetroots now.

Peel beets, if desired, after roasting

Beet greens cooked until tender

When the roasted beets are almost done, heat the remaining 2 tbsp of olive oil in a frying pan over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and onion and sauté for a minute or two. Add the greens. Cook, stirring frequently, until the greens are wilted and tender. Season the greens with salt and pepper.

To serve: Place the greens on a platter. Cut the beetroots into slices or wedges and arrange on the greens. Drizzle the beets with red wine vinegar or butter. Serve immediately.

Printable Recipe for Two Side Beets

Two for the Grill

Balsamic Honey Tenderloin

How does a barbecue meal come together at your house? Around here, it takes two. I do the prep in the kitchen and my husband handles the grilling. It works well for us except that over the years we’ve become so used to our roles that neither of us is really comfortable with switching over (plus I am not a big fan of fire of any kind, so our system is okay with me.)

Last weekend we two had a lovely meal out on the deck. We enjoyed balsamic honey tenderloin, potato and onion packets and coleslaw. The tenderloin recipe came from Canadian Living/The Barbecue Collection: a really big cookbook full of recipes you’ll want to try. The recipe said we’d have a delicious crust on the meat, but that didn’t happen. However, it was so tasty and so melt-in-your-mouth good that we didn’t miss the crust. The leftover pork was equally good the next day. The potato and onion packets are something we’ve been making for years (and you probably have your own version of it, too) so I thought it was a good idea to write it down somewhere. For convenience, I used bagged coleslaw and tossed it with bottled coleslaw dressing and a few little extras to make it my own (think celery seeds, caraway seeds, a teaspoon of sugar and maybe some extra mayo).

MA’s Balsamic Honey Tenderloin

from Canadian Living/The Barbecue Collection Cookbook

Pork skinned and marinade mixed

2 pork tenderloins, about 12 oz each

2 tbsp liquid honey

2 tbsp grainy mustard

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp olive oil

1 clove garlic, minced

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

Remove any silverskin (connective tissue) from the pork.

Mix together honey, mustard, vinegar, oil, garlic, salt and pepper.

Brush with marinade and turn occasionally

Put the pork in a non-metal dish and pour marinade over it. Turn the meat to coat. Marinate for 20 minutes or, refrigerated, for up to 1 day. (We marinated ours for about 8 hours.)

Remove pork from marinade, reserving the marinade to brush on as a glaze as the meat grills.

Place pork on greased grill over medium-high heat. Brush with marinade. Grill, covered, turning occasionally, until just a hint of pink remains in centre (about 160º F), about 18 minutes.

Sliced and ready to enjoy

Transfer meat to cutting board; tent with foil and let rest for about five minutes before slicing.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Printable Recipe for MA's Balsamic Honey Tenderloin

 

MA’s Grilled Potato and Onion Packets

Potato and onion with seasonings

3 Russet potatoes, sliced thinly - almost, but not quite through, to the bottom of the potato

1 white onion, thinly sliced

olive oil

sea salt or seasoning salt (I used a roasted garlic and sea salt seasoning)

pepper (I used freshly ground red, white and black pepper)

Cut heavy-duty aluminum foil or two layers of regular foil into 3 - 12” squares (or larger pieces if needed to accommodate the potatoes).

The packet

On each piece of foil, place a sliced potato. Put slices of onion between each slice of potato. Spray or drizzle a little olive oil over the potato and onions. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Repeat with other two potatoes and remainder of onion slices.

Wrap foil around the potato and onion to make a packet.

Place the packets on the grill over medium high heat. Cover and cook for 30 to 40 minutes, turning once or twice as they cook.

Grilled to perfection!

Remove packets from grill and open carefully. After all, it is a hot potato in there. Turn out into serving dish. Hungrier folk may wish to have a whole packet to themselves and that’s okay, too.

Printable Recipe for MA's Potato and Onion Packets

Baked Beans with Apples

Baked Beans with Apples - so good!

This post goes out to my nephew Adam who really enjoys these baked beans.

