Heat & Knives » Beets

Beet Puree with Goat Cheese and Chervil on Spoon

Heat & Knives — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 08:40:54 +0000

I served a “beet salad” on a tasting spoon as an hors d’oeuvre at my recent dinner party.

This hors d’oeuvre was a symbol of working in New York City. I don’t know what it is, but it seems New Yorkers love beats. I’ve worked at 6 restaurants so far in NY, and 5 of the 6 had a beet salad on the menu, and one of them had two! (At Aquavit – a fancier one for the dining room tasting menu, and a simpler one for the cafe.) So I thought it was funny that I’ve made 6 different beet salads, so I made my own version and put it on a tasting spoon. I did a play off the classic combination of beets and goat cheese. I pureed the beets, dropped a dollop on the spoon, and topped it with a piece of goat cheese, and a leaf or two of Chervil. What I did was redefine the beet salad, so you could have a taste of it on a spoon.

Sautéed Beets in Cream from Normandy, France

Heat & Knives — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 08:27:22 +0000

Normandy is dairy land, and cream finds its way into many of the northern French region’s dishes. In this recipe, cream coats sauteed beet slices with its luxurious richness, and its ivory color contrasts beautifully with the ruby red root vegetable. A sprinkle of chives is all that’s needed to finish this rustic French dish.

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The Recipe

Source: The Lutèce Cookbook by André Soltner

2 pounds red beets
salt
1 tablespoon vinegar
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
pepper, fresh ground
3 garlic cloves, peeled, green germs removed, and chopped fine
2 tablespoons chopped chives, or chopped parsley
3/4 cup heavy cream

Wash the beets. Put them in a pot and cover them with water. (The pot should not be full. There should be at least 1 inch between the surface of the water and the top of the pot.) Add 1/2 tablespoon of salt and the vinegar. Bring to the boil, cover, and cook at a slow boil until tender–about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. The beets are ready when a knife goes into them easily.

Set the pan aside and let the beets cool in the water. It is best not to refrigerate them.

Remove the skins, and pull off the roots and stems of the beets with your fingers. Cut the beets in 1/8-inch slices.

In a skillet, heat the butter. Add the beets. Add salt and pepper to taste. Sauté for 8 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté for 2 minutes more.

Add 1 tablespoon of the chives (or parsley) and the cream. Bring to the boil, and simmer for a few minutes. Put the beets on a plate, and sprinkle them with the remaining chives (or parsley). Serve hot.

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The Title: Sautéed Beets in Cream from Normandy, France
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Braised Short Ribs with Semolina Pearls, Fall Roots, and Mushrooms

Heat & Knives — Thu, 13 May 2010 06:54:21 +0000

Short ribs – what a delicious cut, and fun to cook – crank the heat and sear the crap out of them to get a dark, rich crust, then simmer them gently until they’re so tender, that big bone slides right out of the meat.

I found a recipe for braised short ribs in the cookbook of The Red Cat, a popular, casual neighborhood restaurant in NYC. There they load up the dish with several different delicious, sautéed vegetables like baby carrots, baby beets and turnips, and mushrooms, as well as Israeli couscous, and make a sort of stew of the whole thing.

Cooking the vegetables separately keeps them firm, so that they hold their shape and can be used as garnish. It also provides textural contrast to the short ribs, which become so tender you could almost eat them with a spoon.

The Israeli couscous is really cool too – I had never cooked with it before. The little dots soak up the sauce and become shiny balls of flavor. Their white color is also a nice color contrast against the darkly seared meat.

I made one change to the recipe. Rather than reserving only a portion of the cooking liquid for use in the stew – and discarding the rest – I reduced down all the liquid (after straining it) to a stew consistency, which gave me a more flavorful, concentrated broth. However, the liquid became a little sweet as it reduced – this is from the caramelization of the meat and vegetables. I corrected this by adding a little red wine vinegar, which balanced the flavor nicely.

