Pickled Beets

I don't know what it is about this time of year that makes me want to pickle stuff my, only guess is that it has something to do with my Swedish roots... "Oy Leena we are in for a long cold winter don't-cha- know, we better preserve everything that we can before the first frost."  I have never been much for canning, honestly it scares me, but I do like to preserve or pickle somethings.  One of my favorite is salmon, I made Gravlax recently (now you know what kind of wild weekend I can have).

This post is about Pickled Beets though, I was going to use Golden Beets they were beautiful, but life came up and I used them for something else... so back to the store I went.  This recipe is adapted from  Epicurious

1/2 cup cider or white vinegar
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
a good pinch of  freshly ground pepper
1/2 of a bulb of Fennel sliced thin
Three medium sized beets sliced about 1/4 inch thick

Cook beets in water until they are soft then set aside.  While they cool heat the bring the first 5 ingredients to a boil put the sliced fennel into a storage container then the beets then cover with the hot liquid.  Refrigerate overnight.  These are really wonderful, they have the pickled flavor that I like so much but still hold onto the earthy goodness that fresh beet have.  They are suposed to keep for at least a couple of weeks but these are going to be gone long before that.

Tumeric Cucumbers

As I was writing this entry I realized how similar this story is to my friend The Kitchen Witch's White Trash Motherload Series.  I can't say this is a ham handed attempt to copy her (way out of my league) but if I hadn't read that series I am not sure I would have been digging through my mom's old cookbooks during my last visit there and I found a real family treasure in my search.

When Mr. Man, Miss Lu and I took the trip to Grandma's house I was looking through her kitchen and found the Carlson Patterson Family Cook Book.  It seems that in the early 90s my mom's side of the family decided to put together a compilation of recipes that had been passed around our family for years.  It has been fun to read through and I have had time to (in a way) reconnect with family that I haven't seen in ages.  The quick memory of exploring a tractor with a second cousin that I've not seen in 30 years or my Great Great Aunt saying "Don't let that cat in the house I would rather have mice!"... well the book has been fun to go through.  My Grandmother's (Mayola's) relatives Kenneth and Fern, mostly Fern well her kids spearheaded the book.  Even though I have already made some of the recipes from the book  Fern gets the first recipe here.

Kenneth and Fern were farmers in Stratford Iowa, one of my earliest memories of visiting them was when I was about 10 years old in the final minutes of our 8 hour drive we were crossing their land, a few trees and acres of mixed crops some wheat, but mostly corn and beans a lot of that mixed in the same fields.  When we got there my mom asked Kenneth what exactly they were trying to grow that year, not missing a beat, his reply, "succotash."  We spent days there exploring barns and sheds, climbing the dog wood trees and a silo full of grain.  One of the few items that I remember being on the table for most of the meals were Fern's Cucumbers.  Being a ten year old boy I had no idea what to do with these things except dip my dirty fingers right into the Kerr jar and eat them after a round of climbing the hay in the barn or playing with the water pump, they actually had a well and a manual pump!   I am sure the vinegar did it's part to kill whatever was on my dirt covered digits before anyone else dug in.

When I picked this recipe to start with I thought "I think I remember the jar of this on the picnic table for lunch"  when I tasted them again for the first time in thirty something (never mind it has been a while) years I immediately flashed to the young boy that I was setting foot on a farm for the first time ready to explore.

So what are these?  The Cook Book calls them "Tumeric Cucumbers" the published recipe was written for someone that had a serious garden, you know like a farm, and calls for larger quantities than this suburban boy is willing to deal with like "a pail full of peeled and sliced cucumbers."  So I did take some liberties but here it is, Ingredients:

2 small onions sliced thin

1/2 cup Sugar

1/2 tsp Tumeric

2 tsp Mustard Seed

2 tsp Celery Seed

1 1/4 Cup Cider Vinegar

2 1/2 cucumbers peeled and sliced thin.

Soak the sliced  onions is salted Ice water for about an hour, this takes the edge off the onioniness of them drain then add the sugar, spices and vinegar and stir until the sugar is dissolved then add  the cucumbers and put in the refrigerator.  Overnight worked for me, I tasted the dish after an hour and it was OK but the next day ... Wow!  Works well as a side dish at a BBQ I served them with chicken in my BBQ Sauce.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Tuna Steaks

I went to the store with the kids on my way home from sledding  last weekend, I needed to pick up some cheese (Mr. Man likes Kraft Sharp Cheddar slices) and milk, really not a big deal at all... unless you are me, with a 3 year old an and 8 year old in tow.  I stopped at the only Grocery store between the park and our house it is a Polish Grocery store but tries to cover everything and the produce, maybe a little pricey but really good.  So we go into the doors, the Produce section is first and the questions come from the two kids both wired for sound...

"What is this?"

"Okra"

"Orka is Freaky!"

"Daddy this looks Gross"

"Some people like Cactus Leaves honey"

"Dumb People!"

That went on for a while until they both had me afraid for my life or the little scraps of sanity that I have left.  I start racing/shopping, I have seen the "super hyper kids in shopping cart" game go bad it isn't good, the screaming, the hitting, the yelling at innocent passers and it can go down hill from there.  I pick up the speed and just start grabbing.  My mind goes something like this... "Blood Oranges, Wow Martini recipe!  Lettuce, Kris likes that... be quiet you two you don't like Artichokes... Oh look Kumquats, need those... Rabbit Liver Pate, not going to happen, Oh Tuna..."

Anyway, those of you with kids get the picture, I was racing through this quaint little store madly grabbing things that I might need desperately trying to get out the door before the "super hyper kids in shopping cart" game gets us a police escort.  By the time I get to the car I realize that my trip to the store for Milk and Kraft Sharp Cheddar Cheese Squares has netted me:

3 Blood oranges

1/2 pound of Kerrygold Aged Cheddar Cheese

1 pound of Kumquats

5 Frozen Tuna Steaks

Crushed Red Pepper Flakes

1 head of Lettuce

2 bunches of cilantro

a double handfull of shallots

Oh and  1 gallon of milk

Real good, now my best bet was to get it all put away before I had to admit that I spent $45 on the Gallon of milk I was going to pick up plus a couple of "impulse items."  As I was putting things away I was trying to consider what to do with some of the stuff.  Ok Kumquats... they are funny Cherry Tomato sized citrus fruit but really how many of them am I going to eat 2 maybe 3 in the next several months.  I start to think they might work well a pickle, so the meal idea comes: Grilled Tuna Steaks with Pickled Kumquats and Shallots.

Ingredients for pickle:

Juice from 2 Limes

finely grated peel from one of them

2 tsp Brown Sugar

5 Kumquats sliced thin

4-5 shallot bulbs sliced thin

Juice the Limes into a small saucepan and add the Brown Sugar, you may want to adjust to suite your taste,  bring to a boil.  Grate the Lime Peel into a small dish thinly slice the Kumquats and shallots then add the hot liquid and set aside for at least 40 minutes.  I made it a day ahead and chilled.

Oh and for the love of God please don't go out and buy Kumquats just to make this.  This process is so forgiving, fruit and vegetables pickled this way are so great!  I could well have made a similar recipe with Red Onions, Orange Peels and Rice Wine Vinegar, or Vadalia Onions Cilantro and Lemon Juice... I was just using up my funny little fruit.  The pickled fruit adds such a light Spring like flavor to a meal.

The Tuna was easy,  I set a Tuna Steak in a dish on the counter with some Olive Oil, Salt, Pepper and some Lime Juice.  I heated up the cast iron grill and put the Tuna on for about 3 minutes on each side, it is pictured here with French bread slices topped with a little garlic butter.