Honey Dijon Roasted Beets

Hard to Beet

With fall here it's time to shift my vegetable focus from tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, and similar summery flora to winter squashes, bitter greens, and root vegetables. Not that all these aren't available in the summer nor that you can't find, say, butternut squash in June. But summer veggies just aren't up to snuff in the winter (read "pretty much inedible") and, although winter vegetables are usually fine in the summer, aside from the occasional batch of cold borscht I tend to stick with what's in season.

So I had a hankering for beets last night and found the following recipe. These things are _seriously_ good: A delightful juxtaposition of sweetness and earthiness highlighted with the tang of mustard.

Honey Dijon Roasted Beets
Recipe By :Michael Lomonaco

2 lbs fresh red beets
2 tbsps olive oil
3 tbsps unsalted butter
1/2 c honey dijon mustard
2 tbsps fresh lemon juice
3 tbsps chopped fresh mint
salt and pepper

Heat oven to 375°F. Remove greens and root from beets -- but don't trim closely. Place beets in medium bowl, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and toss. Transfer to roasting pan and spread beets in a single layer; roast in oven until tender, 15 to 20 minutes for small, 45 minutes for very large.

Remove pan from oven and let beets cool. When cool enough to handle, remove skins and quarter or cut into eighths depending on size.

Melt butter in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add beets and cook, stirring often, until lightly caramelized, 4 to 6 minutes. Drizzle lemon juice over beets and season with salt and pepper.

Stir in mustard and continue to cook over medium heat 2 minutes. If using, add mint and stir to coat the beets.

Kevin

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the Art of Eating

Culinary Eroticism

I received my first issue of the Art of Eating today. Wow!

I don't recall where I read about this magazine, but the Web site referred to it as "food pornography." That's a misnomer -- although the poster did have the right idea. Published by Edward Behr, the Art of Eating is an ad-free quarterly publication dedicated to finding, understanding, and appreciating food.

The issue I received contains a slew of short but intriguing reviews of NYC restaurants by cookbook author Mitchell Davis. The list is eclectic and selections range from DiFara's Pizza under the category of "Food You Eat Standing Up" to Daniel, which is an "expensive to very expensive" restaurant in the "French" category. When you see a list that includes restaurants offering slices of pizza on one page and smoked foie gras torchon on another you know the choices have to be driven by taste

This issue also included a few recipes, book reviews, a two-page article on the cheeses from Jasper Hill Farm in Vermont, and a lengthy article about Ligurian basil. This is a magazine for dedicated foodies who enjoy reading about food just for it's own sake.

Kevin

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Shrimp Bisque

Queen of Soup

When I cook shrimp I make a point of shelling them and freezing the shells. It takes awhile, but eventually I have a gallon bag packed full of shrimp shells and it's time to make shrimp bisque.

Bisques are the queens of soup. Luscious, rich, subtle, and smooth, they fill your mouth with the essence of whatever ingredient they're based on. Lobster bisque is the queen of queens, but given the price of lobster it would take me years to collect enough shells to make lobster stock, so in the seafood category shrimp is my fallback.

I won't go into making the stock here -- there are plenty of recipes around -- save to say that the raw shells should be roasted in the oven to concentrate their flavors before making the stock.

This particular recipe comes from Patricia G. Solley's Web site, www.soupsong.com.

Shrimp Bisque

1 tbsp butter
1/4 c onion -- finely diced
1/4 c celery -- finely diced
1/4 c carrot -- finely diced
1 ea 15 oz. can tomatoes -- diced
2 tbsps olive oil
1 lb shrimp -- in shells
5 c shrimp stock
1 c vermouth (or dry white wine)
4 tbsps rice -- uncooked
2 tbsps butter
1/2 c heavy cream
sherry

In a skillet, sauté the onion, celery, and carrot in the butter for 5 minutes, until the vegetable are soft, not brown. Add the tomato pieces and sauté for another 5 minutes. Scrape out into a bowl and reserve.

In the same pan, heat the olive oil then add the whole shrimp. Cook until the shells are red and crisp--about 4-5 minutes. Scrape out of the pan and let cool.

While the shrimp are cooling, heat the stock and wine in a large saucepan, add the reserved vegetables and the rice, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, for 20 minutes.

Peel the cooled shrimp, separating the shells and the meat, and toss the shells into the cooking soup.

When the soup has finished cooking, puree in a blender, solids first (including the shells), then strain back into the pot.

Take half of the reserved shrimp, puree them in the blender (slowly adding enough hot stock to completely emulsify them)--and pour them into the pot.

Enrich the soup by whisking in the softened butter and the cream, then season to taste with salt and pepper. Let sit, for flavors to blend, until ready to serve.

When ready to serve, sauté thin bread slices in butter until crisp and brown, then drain. Slice the remaining shrimp lengthwise and briefly sauté them over high heat with the Cognac or wine. Mince the tarragon or other herb finely. Ladle the soup into bowls, drizzle lightly with sherry, top with the shrimp and minced herb, and pass the croûtons separately.

Kevin

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