Pickled Beets

In the garden, the beets are beginning to look like they’re ready to eat. If I have a large crop, I’ll want to pickle some of them.

There are three steps required for good pickled beets, and all three take some time. First you need to make a good picking vinegar, then the beets need to be roasted, and finally you’ll preserve the beets in the vinegar and wait at least a month.

Pickling Vinegar

1 tablespoon whole cloves
1 tablespoon whole allspice berries
1 tablespoon pink peppercorns
1½ teaspoons white peppercorns
2 mace blades
2 cinnamon sticks
5 cups white wine vinegar

Bring to a boil, then cool slightly and pour into a glass container. Store in a cool, dark place for 2 weeks. Strain.

Now that your vinegar is ready, roast the beets. I suggest wrapping them in foil and roasting them slowly to release as much sugar as possible. As soon as the beets are cool enough to handle, peel them. Then slice, dice, quarter, or leave baby beets whole.

Put the beets into one or more sterilized jars, leaving plenty of room for the vinegar to cover them. If you wish, put some of the whole spices from the vinegar recipe into the jars as well. For spicy beets, add chiles to taste. Chipotles work nicely if you want a smoky heat.

Bring the strained vinegar to a boil and carefully pour it into the jars to cover the beets. Seal the jars and store in a cool, dry place for at least a month, or up to two months for best flavor.

If you don’t have time to make pickling vinegar, distribute the spices from the recipe evenly between the jars and add boiling vinegar. The flavors won’t have as much time to develop, but the pickle will still be okay.

Blueberry-Mint Vinaigrette

It was a very hot day for Portland, and I didn’t really want to add to the heat by warming up my kitchen. With fresh blueberries, herbs in the garden, plenty of greens on hand, and a full pantry, I didn’t need any heat.

The key component in this vinaigrette is blueberry syrup. I made some a few weeks ago by putting a 2 pints of blueberries and a cup of sugar into a food processor and pulsing a few times to purée roughly. I put the purée into a saucepan over medium-low heat, tasted and adjusted the sugar, then simmered for about 30 minutes. I poured the simmered pulp into a colander lined with two layers of cheesecloth and let it drain. The remaining pulp went into the composter, while the syrup went into a small glass container in the refrigerator, where it sat until I remembered it.

Making a vinaigrette is quite simple when you know the correct ratio of oil to vinegar, 3:1. If you didn’t know that ratio, or you did but you want more of that kind of handy information, you really must get yourself a copy of Michael Ruhlman’s Ratio. I didn’t follow the 3:1 ratio strictly, because of the lack of acidity in the ingredients I used for this vinaigrette.

Blueberry-Mint Vinaigrette

2 teaspoons fresh blueberry syrup
1 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoons riece wine vinegar (unseasoned)
4 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
2 leaves spearmint, minced
salt and pepper to taste

I added fresh blueberries, shredded mint, and diced red pepper to the mixed greens and herbs I had on hand. Simple, refreshing, and with the mint, cooling on a hot day.

Garlic Confit

Garlic confit is magical stuff. I keep some around to use in everything. I even warm up a clove or two and smear it on bread when I want garlic bread. And it’s so easy to make that you should never be without some. Let me show you.

Start by peeling a bunch of garlic–or buy pre-peeled garlic like I do–and trim the ends off each clove. Then put them into a saucepan and cover with oil. The original Thomas Keller recipe I used, and the blog post on it at Bouchon for Two, calls for canola oil. I now use extra virgin olive oil, because I prefer the flavor of olive oil, and the heat isn’t high enough to destroy the oil.

You’ll use low heat, and, if you have it, a diffuser. If you don’t have a diffuser, use a fry pan as a diffuser. You want to heat the oil until you see tiny bubbles rising, but not too many of them. Hold at that heat for about 45 minutes, until the garlic cloves are softened.

Spoon the garlic into a sterile container and then carefully pour in the oil to cover by at least half an inch. Don’t discard any of the oil if you have extra, just use it for cooking.

Beets Two Ways

Beets are magical. The tuber is sweet, especially when it’s roasted, and the greens are a tangy and nutritious addition to any meal.