This is another recipe inspired by Mme Benoit. The original is found in her Cooks at Home book, published in 1987. It is a true French Canadian recipe featuring maple syrup and was passed down through five generations of her family. Never one to be bound by tradition, I’ve made some changes: substituting bacon for the original salt pork and brown rice syrup for the maple syrup (because that’s what I had on hand), adding some molasses, and omitting the optional half cup of rum poured over the apples just before serving. Burying the mustard-covered onion in the beans is part of Mme Benoit’s original instruction. And yes, you can eat the onion when the beans are all baked. It’s mushy good by then.

About the pre-cooked beans: I began by using the Short Soak Stove Top Beans method described in an earlier post. If you follow that post, remember to double the amounts to get the measure of pre-cooked beans needed for this recipe and keep the cooking water, because you will use it in this recipe. If you use another method to pre-cook the beans or want to use canned beans instead, you will need 12 cups of pre-cooked beans and you will need to add enough water to just cover the beans.

About the brown rice syrup: Brown rice syrup is about half as sweet as sugar. It’s said to offer some health benefits over some other sweeteners and that’s how it wound up in my pantry. Last year, there was a lot of controversy about arsenic in brown rice syrup. After looking into the brand of brown rice syrup I have been using from Lundberg Family Farms, I am satisfied with the safety of their products. If you are interested, you can check them here. What’s really surprising to me in the whole debate is that neither Canada nor the US set limits on the levels of arsenic in foods. If you are interested in the issue, the University of Guelph Food Safety Network is a good place to start your reading.

About the maple syrup: Of course, good old Canadian maple syrup is authentic, tasty and has health benefits, too, and you can check them out here.

All that being said, whether you use brown rice syrup or maple syrup, I hope you will try making these delicious baked beans with apples. They go great with a cooked ham and a crowd of hungry people. Just ask Adam.

Baked Beans with Apples

Get ready for the bean pot

Preheat oven to 325º F.

4 cups dried navy beans, pre-cooked to make about 12 cups, and the water in which they were cooked (I used my Short Soak Stove Top Beans method)

4 strips of bacon to line pan

½ lb bacon, chopped

1 large onion, peeled and sliced in half

1 tsp dry mustard

1 cup brown rice syrup or maple syrup

Bacon strips to line pan

1 tbsp coarse salt

½ cup molasses

2 to 4 apples, well washed, unpeeled, cored and sliced

1 cup brown sugar

½ cup butter

Line a large, deep baking pan with bacon strips.

Place the pre-cooked beans and their cooking water on top of the bacon strips.

Burying the onions

Mix in the chopped bacon.

Cover the onion halves in dry mustard until all of the mustard sticks to them. Bury the onion halves in the middle of the beans.

Add the syrup and molasses to the beans.

Sprinkle the coarse salt over the beans.

Cover and bake for 3 hours. Remove from oven and stir beans gently. If they are getting dry, slowly add hot water to them.

Cover and return to oven for 1 hour.

Topped with apples, brown sugar and butter

Meanwhile, prepare the apples for the topping and cream together the brown sugar and butter.

Remove beans from oven and uncover. Place the apple slices on top of the beans, as close together as possible. Spread with sugar and butter mixture.

Return to the oven, uncovered, for 1 hour.

Serve some of the apples with each portion of beans.

Makes about 12 to 14 servings.


Printable Recipe for MA's Baked Beans with Apples

Dig into baked beans with apples

Why I love roasted veggies

Roasted vegetables: Potatoes, mushrooms, carrots

For dinner last night, I was trying out a new way to bake chicken breasts that I had seen on a tv commercial for Hellman's mayonnaise (very good, by the way, and you can get the recipe at parmesan crusted chicken). I was thinking about a suitable side. I decided on roasting some vegetables.

I love roasted vegetables for a variety of reasons.