Heat & Knives

The Recipe

Source: The Red Cat Cookbook by Jimmy Bradley

½ cup plus 2 tablespoons canola oil
4 pounds bone-in short ribs, about 8 ribs
salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 large carrot, peeled and coarsely chopped
½ onion, coarsely chopped
2 stalks celery, coarsely chopped
2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
2 sprigs rosemary
2 sprigs thyme, plus 1 tablespoon chopped thyme
2 cups robust red wine, such as Shiraz or Zinfandel
6 cups white chicken stock
2 cups veal stock
1 beefsteak tomato, coarsely chopped
1 cup Israeli couscous
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
5 ounces cipollini onions
5 ounces baby carrots, trimmed and peeled
5 ounces baby golden beets, trimmed (if using larger beets, peel and halve or quarter them)
5 ounces baby white turnips, trimmed (if using larger turnips, peel and halve or quarter them)
5 ounces button mushrooms, larger ones halved
1 tablespoon butter, at room temperature
2 tablespoons sliced parsley

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Pour ¼ cup of the canola oil into a heavy-bottomed roasting pan and heat it on two stovetop burners over high heat. Season the ribs with salt and pepper, carefully add them to the pan without crowding, and sear on all sides, approximately 7 minutes per side. Don’t be shy – go ahead and let them develop a nice dark crust.

Transfer the ribs to a plate and pour off and discard all but 2 tablespoons of fat from the pan. Add the carrot, chopped onion, celery, and garlic, and cook until softened but not browned, approximately 4 minutes. Add the sprigs of rosemary and thyme and the wine, bring to a boil, and boil until reduced by half, approximately 5 minutes. Add the chicken stock, veal stock, and tomato. Season lightly with salt and pepper, and bring to a boil. Return the ribs to the pan. (If the liquid does not cover the ribs, add more chicken or veal stock, or water.) Cover with foil and braise in the oven for 2 hours, or until the meat is tender and pulls away from the bone with the tug of a fork. As the ribs braise, periodically check on them to be sure the liquid isn’t boiling aggressively; it should be at the mildest of simmers. If it’s boiling violently, reduce the temperature by 25 degrees; if it isn’t bubbling at all, raise it by 25.

Meanwhile, bring a small pot of salted water to a boil. Add the couscous and boil until al dente, approximately 8 minutes. Drain, toss with the extra-virgin olive oil, and set aside.

After the ribs have been braising for approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes, cook the vegetables: Heat 2 tablespoons of the canola oil in a wide, deep, heavy-bottomed saute pan over medium-high heat. Add the cipollini onions and baby carrots and saute until cooked through and tender to a knife-tip, approximately 12 minutes. Transfer the onions and carrots to a bowl, pour the oil out of the pan, and add 2 tablespoons fresh canola oil. Heat over medium-high heat, add the beets and turnips, and saute until tender to a knife-tip, approximately 10 minutes. Transfer to the bowl with the onions and carrots. Replace the oil as before with 2 tablespoons fresh oil, and heat over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and saute until just softened, approximately 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms to the bowl with the other vegetables and set aside.

When the ribs are done, use tongs or a slotted spoon to set them aside. Pour the braising liquid through a fine-mesh strainer set over a bowl and discard the solids. Transfer the reserved cooked vegetables to a pot, add just enough braising liquid to make a nice, stew-like sauce (about 1 ½ cups liquid), and stir in the couscous. Stir in the chopped thyme and butter and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Spoon some of the couscous over each of 4 plates, making sure to get a good mix of vegetables in each spoonful. Top with the ribs, garnish with parsley, and serve.

Note to the cook: Israeli couscous isn’t really a grain; it’s pearls of semolina that resemble couscous, so I refer to it as “semolina pearls” in many of my recipes.

This was printed from: Heat & Knives
The site URL: http://www.heatandknives.com
The Title: Braised Short Ribs with Semolina Pearls, Fall Roots, and Mushrooms
The URL: http://www.heatandknives.com/2010/05/braised-short-ribs-with-semolina-pearls-fall-roots-and-mushrooms/

Roasted Beet Salad with Squash Puree and Arugula

Heat & Knives — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:09:23 +0000

Beets & Squash

This is a little salad I put together one day. A lot of restaurants serve beet salads with a streak of goat cheese across the plate, so I thought why not replace the cheese with a puree of butternut squash, which goes very well with beets.

