I am Human

“Every now and again, I go through these phases where I just fall in love with an ingredient and it seems to just show up all over my menus. Lately it has been beets, red beets to be exact. Beets have the highest sugar content of all vegetables, but remain low in calories; one cup of beets has only 74 calories. Flavor is sweet with a slightly earthy flavor, and when cooked has a great vfelvety texture. Although beets are available all year long, we are just coming into the best time of the year for them. These young beets are very tender, and to me always seem a bit sweeter. The leaves are also edible and have a flavor similar to Swiss Chard which is a slightly better green. I like to saute the greens with a bit of olive oil, a pinch of garlic, splace of white wine, salt and pepper. Beets are a good source for potassium, vitamin C and a dietary fiber. Studies have shown that beets contain nutrients that can be helpful in protection of heat disease and certain cancers, especially colon cancer.”

Ingredients

6 Red Beets, small to medium size
1/2 Red Onion, julienned
You can view a video on how to julienne an onion at FreeCulinarySchool.com
1 Navel Orange, segmented
This is a good video on how to segment an orange on Metacafe.
2 tbl Italian Parsley, chopped
2 tbl Red Wine Vinegar
6 tbl Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Sea Salt and Fresh Ground Pepper (as needed)

Preheat the oven to 400º.
Wash the beets and pat dry.
Wrap in a double layer of oil and roast for approximately 45 minutes to an hour. The beets should be soft when squeezed.
Unwrap and let cool until it can be handled safetly by hand.
While still warm, peel the beets by rubbing the skin off.
Dice ( or slice or cut in to wedges ) the beets
Combine the beets with all of the ingredients except for the orange segments in a stainless steel bowl.
Place in a serving dish with orange segments and server chilled.
Optional: Top with Bleu Cheese, Goat Cheese, Walnuts or Pecans.

At the cooking demo, the walnuts used were candied with a bit of spice. While Chef Mark did not have a recipe, he did give a quick run down of how the make the candied walnuts.

These measurements are not exact and you will have to play with the proportions to get it just right.

In short the recipe is as follows

Ingredients

Equal parts sugar and water
Walnuts
Cayenne powder
Chili powder

In a sauce pot, dissolve the sugar completely in to the water.
Sprinkle in the cayenne and chili powder
Add in the walnuts and stir consistently for ~10-15 minutes.
Strain walnuts
Bake walnuts for 10-15 minutes in oven. (I didn’t catch at what temperature, but I am going to start with 350º)

I should have taken pictures of the final product at the farmers market and in the future I will try to remember that. Once I get through assembling the salad, I will put up some pictures.

I will also update the proportions used in the candied walnuts.

-Alex

http://freeculinaryschool.com/how-to-julienne-an-onion/

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Banana Bread

January 10, 2010

So I realized that I’ve been going to the Pearl Brewery Farmers Market for the better part of 2009. I’ve seemed to amass a bounty of recipes from the cooking demos given on Saturday mornings.

That gave me the idea to post them here so I can get rid of all the pieces of paper that I’ve got laying around.

All that being said, this first one is _not_ of the recipes I picked up at the Farmers Market. It’s actually one that Starbucks gave out in one of their stores.

Banana Walnut Bread

Ingredients

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 1/8 cup sugar
1/c vegetable oil
2 Tbsp buttermilk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 ripe medium-large bananas (mashed)
Chopped walnuts

Pre-heat the oven to 325°
Grease a 9×5x3 loaf pan and dust with flour.
Blend together the flour, baking soda and salt and set aside.
Mix together the egg, sugar, and vegetable oil until combined.
Add the flour mixture, and when blended, add the buttermilk, vanilla and mashed bananas and mix until combined.
Fold in 1/2 cup chopped walnuts and pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
Top batter with remaining 1/3 cup chopped walnuts.
Bake for 45 to 60 minutes unilt a toothpick inserted in toe center comes out clean.
Cool for 10 minutes on wire rack before removing from pan

Okay,so that was that recipe. I’ve got another one that I’ve been using so I’ll include it here as well. I’m not sure where I got it form, but I’m pretty sure it was one of the many internet recipe sites. I think it’s a bit simpler than the previous one.