Beet burgers

Stay with me, now. I know you're all thinking, "Beet...burgers?" And then probably, "Ewwww..."

I got a bunch of beets with my CSA, and I wanted something to do with them that wasn't any of the usual things (pizza, risotto, salad). I found this recipe courtesy of Mark Bittman, and I think I have a new beet recipe to add to the repetoire.

I will say this: these burgers are sweet. They are excellent veggie burgers (and the color of blood, if you're into that kind of thing), but they are sweet. Traditional burger toppings, tomato/lettuce/cheese are okay, but you really want something to offset the sweetness--say, a jalapeno slaw on top. I tried spicy beer mustard on the first go-round, and that was fine, but pickle relish went better--and hot pickle relish would have been even better than that.

Also, handle the patties with care. They are soft.

From How to Cook Everything Vegetarian:

1 lb beets, peeled and grated (my food processor worked great for the grating part)
1/2 cup dates
1/2 cup almonds
1 inch peeled and sliced ginger
1/2 cup bulgur wheat
3/4 cup boiling red wine or water
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
Red pepper flakes
Maybe some flour

Combine the beets, dates, almonds and ginger in a food processor and pulse until everything is almost a paste. Put that in a large bowl with the bulgur and some salt and pepper, and pour the boiling wine over everything. Cover and let sit 20 minutes. If the mixture is too wet to form decent patties, add some flour.

Cook patties over medium heat with olive oil or butter, 5 minutes per side.

Panzanella (tomato-bread salad)

I was a little skeptical about this recipe for panzanella, a traditional Italian recipe and excellent use for stale bread--not because I didn't think it would delicious, but because I assumed my reaction would be "Yawn, another tomato salad."

Well, hold the presses, because this is definitely the most awesome tomato salad I've ever put in my mouth.

My only regret was that I didn't have more bread.

This is essentially a tomato salad with lots of stale bread, and an anchovy-mint dressing. Don't let the anchovy part throw you--anchovies don't taste like fish, they taste like umami (that strange, savory fifth flavor). It gives the dish a depth and kind of dark saltiness that perfectly offsets the sweetness of the tomatoes. Without being fishy.

Reprinted from The Kitchn:

1 pound cherry tomatoes

1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
4-6 ounces day-old peasant bread, torn into bite-size pieces
1 cucumber, peeled, seeds scooped out, and diced
1/2 small red onion, peeled and very thinly sliced
2 tablespoons drained capers
small handful fresh mint (15-20 leaves) picked and sliced into thin ribbons, divided

For the dressing:
2 anchovy fillets
1 clove garlic
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/3 cup good-quality olive oil
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar

Slice the tomatoes in halves or quarters, going for manageable bite-size pieces. Place them in a colander set over a bowl and sprinkle the tomatoes with the salt. Set aside to drain for about 15 minutes (place a plate or bowl below to catch some of the juice).

In a large salad bowl, place the drained tomatoes (reserving 2 tablespoons of the juice), bread hunks, chopped cucumber, red onion, capers, and about half of the sliced mint.

In a mortar and pestle, combine the anchovies, garlic, half of the remaining mint and a small pinch of salt. Pound it aggressively to make a paste.

Add the olive oil and vinegar to the reserved 2 tablespoons of tomato juice. Drop in the anchovy paste and whisk until emulsified. Alternatively, shake it all up in a jar. Taste for seasoning; it may need more salt or a few cracks of pepper.

Pour the dressing over the salad and gently toss. I like to use my hands to toss a panzanella to feel the juices start penetrating the bread. Allow the salad to rest at room temperature for at least 1 hour before serving to allow the bread to soak in the juices.

Notes: I used a red pepper instead of cucumber; a shallot instead of red onion; and anchovy paste instead of two anchovy fillets. Also, my salted tomatoes did not produce any juice. So I just skipped that step. And make sure your bread is actually stale (as in, hard), otherwise the bread will soak up all the dressing and the tomatoes won't get any.

Wine from my collection: Belle Glos Meiomi Pinot Noir 2009

I've had Belle Glos wines before, and they were all delicious (if expensive). So when I saw this, I jumped on it. You can find it for around $20 (maybe $22, depending on the market).

But oh, it's worth it. This may well be the yummiest $20 pinot I've put in my mouth in some time. Fruity, layered, well-balanced, and bright. Really spectacular. Goes amazingly with pizza. Definitely worth some effort to find!