• I can mix and match whatever fresh veggies I have on hand. Yesterday, I used 2 pounds of mini-potatoes, a handful of whole mushrooms, a couple of carrots and, as always, a few teaspoons of minced garlic.
• Preparation is easy. Aside from giving the veggies a good wash (which you would do anyway),  cutting up a few of the larger, denser vegetables, throwing them in a baking dish with some oil and seasoning, and giving the whole thing a stir now and then while they're in the oven, there is nothing fancy about it.
• You can vary the seasonings. Oil and spices are great on their own. Or try a little maple syrup or balsamic vinegar or whatever suits your tastes and your menu.
• Roasted veggies stand alone as a delicious side or play well with others in salad, pasta and grain dishes. 

Roasting vegetables is a kitchen basic. Here's how I do it.

1. Use a baking sheet or large casserole dish. For easy clean-up, you can cover the bottom with aluminum foil or parchment paper. Spread or spray a good coating of olive oil over the bottom and sides of the dish.
2. Clean your vegetables. You can leave the skins on the vegetables as they will be delicious.
3. Think about which vegetables will take longer to cook (for example dense veggies like potatoes, turnips and yams). Cut those into smaller pieces. The idea is to have all the vegetables evenly cooked through at serving time.
4. Place the vegetables in the cooking dish. Be sure they aren't crowded. They need room to brown and get crispy on the outside.
5. Add olive oil and your favourite spices (salt and pepper are a good start; rosemary is always nice) and toss the vegetables until they are nicely coated with the oil and seasonings.
6. Roast the vegetables for 50 to 60 minutes at 400 degrees F. You can lower the oven temp to 375 and cook the veg a bit longer. I like to do this if I am cooking something else at the same time - like the chicken breasts. It is a good idea to stir or turn the vegetables a few times while they are cooking.
7. Eat your vegetables.

Feta not Chedda Scalloped Potatoes

Scalloped Potatoes with Feta

I like goat milk feta. In fact, I like it so much that I buy a big container of it so I will always have it on hand to put into a salad or top a pizza. Not long ago I tried using feta instead of cheddar in scalloped potatoes. The result was a creamy and salty and oh so good casserole. In fact, I may not go back to cheddar.

After checking out some scalloped potato recipes online and in my cookbooks, I put together this recipe. I used Russet potatoes because that’s what was in the pantry, but I think any potatoes would work well. I boiled them for fifteen minutes and then sliced them. This helped ensure that I wouldn’t find a partly cooked potato slice in the finished casserole and it cut down on the time the casserole had to spend in the oven. Then I made a basic white sauce with onion, garlic and some Greek-style spices, and layered the whole thing together with feta cheese.

We had the potatoes with some Italian sausages and steamed vegetables. We were really happy to have some leftover for the next day. I look forward to making these again, really soon.

MA's Scalloped Potatoes with Feta

Slice pre-cooked potatoes

Preheat oven to 375° F.

6 fist-sized potatoes, well scrubbed

4 tbsp butter

1 onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

4 tbsp flour

½ tsp each basil, rosemary, and oregano or 1 ½ tsp Greek spice mix

2 cups milk

1 cup feta cheese

Layer potatoes, feta and sauce

Boil potatoes for about 15 minutes. This reduces cooking time for the dish and helps ensure potatoes are evenly cooked.

Drain potatoes and cool them enough to handle them comfortably. Cut potatoes into thin slices.

Melt butter in saucepan. Sauté onion and garlic in butter until softened. Add flour and spices to butter, onion and garlic and stir until well mixed.

Gradually add milk to flour mixture, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens into a sauce.

In a lightly buttered 2 ½ quart casserole dish, layer potato slices, feta cheese, and sauce until dish is filled. Crumble some feta on top.

Ready to serve

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Printable Recipe for MA's Feta Scalloped Potatoes

Homey & Elegant Wild Rice Casserole

Wild Rice Casserole 

This is a casserole I've been making for many years. It brings together wild rice and mushrooms in a way that is at once homey and elegant. It's a favourite with our family and makes any meal a special occasion.

The original recipe comes from a 16-page, type-written handout from the Minnesota Paddy Wild Rice Research and Promotion Council. I don't remember how I came to get it. The introduction to the recipes explains that, in 1981, the Council brought together a small group of food editors from national magazines "for two days of seeing and learning about wild rice." This included "a comprehensive wild rice preparation workshop in the kitchen of Beatrice Ojakangas where they spent a morning cooking wild rice and sat down to what was described as 'probably the largest all-wild rice meal ever prepared in Minnesota!'"