When I have beets to roast I don’t mess about. I drizzle them with extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle some sel gris or kosher salt on top, cover them with foil, and put them into the oven (350°F/175°C). After about 2-3 hours (depending on the size of the beet) they should be ready. They won’t overcook if you leave them in the oven an extra quarter hour or so, they’ll just caramelize. I like to finish them with a drizzle of Villa Manodori Balsamic Vinegar.

The greens require a bit more work. A thorough cleaning is necessary, and I like to remove most of the stalk. You can braise them as-is with some onion, garlic, and maybe bacon. I used them as part of a skillet supper.

An inexpensive steak, like a round steak, is perfect for a simple skillet supper, and you can stretch a small steak to feed several people. Slice it rather thinly against the grain so that it’ll cook rapidly yet be tender. Be careful to clean it up by trimming excess fat and removing tendon and silver skin.

Chop up some aromatics–onion, sweet red pepper, some carrot if you like. Peel and dice a tomato or two, or cut some cherry tomatoes in half. Make a chiffonade from the greens, or at least tear them into smaller pieces. Get some garlic confit out of the refrigerator, or mince a clove or two of fresh garlic.

The actual ingredients really don’t matter that much, use whatever you have. The quantity doesn’t much matter either, just use more veggies than meat, and make enough for however many are eating plus one or two, because it’s mostly veggies, so you want to encourage a second helping.

Preheat your fry pan with some extra virgin olive oil–keep the heat down between medium-low and medium. Once the oil starts to shimmer, toss in the aromatics. Stir for a minute or so, then add the steak and garlic. Season lightly with salt and pepper. When the steak is mostly done, add the greens. After a couple more minutes the greens should be wilted and the steak should have given up some of its water. Now toss in the tomato and add a splash of wine. Give the tomatoes just enough time to soften, and it’s done.

A simple dish like this will be successful if you follow a few guidelines. Use lots of fresh veggies of as many colors as you can manage; you need to eat all the colors for complete nutrition, and the color makes it more appetizing. Use an inexpensive protein–no need for porterhouse here. Remember the wine! Some alcohol is vital if you want to access all the flavors and nutrients, and it’ll cook out by the time the pan is deglazed.

Finally, the most important thing to remember is that there’s no recipe, and there are no recipe police looking over your shoulder to make sure you used exactly the same things I did in exactly the same proportions. Just get into the kitchen, use what you have, and create your own skillet supper. It’ll be great!

Pantry: Caramelized Onions

When sweet onions are on special I set aside half a day to make caramelized onions because they add an incredible amount of flavor to any dish. Most recipes call for several minutes of cooking. I take at least four hours.

Start by slicing the onions. Unless the onions are small, I’ll quarter them first to avoid long strands in the finished product. Then add to a pan with about 4 tablespoons of unsalted butter. A neutral extra virgin olive oil works just as well if you want to avoid that small amount of dairy.

The heat is medium-low. Listen for cooking sounds. If you hear anything above just a whisper, the heat is too high. Stir every quarter hour or so.

After an hour, the onions are happily giving up all their water, and the volume is beginning to reduce. If you’ve used regular yellow onions, you might want to add a teaspoon or two of sugar at this point. During the second hour of cooking, the volume will reduce to about a quarter of the original amount.

Three hours into cooking the pan is mostly dry and the first signs of color appear. At this point you’ll need to start paying much closer attention. If there are any hot spots in your pan or heat source, you’ll see spots of color in the onions. Just be sure to stir more frequently and everything will be fine.

After four hours you’ll have nice color development and lots of sweetness. If you must, add a pinch of fleur de sel at this point, but I never do. Don’t walk away from the pan because the onions can burn even at the low temperature you’re using. Continue stirring until the onions have darkened as much as you want, or until your patience runs out.

That’s it. Refrigerate and use in anything that calls for onions. If you feel ambitious, proceed on to make some Sweet Onion Marmalade. Once you’ve tried caramelizing your onions this slowly, you’ll never go back to high heat.