Blue Cayenne

I’ve found some beautiful beets at the farmers’ market lately.

Not everyone is on the beet bandwagon, however. From what I read, President Obama and Michelle Obama aren’t beet fans. They requested that beets not be included among the vegetables grown in their beautiful organic garden.

Historically, though, beets have quite a following. Thomas Jefferson had them planted at Monticello. Women in the 19th Century used beet juice as a cosmetic to stain their lips and cheeks.  Elizabethans enjoyed them in stews and tarts. The Romans and Greeks went so far as to develop strategies to grow them year round, believing that beets enhance one’s health and, as a bonus, have an aphrodisiac effect. In mythology, that hottie Aphrodite ate beets to enhance her appeal.

I make a pretty good beet and cabbage borscht and enjoy pickled beets, but I’ve decided to try some new beet recipes.  This recipe from the Williams-Sonoma’s  Vegetable Recipe of the Day Cookbook caught my eye.

What’s not to like, after all, about beets, vinaigrette and goat cheese?

And, who knows, maybe Aphrodite was right.

Here is the recipe.

Recipe: Roasted Beets with Lemon-Thyme Vinaigrette

4 beets
1 T. extra-virgin olive oil

Grated zest and juice from 1/2 lemon
1/2 C. extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 C. white wine vinegar
1 1/2 t. fresh thyme leaves
Salt and freshly ground pepper

3 oz. fresh goat cheese, crumbled
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 T. fresh mint, julienned
1/2 t. coarsely chopped fresh tarragon
1 t. fresh chervil leaves

Directions:

Wash beets. Trim off greens. Put beets on a large piece of aluminum foil. Drizzle beets with 1 T. olive oil. Gather up edges of foil around beets to seal in a foil package and place package on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees F. for one hour or until beets are tender when pierced with a knife. Remove packet from oven, unwrap and cool.

Prepare vinaigrette. Grate lemon rind. Juice 1/2 lemon. Put zest and juice into a small bowl and whisk with olive oil, white wine vinegar, and thyme. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Peel cooled beets and slice into 1/8 inch slices. Arrange beet slices on a platter. Sprinkle goat cheese over the beets. Drizzle with lemon-thyme vinaigrette. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle mint, tarragon and chervil over salad and serve at room temperature.

Cook’s Note: This recipe makes more vinaigrette than you will need to dress your beet salad. I suggest that you marinate any beet slices that you don’t use in your salad in the extra vinaigrette.

The original recipe suggested using a variety of colored beets–red, golden, etc.

I garnished my salad with chopped walnuts. I like the texture that walnuts add to a salad.

Don’t forget to eat the beet greens. They are wonderful.

If you are a Garfield fan, you know that the cat hates Mondays (who doesn’t?) and obsesses over lasagna, announcing in one strip, “Once again, my life has been saved by the miracle of lasagna.”

If you are feeling a wee bit let down in the aftermath of the holidays, a steaming hot plate of ooey-gooey-cheesy lasagna might be just the miracle pick-me-up that you need.

This  artichoke and portobello lasagna originated with Cafe Roka Restaurant in Arizona and their recipe was printed in the LA Times’ Culinary SOS column in 2012 at the request of a reader. The link to the original recipe appears at the bottom of this page.

This recipe serves 12.

Recipe: Artichoke and Portobello Lasagna

2 T. olive oil
1 large onion, medium dice
1 pound portobello mushrooms. medium dice
1/2 cup dry white wine
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 14-ounce can artichokes (packed in water), drained and coarsely chopped
Salt and pepper
1 pound coarsely chopped spinach
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1/4 C. flour
4 1/2 C. milk
1 1/2 C. grated Parmesan cheese
1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
Ground nutmeg
1 box oven-ready lasagna sheets (no-boil style)
1 pound grated whole milk mozzarella

Directions:

Preheat oven at 350 degrees F.
Blanch spinach for 30 seconds to 1 minute in a large pot of boiling water. Blanch the spinach a handful at a time to keep things manageable. Remove spinach  from boiling water to a bowl of ice water to stop spinach from cooking. Drain. Squeeze as much water as you can out of the spinach by hand. Then, wrap spinach in a kitchen towel and twist to drain even more water from the spinach.  Chop drained and squeezed spinach and set aside.

