Day 18: March 31, 2016 - Roasted Beet Stems and Beet Greens - Part 2 - Ψητά Παντζάρια - Μέρος 2

Roasting beets sounds like something that would take a long time to make.  Roasting, in general, is a slow process that seals in flavours and juices.  But, does it always take a long time?  No, it doesn't.  Especially if you are making something like the roasted beets.  They can go into the oven alongside of anything else that you are making.  For us, we did cook the beets by themselves, because serving them with some taramasalata and some rice constitutes a whole meal, therefore we had nothing else in the oven.  That's fine.  The beets are worth it all alone.  You can do so many things with the beets once they are roasted, or you can enjoy them as they are.

Yesterday, we cleaned up the beets and separated the beetroot from the beet greens.  Today, we are focusing on the beetroot, which we will refer to as beets.  That is the common term for them, anyway, but we like the word beetroot, too.  For this recipe, beets refers to beetroot.

For this recipe, you will need the following:

Beets
1 tsp - 1TBSP oil
Salt, to taste
Ground Ginger, to taste
Crushed Red Pepper flakes, to taste
Aluminum Foil

Finish the Beets with the following:

a little red wine vinegar (to taste)
a little orange juice (to taste)
and a zest of orange to garnish

Since we started by separating the beetroots from the beet greens, we are working only with the beet roots today.  Trim off the tail ends, and discard the tails.  You also want to trim the top where the greens were connected, and make sure that all signs of the beet greens have been removed.  Then, as we mentioned above, wash the beets well, scrubbing off as much dirt and dust as you possibly can.  This will make for a shiny vegetable.

Place the beet cut side down into a square of aluminum foil -- the size and shape will vary depending on the size of your beets.  With our two really big beets, we needed longer sheets of aluminum to make sure the foil would cover the entire vegetable.

Once the beets are placed in the foil, drizzle a bit of oil over the whole beet.  You want it to run down the sides and land in the aluminum foil.

Sprinkle a bit of salt over the beet.  Some folks will choose to eliminate the salt from this recipe, but it really does enhance the sweetness and draws the moisture from the centre to the edges to keep the whole vegetable nice and juicy.  Remember, the salt is on the skin and we will be peeling away the skin after cooking.

Sprinkle a bit of ginger over the beets.  The ginger will end up being very light in the overall flavour, but somehow, that sweet spice will permeate the skin and get into the centre, and you ail leave a lingering yumminess from the ginger.  Ground ginger is much more mild than fresh, but if you have fresh ginger, you could cut a few slices and lay that in the foil pouch with the beet.

This part, you need two hands.  Fold up the edges of the aluminum foil to make a pouch.  Fold the corners up to the top - centre, and pinch the sides closed.  Remember, there is liquid in there and you don't want that to spill all over the oven.  Make tightly closed pouches.

Put the wrapped beet pouches on a cookie sheet or a baking pan so that you can move them in and out of the oven easily.  Put them in the 400º F (205º C) preheated oven for about one hour.

You will know the beets are fully cooked when you can stick a knife in the centre and the beet falls off the knife by itself.  If the beet does not fall, it is not cooked in the middle.  If you check the beets and they are not fully cooked in the centre, continue to cook for 10 minutes, check again, then go in 7 minute increments until the beets are fully soft.  Allow them to sit at room temperature for about 15 minutes until they are cool enough to handle with your hands.

Take the beets out of the foil pouches.  Now, it is time to peel them.  You can rub with your fingers to remove the skin, or you can use a small knife to start the process, and then, the skins should come off the beet like a banana peel comes away from the banana.  It will be an easy process, but your hands will end up being quite colourful!  If you are sensitive to this, please wear gloves to peel the beets.  Some people will peel beets under lightly running water.  We don't want to do that here because we don't want to wash away any of the flavour, so either rub or use a knife.

Once the beets are peeled, you have to figure out how you want to cut them. It is easies to slice, or to cut the beets in half and then slice.  Some prefer to it in cut cubes.  However you like, cut the beets.

Add the liquid from the aluminum foil pouches, too.  This will bring together all of the flavours used in making these roasted beets.  

Sprinkle them with a little red wine vinegar and a bit of orange juice. Toss the beets in the bowl to make sure they are all coated with the liquids.  Adjust the salt if you need to, and serve the beets warm or cold on top of a bed of beet greens from yesterday.  Then, to make it all come together, use the leftover liquid from the bottom of the bowl to drizzle over the beets and the greens.  That is when you will get the flavours of the orange and ginger to bring everything together.

Then, you are free to enjoy the vegetables of your labours (we cannot call them fruits).

"A man who is kind, benefits himself, but a cruel man hurts himself"

Book of Proverbs: 11:17