The recipe here is my own spin on one of Beatrice Ojakangas' recipes. If you'd like to know more about this renowned chef and cookbook author and check out some of her more recent recipes, visit beatrice-ojakangas.com.

MA's Wild Rice and Mushroom Casserole

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Lining up ingredients

2/3 cup uncooked wild rice

2 cups water

½ tsp salt

½ lb fresh mushrooms, sliced

½ cup butter

¼ cup flour

1 tsp salt

½ tsp dried marjoram leaves

½ tsp dried thyme leaves

2 cups milk

3 tbsp dry sherry or port

¼ cup (about 8 crackers) crushed soda crackers

2 tbsp butter, melted

Sprinkle flour mixture over mushrooms

Wash wild rice in three changes of hot tap water. Place the wild rice, water and ½ tsp salt into saucepan. Bring to boiling. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 30 to 40 minutes or until wild rice is tender. Drain any excess water.

In a large fry pan, sauté mushrooms in butter over low heat about 5 minutes or until mushrooms are soft.

Mix together flour, salt, marjoram and thyme. Sprinkle mixture over mushrooms, then stir until mushrooms are coated.

Stir in milk. Bring mixture to boil and then reduce heat to low. Cook until thickened, stirring frequently.

Add sherry or port.

Add cooked wild rice to pan and stir well with love.

Butter a 2-quart casserole dish. Place rice/mushroom mixture into dish.

Mix together cracker crumbs and melted butter. Sprinkle over casserole.

Bake uncovered 30 minutes.

For Future Enjoyment: Let casserole cool. Cover tightly with casserole lid or plastic wrap. Label and place in freezer for up to one month. To reheat from frozen, remove from wrap/container. Place in 375° F. oven and heat until warmed through, 35-45 minutes. If thawed, warm through for about 20 minutes. Serve while warm.

Printable Recipe for MA's Wild Rice and Mushroom Casserole

Easy Pork Tenderloin and Cabbage

Don't forget the apple sauce.

If you are looking for an easy to make main dish, you are in the right place. A little mustard, some dried herbs and your pork tenderloin is ready in less than an hour. While it's cooking, make some apple braised cabbage to go with it.

If you are lucky enough to have any leftover pork, build yourself some pork sandwiches. Try one with jalapeno cheese, mustard mayonnaise and crunchy romaine on some nice grainy bread. Or get out your grill pan and create a pork, apple slice and Swiss cheese panini. But first, you'll have to cook the tenderloin. And here's how.

MA’s Herbed Dijon Pork Tenderloin

Preheat oven to 350° F.

2 tbsp Dijon mustard

1 tsp dried rosemary

½ tsp dried thyme

¼ tsp peppercorns, crushed

1 lb pork tenderloin

In a bowl, mix together mustard, rosemary, thyme and peppercorns.

Ready for the oven

Spread mustard mixture over pork.

Put pork in roasting pan.

Bake about 35 to 45 minutes or until the pork is no longer pink inside. For best results, use a meat thermometer and cook pork until it registers as well done.

Cut into thin slices to serve.

Makes 3 servings.

Printable Recipe for MA's Herbed Dijon Pork Tenderloin

MA’s Apple Braised Cabbage

 ½ medium cabbage, green or red
1 cooking apple

1/3 cup water

¼ cup apple cider vinegar

2 tbsp honey

salt and pepper

Cored and sliced

Remove outer leaves and core from cabbage. Slice thinly.

Peel, core and slice apple.

In a large frying pan that has a lid, combine cabbage, apple, water and vinegar. Stir and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat and cover pan. Simmer, stirring occasionally, about 45 minutes or until cabbage is tender.

Stir in honey and salt and pepper.

Cabbage-y goodness

Makes 4 servings.

Printable Recipe for MA's Apple Braised Cabbage