DAY 1Today I decided to cook. I had these beets I bought at Whole Foods, which I love and often buy outrageously expensive groceries from that I do not use, because Whole Foods makes everything tempting. I decided to get the beets because of Tom Robbin's book Jitterbug Pefume, which is amazing and all about beets. It is inspiring. :-)
Anyways, I bought these beets and decided on a dinner featured on Rachel Eats Food
for Seasame Crusted Salmon with Beets. I was excited all day and unfortunately realized when I got home that I had read the post wrong. I thought it said Beet Crusted Salmon (is that even posible?). Small snafu - I realized I did not have sesame seeds and that I do not think I like beets plain. I was not daunted. I was determined there was a recipe for Beet Crusted Salmon (ummm... there wasn't). I scoured gourmet foodie sites. Instead, I found a recipe - a v. complicated one albeit for a yummy mustard salmon and then decided to do something else with the beets. I found this: Roasted Beet Risotto. Delush. Disaster ensues...
First of all I began to make the complicated Salmon. I kept getting distracted by a) not having the ingredients b) not knowing what I was doing and c) running over to the computer to look at the recipe in the middle of the complicated steps. Did I mention my kitchen is the smallest in the world (photos coming soon) and has NO counterspace!?! tricky... First of all my biggest issue with cooking is that I never read the entire recipe before I begin or during. I skim and realize halfway in I am doing it wrong or cannot do it because I do not own a crucial ingredient. This was the case here. I had some salmon in my freezer for months, but I did not have heavy cream, whiskey (seriously shocking!) or a peppercorn. (I also did not know how to convert pints or other metric measurements into American portions fast enough which was difficult to do while watching a salmon steak. Lots of guessing and frantic googling... ) Whatever I improvised. I did have goatsmilk, cognac, and plain ol' pepper. When the sauce needed thickening I thought of gravy and added some flour -it worked! The hardest thing was monitoring all the heat settings involved in cooking... it was stressfull. It is very hard to watch all the things cooking at once!
The risotto was a different story...
Ok, I roasted the beets. I looked it up online, read carefully and did this: first, wash and scrub the beets - your hands turn really pink, hot hot pink. Then cut them up - dicing, I believe. Then get 1/4 c olive oil, liberal sprinkling of sea salt (surprisingly I own some, but my fiance had to run out and get olive oil for me), shake it up and wrap the beets in aluminum foil. Cook on 350 or 375 depending on your oven for about 40 minutes covered and 20 minutes uncovered. They are SOOOOOO yummy yummy yummy when you eat them just like that! I did not peel - too lazy and scattered.
Then I had to puree the beets with chicken stock. I had some broth, but not enough so I mixed with veggie broth.
I used my blender to puree, which unfortunately the bottom blade part was NOT securely screwed on and chicken/veggie broth dyed bright beet-y pink came pouring out everywhere! All over the stove and the floor. In my panic I raced it to the sink and then had to spill the beet cubes onto the counter with the pink stock drooling all over my hands and the floor. The dogs were ecstatic. I re-fastened the things together, luckily had extra broth and started again. I did not have the right rice, who cares - I used basmatti. Things turned out ok in the end, the rice was electric shocking Elton John disco pink and loooovely. A little mushy, but looovely. I did not take photos.
Next post... I promise. I am a beet fanatic now - they smell great! And I am sooo going to try to make soap using beet puree. I hope it does not stain your skin though...
Tomorrow's agenda: something scary with chicken and refinishing a chair... oh my...
Anyways, I bought these beets and decided on a dinner featured on Rachel Eats Food
for Seasame Crusted Salmon with Beets. I was excited all day and unfortunately realized when I got home that I had read the post wrong. I thought it said Beet Crusted Salmon (is that even posible?). Small snafu - I realized I did not have sesame seeds and that I do not think I like beets plain. I was not daunted. I was determined there was a recipe for Beet Crusted Salmon (ummm... there wasn't). I scoured gourmet foodie sites. Instead, I found a recipe - a v. complicated one albeit for a yummy mustard salmon and then decided to do something else with the beets. I found this: Roasted Beet Risotto. Delush. Disaster ensues...
First of all I began to make the complicated Salmon. I kept getting distracted by a) not having the ingredients b) not knowing what I was doing and c) running over to the computer to look at the recipe in the middle of the complicated steps. Did I mention my kitchen is the smallest in the world (photos coming soon) and has NO counterspace!?! tricky... First of all my biggest issue with cooking is that I never read the entire recipe before I begin or during. I skim and realize halfway in I am doing it wrong or cannot do it because I do not own a crucial ingredient. This was the case here. I had some salmon in my freezer for months, but I did not have heavy cream, whiskey (seriously shocking!) or a peppercorn. (I also did not know how to convert pints or other metric measurements into American portions fast enough which was difficult to do while watching a salmon steak. Lots of guessing and frantic googling... ) Whatever I improvised. I did have goatsmilk, cognac, and plain ol' pepper. When the sauce needed thickening I thought of gravy and added some flour -it worked! The hardest thing was monitoring all the heat settings involved in cooking... it was stressfull. It is very hard to watch all the things cooking at once!
The risotto was a different story...
Ok, I roasted the beets. I looked it up online, read carefully and did this: first, wash and scrub the beets - your hands turn really pink, hot hot pink. Then cut them up - dicing, I believe. Then get 1/4 c olive oil, liberal sprinkling of sea salt (surprisingly I own some, but my fiance had to run out and get olive oil for me), shake it up and wrap the beets in aluminum foil. Cook on 350 or 375 depending on your oven for about 40 minutes covered and 20 minutes uncovered. They are SOOOOOO yummy yummy yummy when you eat them just like that! I did not peel - too lazy and scattered.
Then I had to puree the beets with chicken stock. I had some broth, but not enough so I mixed with veggie broth.
I used my blender to puree, which unfortunately the bottom blade part was NOT securely screwed on and chicken/veggie broth dyed bright beet-y pink came pouring out everywhere! All over the stove and the floor. In my panic I raced it to the sink and then had to spill the beet cubes onto the counter with the pink stock drooling all over my hands and the floor. The dogs were ecstatic. I re-fastened the things together, luckily had extra broth and started again. I did not have the right rice, who cares - I used basmatti. Things turned out ok in the end, the rice was electric shocking Elton John disco pink and loooovely. A little mushy, but looovely. I did not take photos.
Next post... I promise. I am a beet fanatic now - they smell great! And I am sooo going to try to make soap using beet puree. I hope it does not stain your skin though...
Tomorrow's agenda: something scary with chicken and refinishing a chair... oh my...