Saute onions in olive oil in a large heavy saucepan over medium heat until onions are soft. Add chopped mushrooms, increase heat slightly, and saute until mushroom juices evaporate. Add white wine and stir to dislodge any mushroom bits that are clinging to pan. Add garlic and artichokes to mushroom-onion mixture. Stir to mix. Season with 3/4 t. salt and 1/2 t. pepper or to taste. Stir in the spinach. Remove from heat and set aside.

Make the tomato-bechamel sauce. Melt butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. When butter is foamy, whisk in flour. Then, slowly whisk in milk (I used 4 C. half-and-half and 1 cup water). Continue cooking over medium heat, whisking until milk-flour mixture begins to thicken. This should take 10-12 minutes. Slowly stir in grated parmesan cheese. When cheese has melted, stir in the drained, diced tomatoes. Season with 3/4 t. salt and 1/4 t. pepper or to taste. Add a pinch of nutmeg. Remove from heat and set aside.

Assemble lasagna. Spread 1 cup bechamel sauce over the bottom of a 13 inch by 9 inch pan. Place a layer of lasagna noodles over the bechamel sauce. Spread 1/4 vegetable mixture over the noodles. Spread another cup of bechamel over the vegetables and top with one forth of the grated mozzarella. Repeat with noodles, vegetables, sauce and mozzarella until you have four layers. If you have more than one cup of bechamel sauce left for the last layer, use it.Your top layer should be grated mozzarella.

Cover lasagna with plastic wrap and refrigerate if you are not going to cook it immediately.

When ready to bake the lasagna, remove plastic wrap and cover lasagna with foil. Place lasagna plan on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake lasagna for 45 minutes at 350 degrees F. After 45 minutes, increase temperature to 450 degrees F., remove the foil and continue baking until the top of the lasagna is lightly browned for 8-12 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack for 20 minutes before serving.

Cook’s Note: This is a white-sauced lasagna. This lasagna can be served with a mild red marinara sauce spooned over the top at the time of serving. Either way, this dish has a very pretty presentation and great flavor.

Link to the original recipe fro the LA Times and Cafe Roka:

Artichoke and Portobello Lasagna

Here is a recipe I like a lot. Actually, it is an adaptation of recipes from two sources, the food site AllRecipes and one of my favorite Indian-inspired cookbooks, Yamuna’s Table by the late rockstar chef, Yamuna Devi. She literally was a rockstar. She was a backup singer with the Beatles, cooked for Indira Gandhi,  and authored the much acclaimed Lord Krishna’s Cuisine: The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking, a dog-eared copy of which I keep easily accessible on my cookbook shelf.

Why not consider this colorful dish for your New Year’s table?

Recipe: Hummus
5 unpeeled garlic cloves
1 T. extra-virgin olive oil
2 15-ounce cans garbanzo beans (drained and rinsed)
1/2 cup tahini
1/3 C. fresh lemon juice
1 t. ground cumin
1 t. salt
1 T. extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 to 1 seeded fresh jalapeno chile
2 T. chopped cilantro
8-10 fresh mint leaves

Directions: Preheat oven to 450 degrees F and place 5 unpeeled garlic cloves on a sheet of foil. Drizzle garlic cloves with olive oil and fold foil to enclose the garlic cloves and oil. Bake packet for 15 minutes. Remove packet from oven and let the garlic cloves cool. Then squeeze garlic cloves out of peels.

In a food processor, combine roasted garlic cloves, drained and rinsed garbanzo beans, tahini, lemon juice, cumin, and salt. Blend until smooth. Add olive oil, jalapeno chile, cilantro and mint leaves and continue to process until the jalapeno, cilantro and mint leaves are throughly blended into the chickpea mixture.

Chill for a few hours to let the flavors blend together then spread hummus onto a decorative bowl or dish, using a spatula to make deep swirling designs in the hummus. Let hummus sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before serving. Then, drizzle a bit more good olive oil onto the dish and garnish.

Serve garnished with a few whole garbanzo beans, lightly-toasted  pine nuts, chopped parsley, pitted kalamata olives, pomegranate arils,  a pinch of paprika and a decorative ribbon of lemon peel. Serve with toasted pita bread wedges , a platter of crudites or simple crackers.