For the love of Produce...

I was at a local thrift shop a few weeks ago and picked up a nice pressure cooker. I finally tested it today. It held pressure, so I gave it a whirl.

I cooked beets in 15 minutes. Oh joy! Now I can even cook this kind of thing in summer because it really doesn't put that much heat into the house, and the cook time is super fast. I wonder what I'll try next....

Sauteed snowpeas stretched with frozen peas. I blanched the snowpeas first by pouring boiling water from the kettle over them and then straining a minute later. I used a knob of butter and a generous pinch of salt to contrast the sweetness of the petit pois.

acpgee wrote: »

I don't normally cook beet. Hubby bought one remembering a fantastic salt baked beet we once had at a BBQ restaurant that cooked over open wood fires. Recommendations on what to do with the beet at the bottom of the vegetable drawer would be welcome.

@AnnPT77

Yep. I'm a beetster. Can't beat the beets. Mmmm.

In the past, I'd do one of two or three things. Easiest is to cover with water and boil until done - usually an hour or so. Then the skins just slip off when cool enough to handle. Slice about a quarter inch thick or a little thicker, lay out in a casserole dish, season with salt & pepper, then a little high-quality balsamic. That's the basic. Can add walnuts or pecans if you want and even feta. So delicious.

The other way is to peel first, the slice, then toss with spices and oil, and roast in the oven. I bet you could just use a bunch of salt for that. I use the convection setting. They get a little crisp and are so delicious.

I have also roasted them whole, and that might be best for what you're trying to do. Wrap in foil and roast on a pan. Convection not needed. You have to guess when they are done.

And then a few weeks ago I bought a nearly new stainless steel pressure cooker at a thrift shop. I tested it to see if it held pressure, and when it did, I made a couple beets. Essentially they are steamed on top of the steamer basket in the pressure cooker, but they took only 15 minutes. Then, just like when boiled, I slipped off the skins, sliced, and seasoned with salt & pepper and balsamic. I didn't have any leftovers. Yum. Love 'em.

If you have a charcoal fire, I bet a bagel (mmmm.... I had one today) you could wrap that beet in foil with your spices and cover it in the coals for 40 minutes and it would resemble what your hubby remembers. Maybe it would be even better.

Beetroot is also really good raw…

Finely chop into thin matchsticks (or grate?) and then coat with yoghurt/salt/pepper and lots of ‘popped’ mustard seeds (Ie fried in oil)

Or try with seasoned yoghurt and lots of mint (this one works better with cooked beetroots, but can be for raw too).

I made a fab beetroot and orange preserve, and also beetroot chutney. And it makes a good moist chocolate cake (same impact as carrot or courgette in cake).

Add cooked beetroot to corn beef hash for one of the ultimate comfort foods (but send my hubby and daughter out, they both hate this one!).

I am in Tuscany on vacation and the most extraordinary thing I ate today was a piece of roast zucchini garnish on a steak tartare. The courgette had the distinctive taste of anchovy but didn't look like it had been tossed in anchovy butter. I need to figure out how to reproduce this. Going to try a coating of melted butter with SE Asian fish sauce as a first attempt when I get home.

I tried to reproduce a roast vegetable dish I ate on vacation in Tuscany that tasted of anchovy. First attempt at brushing/tossing radichio and courgette destined for the griddle pan in a mixture of melted butter and SE Asian fish sauce. Good and worth doing again, but not a reproduction of what I ate in Siena.

If it has to be a plant to be produce, then ignore this post. If you were going to look for mushrooms in the grocery store, they would be in the produce section, so there's that. There's also the fact that they are more closely related to animals than plants. Fungi are heterotrophic.

I do love to eat them, and it's fun to go look for them in the forest.

A couple days ago I took advantage of the great weather and went to a place I often find chanterelles. I had been there once before about a month ago and found nothing. They are late this year. I went back out and enjoyed the sun which makes it easier not to get turned around and means that I don't get as wet if I skip the rain pants. I did find a few chanterelles.

Then I was back out in a different part of the forest yesterday for another outdoor activity. I took the "long way" home because I hadn't driven that way in a while, and it's nice. It's about 20 miles farther. I figured maybe I'd also scout for new places to find mushrooms. As I drove down the road, I saw a "tuft" of what looked like mushrooms smack in the middle of the gravel road. I was pretty sure I knew what it was. I slowed to a stop, walked back behind the truck, and harvested a clump of Fried Chicken Mushrooms. They're really not all that tasty, but I might clean 'em up. Really dirty from being in the MIDDLE of the road. Then less than a mile later I saw what I thought was a Sparassis on the side of the road. They grow on tree trunks, so I suppose it fell off someone else's truck or something. It was a little wet and mushy, but I can trim out the good parts. It's one of my very favorites! I also found a place to take a very short walk, and I found a few older Lobster Mushrooms. I just took two of them.

So yesterday my basket had the full-meal-deal: lobster, fried chicken, and cauliflower!

Chanterelles:





Full Meal Deal:

Beets. I really do like beets. Yesterday I peeled and grated some raw golden beets to put on a salad. Today I pressure cooked some red beets for 15 minutes, then peeled, sliced, and flavored with salt, pepper, ginger, and balsamic. I let it soak up the vinegar for an hour or so. Mmmmm..... Beets!

So I went back out to the forest today to my chanterelle patch. I didn't find very many. That's OK. It wasn't raining, and it was nice to be in the forest. It for sure looked like someone else had been there recently.

I got back to the vehicle, and I decided I had a little more time to poke around. I walked down the road and looked up into an area that "should" be a good place for chanterelles, but was a real bugger to climb up into and then to hike around in. I was rewarded pretty quickly with several prime specimens. Yay!

Then I stopped. That's when I saw it. The one I found last week was by the side of the road, so it probably had fallen off someone else's truck or something. This one was the real deal.

Sparassis! Cauliflower mushroom! This one weighed about 1.25 pounds when I got it home.