Beet it
posted in Food |
When I was growing up, one of the things that I learned to look forwards to during the summer was when OmegaGranny would buy a whole bunch of beets and beet greens, cook them up, and serve plain with butter.
Mmmmmm.
Now, probably most of you are going, “Eh? Beets?” and thinking of that ghastly monstrosity perpetrated upon humanity called “pickled beets”. I can handle a slice or two of pickled beets at best. But, believe me, beets and greens are just plain good.
When OmegaDad and I were newly together, on one shopping expedition I saw a nice display of bunches of beets, and demanded he purchase and cook same. His response was, “Eh? Beets?”, and he was, indeed, thinking of pickled beets, which had been his only exposure to the plant before meeting me. So we bought them, took them home, and I prepared them the proper way: Boiling the beet roots for an hour, peeling them, chopping into small cubes, setting aside, washing the greens and slicing them, then tossing them into a tiny bit of boiling water for all of two or three minutes, draining the greens, then mixing them with the cubed beet roots and serving with butter.
He saw the light. Sort of. Beets are still not his most favorite of fresh veggies, but since he knows I looooove beets, he keeps an eye out.
OmegaDad requested, earlier this week, that I email him and remind him to put the Farmers Market into his calendar so he would remember that it’s open on Fridays only a couple of blocks from his office. Since today was sunny and beautiful (YES! It was up to 70F today! ::OmegaMom pumps her fist in a victory move:: ) and since he was oh-so-tired of dealing with the mess a coworker had made of his nice clean data in the database, he skipped out of work early, headed off to the market, and returned home with the lusciousness above.
And lusciousness it truly was. The beets were sweet and crisp, the greens slightly tart and acidic, and the butter complemented it all.
The dotter?
OmegaMom beams in delight: This child is my dotter! Woot!
The dotter eyed the beets and greens dubiously when served. But she is well aware that the rule in the house is “one or two bites of everything on your plate”, and since she has decided that her great dream is to become a chef, she has taken to being much more open to new and strange food items. So she tasted the beets.
At first she carefully pulled the beet cubes out from the greens and ate only those (eagerly). But I urged her to try the greens as well.
She wanted seconds. Of a vegetable. And when I told OmegaDad that I could eat a dinner of just beets served that way with biscuits, she said, enthusiastically, “A whole big plateful! Yum, yum!”
(We are hoping that our veggie garden actually produces beets; we have two types growing. The moose did not get the beet plants. Oh! Oh! And our decimated broccoli? That were shorn? They are fighting back, and we now have baby broccoli florets growing!)
On the menu tomorrow are those beautiful fresh green beans.
(Kate, over at High Altitude Gardening, is trying to identify a flowering plant in her garden. If you’ve got some gardening know-how, go take a look and see if you can help.)