Southern Pecan Nut Brown Ale

Another beer find from our time in New Orleans: Southern Pecan beer, made by Lazy Magnolia Brewing Company in Mississippi. It's the only beer made with whole roasted pecans, and as a result, has a wonderfully nutty flavor profile. If you live in that part of the country, or if you ever see any in a store, be sure to pick some up.

Random side note: I really must start drinking beers I can find locally.

Fried rice with bok choy

Fried rice (like soup) is a great way to use up random bits of veggies. I used a green bell pepper, a carrot, an onion, half a bag of frozen peas, some ginger, and two heads of bok choy, but your mileage may vary. You could use almost anything (corn, tomatoes, mushrooms, asparagus, etc.) in this. Tofu would be great, too.

I made a double batch of basmati rice (2 cups uncooked) and let that sit for half an hour or so before throwing this together.

Rice
A few tablespoons of peanut oil
1 small chopped onion
1 chopped bell pepper
1 chopped carrot
A thumb-sized piece of peeled, chopped ginger
2 garlic cloves, diced
2 heads of bok choy (optional)
Frozen peas
2 eggs
Sesame oil and soy sauce

In part of the peanut oil, saute the onion, carrot and bell pepper for a few minutes until soft. Remove that to a bowl. Next, more oil, and saute the bok choy (if you're using), and remove that to a separate bowl. Next, more oil, saute the peas for just a minute, and add to the onion bowl. Next, more oil, the ginger and garlic. Add the veggies back in. To that add the rice, a little at a time, stirring as you go. Add the eggs in the center, and stir to scramble/incorporate. Add the sesame oil and soy sauce to taste, mix together, and serve with the bok choy on top.

Finally, a way to preserve all those cherry tomatoes

The great thing about tomatoes is that they can be turned into tomato sauce. That's been the saving grace of my overabundant tomato harvest--I've been making batch after batch of fresh tomato sauce, then freezing it so I'll have fresh tomato yumminess to eat this winter.

But what to do with all those cherry tomatoes?

They can't easily be turned into sauce--it's too labor-intensive to peel and seed all those little tomatoes. They can't be frozen whole, my oven doesn't make a decent dehydrator (I tried, believe me; and I didn't want to sink money into a dehydrator just for tomatoes), the only other option I could come up with for preserving them was to make a lot of salsa and then can the salsa.

Or eat tomato salad every day for the next month, and I'm already tired of tomato salads.

BUT! I have found a way to preserve them! That is not labor-intensive!

Two magic words: food mill.

If you don't have one of these babies, run right out and get one. The food mill will turn your gently-cooked cherry tomatoes into fresh tomato goo--slightly thicker than tomato juice, runnier than sauce--that can be frozen or canned or added directly into a batch of tomato sauce.

My mom claims you can either a) cook down the tomato goo very gently, to get rid of some of the extra water, or b) just let it sit for a while, then pour off the water on top, to get a thicker goo. I did neither--I added half my new tomato goo to a current batch of tomato sauce, and froze the rest, to add to another batch of tomato sauce in the future.

So now my cherry tomato harvest CAN be made into sauce, with a minimum of effort on my part.

Just bring a pot of water to a boil, add the cherry tomatoes just for a minute or two, then drain. Add the slightly cooked cherry tomatoes to your food mill, and run them through on the finest setting. Collect the juice. Throw out the seeds and skins. From start to finish, the whole process took me 10 minutes, to use up a bowl of at least 100 big cherry tomatoes (which then became roughly 7-8 cups of goo).

Orzo with cherry tomato salsa, chard and feta

Orzo with _____ and feta is a great quick casserole. Fancy enough for guests, but cheap, quick and easy.

I've riffed on that template for years. Orzo with tomatoes, shrimp and feta is very good; so is orzo with tomatoes, green beans and feta; or orzo with sausage, chard and feta; and so on. (Orzo, in case you don't know, is a rice-shaped pasta.)

I had some leftover cherry tomato salsa I wanted to use up, and most of a head of chard. And lo! A box of orzo in the cupboard. Done and done.

1 box orzo, cooked
4 cups salsa (or two cans of tomatoes, plus chopped and sauteed onion and garlic)
Something green: chard, beet greens, green beans, peas, your choice
Shrimp and/or sausage are optional but yummy
Feta cheese (at least two big handfuls)

To the cooked orzo, add whatever it is you want to add. Like I said, in this case, leftover salsa, a chopped head of chard, and lots of crumbled feta cheese. If you're using canned tomatoes, cook them with a little sauteed onion and garlic first, and add some seasonings: maybe basil and oregano. Stir that all up and pour into an 8 x 13 casserole dish. Top with a little more feta, and bake at 400 for 10-15 minutes. Serve hot.