It’s a simple dish, and very easy to put together. Get some red, golden, and striped baby beets. Toss with some olive oil, salt, and pepper, and place in a roasting pan. Add a little water to the pan, and cover the pan with foil. This will steam the beets a little to keep them from drying out. Not too much water – you’re roasting the beets, not simmering them.

Cut the squash in half and remove the seeds and pulp. Drizzle some olive oil around and sprinkle salt and pepper.

Roast the squash and the beets at 350, the beets for about 45 minutes and the squash for 45-60 minutes, until fork tender.

Peel the beets while still warm – the skin will slip right off. Use a kitchen towel. Cut the beets in half or quarters, depending on size.

Scoop out all the flesh from the squash and place in a food processor, puree until smooth. Taste and season.

With a spoon, place a dab of the puree on each serving plate. Toss the beets with olive oil, salt, pepper, and chives. Arrange the beets in two lines down either side of the puree, alternating the colors. Toss some arugula with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and place in the middle. Serve right away, so the arugula doesn’t wilt and the beets don’t bleed into the squash.

Making squash puree

Roasted Beet Salad with Oranges and Curry Vinaigrette

Heat & Knives — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:22:16 +0000

So far every restaurant in New York that I’ve cooked at has had at least one beet salad, and they’re all as different as can be. Some use big red beets, some use baby beets; some are served with goat cheese, others with pistachios. The beet salad is a fun menu item because it’s so colorful, and the beets’ versatility allows for many different interpretations.

In this version of the beet salad, the beets are flavored with a lively curry vinaigrette. Orange segments add some juicy acid and color, and parsley throws in some green. This recipe comes from a book by the CIA called Garde Manger: The Art and Craft of the Cold Kitchen.

Roast in a pan covered with foil, with a little water to keep them moist

Toasting spices for curry powder

Doing it old school - grinding curry powder in mortar and pestle - all I have at the moment is that tiny mortar & pestle, so it took a while...

Making curry oil

Curry oil - dark and aromatic

Curry vinaigrette

Note: For this recipe, you will need to first make curry-infused oil (3rd recipe), then use that to make curry vinaigrette (2nd recipe). Yes that’s three recipes for one salad, but in the process you will learn to make a delicious and unique vinaigrette that would also be delicious over chicken, potatoes, etc.

Heat & Knives

The Recipe

Source: Garde Manger: The Art and Craft of the Cold Kitchen by the CIA

Roasted Beet Salad

Yield: 10 servings

4 beets, greens trimmed to 1 inch (about 2 pounds)
salt, as needed
3 oranges, cut into suprêmes (segments)

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Arrange the beets in a 2-inch half hotel pan; add water just to cover the bottom of the pan. Season with salt. Cover with foil and roast until fork tender, approximately one hour depending on size.

While the beets are roasting, combine dressing ingredients.

Trim the beets, slip off the skin, and slice into 1/4-inch rounds. The slices should also be halved or quartered as needed to provide a uniform size. Add the dressing while still warm.

Let rest at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before serving or cooling for storage.

Alternate the sliced beets with orange slices, but be sure to assemble this at the last minute or the beets will bleed onto the oranges.

Curry Vinaigrette

For 1 cup:

3 tbsp cider vinegar
2 tbsp orange juice
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tbsp honey
1 tsp minced ginger
1 tsp minced lemongrass (optional)
4 ounces Curry-Infused Oil
pinch of salt and black pepper, to taste

Combine the vinegar, orange and lemon juice, honey, ginger, and lemongrass.

Whisk in the curry oil gradually.

Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.

Curry-Infused Oil

5 oz sunflower oil
3 tbsp curry powder

Heat the oil in a small saucepot with the curry powder until approximately 150 F. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Strain the oil into a bottle or other clean container. Allow to cool, and recap.

Store in a cool, dark area. Use within 3 to 4 days.

This was printed from: Heat & Knives
The site URL: http://www.heatandknives.com
The Title: Roasted Beet Salad with Oranges and Curry Vinaigrette
The URL: http://www.heatandknives.com/2009/12/roasted-beet-salad-with-oranges-and-curry-vinaigrette/

Toss the beets with the curry vinaigrette