Beets

As a kid I remember eating beets once a year—on Palm Sunday when we would sit down to the customary Greek lunch of bakaliaro (fried salt cod), skordalia (garlic dip) and boiled beets made every year on this holiday. And I’m pretty sure I still ate beets only on Palm Sunday right up until I was married and began testing the cooking waters for myself. I now make beets at least every other week and I’ve even gotten my mom to make them occasionally (on days other than Palm Sunday).
At first I would buy some fresh beets, boil them and then serve topped with some oil and vinegar. That is until I tried out a great recipe from Gourmet that I use religiously now and which has gotten much acclaim by family and friends whenever served. The original recipe calls for using canned beets, but I love the taste of fresh beets as compared to canned. So I always make my own—oh, and I don’t just boil my beets anymore. A few years ago I realized I can bake beets wrapped in aluminum foil just as I would potatoes. The earthy flavor of the beets after cooking in the oven is unparalleled. I like to add this as a side dish to simply roasted or grilled meats like beef, lamb or pork. And be sure to stick with the cider vinegar cited in the recipe—it makes all the difference.



Beets with Caramelized Onions and Feta

(Adapted from a recipe found in Gourmet Magazine)

Serves 6

Six well sized beets, ends cut away and skins scrubbed clean

2 onions, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Dressing:

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

3 tablespoons olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

½ cup feta crumbled

Wrap the cleaned beets in aluminum foil and prick with a fork. Place on a foil lined baking sheet and bake in a 350 degree oven for about an hour, or until a knife can easily run through them. Remove and let cool slightly. Unwrap and peel away the skin. In a small bowl combine the cider vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper and slowly whisk in the 3 tablespoons of oil. Set aside. Meanwhile, heat two tablespoons of oil in a skillet and cook onions combined with about ¼ teaspoon salt until caramelized, about 20 minutes. Add onions to the dressing. To serve in individual plates, cut beets crosswise into thin rounds and top with some onions and crumbled feta. To serve as a salad, slice beets crosswise and then cut into half moons. Gently stir in the caramelized onions and top with crumbled feta just before serving.

Pork Loin Conundrum

So I’ve tried my hand at roasting a simple pork loin a number of times. The result: a dry, tasteless slab of pork that no amount of sauce or gravy could save. I’ve rubbed, I’ve stuffed, I’ve plain old seared then thrown into the oven, but no matter what my approach, what I’ve gotten in the end is an awkward look my from husband as he sinks his teeth into what’s really shoe leather disguised as pork.
Yes, my futile attempts at perfectly roasting or baking—whatever you’d like to call it—a nicely cut piece of pork have been discouraging. But I won’t give up. I will fight this battle until I’ve won—I wasn’t born a Taurus for nothing. And I think I’ve finally figured out a way to do so.
My husband and I were able to renovate the outdated kitchen in our new home this past spring and as such I’m lucky enough to have some new appliances to help with my cooking adventures. Nothing high-end or super spectacular, I’ll admit, but new nonetheless. Anyhow, our pretty standard oven apparently came with this contraption that appeared to be a thermometer of sorts, but which I tossed into a drawer during the clean-up process following the renovations and our move into the new house. Now, I’ve had a manual instant read thermometer sitting in its package in the back of a kitchen drawer for at least two years now. Why haven’t I used it you ask? I don’t know … I’ve always kind of played it by ear when roasting, baking, grilling my meats and things have turned out just fine (except for the whole pork thing). But when I found a juicy piece of pork loin calling out to me in our local meat market the other day, I resolved to buy the darn thing and let my virgin meat thermometer work some magic.
After prepping the pork (I simply rubbed some garlic, salt, pepper, parsley, thyme and olive oil into the meat), I came across the wire/probe thingamajig that came with the new oven while searching for the meat thermometer. I decided it was time to figure out what this thing was, so I rifled through the appliance manuals I’ve left in one of the kitchen drawers and got to reading. Wouldn’t you know it? The contraption is actually a meat thermometer, one end of which is placed into the meat and the other into an outlet within the oven. Press a few buttons on the digital keypad and … voila! The oven, as I fervently write this post, is roasting the pork until the meat’s internal temperature reaches 155 degrees Fahrenheit. Now, is it just me or is that pretty cool?





It’s an hour or so later and the oven’s declared the meat has reached 155 degrees, I’ve let the pork sit for 10 to 15 minutes tented with aluminum foil and with fork and knife in hand I am now ready to carve, and … drum roll please … I won the battle! The pork is tender and juicy and my overly enthused husband is ecstatic he’ll finally get to taste what a truly well cooked piece of pork loin should taste like.

P.S. I served the pork loin with some beets over caramelized onions topped with crumbled feta and a cider vinegar dressing.