Pickled Beets with Stems, Leaves, Clementines and Blue Cheese

I saw a beautiful bunch of beets today at the store. The beets had nice leaves so I figured the beets might have been picked not too long back. Beets with live leaves usually taste much better and usually have a better texture so I brought them home.

Usually I only eat the beet greens in salads because they are bitter but today I cooked them up with the stems while I cooked the beets.

I cooked the beets with vintagers, sugar and a couple clementines to infuse another flavor into the beets.

The beets were very large and took 90 minutes covered in a 350 degree F oven. When the beets are cool enough to handle the skins just slip off.

While the beets were cooking I sautéed up celery, beet stems, onion, garlic and threw in the beet greens last.

Then the plate gets dressed up with toppings.

Pickled Beets with Stems, Leaves, Clementines and Blue Cheese

Ingredients for about 6 Servings

3 medium/large beets – with stems and fresh leaves for the rest of the recipe – washed well

1 cup red wine vinegar

1 cup rice wine vinegar

1 cup sugar

2 clementines – each cut in half

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

3 celery stalks – peeled and sliced

beet stems – from your beets – chopped

1/2 sweet onion – chopped

2 garlic cloves – ground up or mashed

1 Tablespoon kosher salt or sea salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

beet leaves – pulled off the stems in bit size pieces

2 small clementines

3 scallions greens sliced thin

3oz blue cheese – crumbled

6 dates – seeded – sliced thin

6 Tablespoons honey

3 oz almonds – toasted

6 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

fresh ground sea salt

Aleppo pepper

Directions

Set your oven to 350 degrees F

Get a large pan. Cut your beets in halves and place in pan.

2 clementines cut in half and add to pan along with-

red wine vinegar, rice wine vinegar, sugar

Cover the pan and cook until for tender. (one hour – 90 minutes depending on size of beets and oven.

In your fry pan on medium high heat add 2 Tablespoons olive oil, celery, beet stems, sweet onion, garlic, 1 Tablespoon salt, black pepper and cover loosely and cook till sweated (till all is soft). Now add beet leaves and cover. (this will cook fast) and lastly stir in the two clementines segments.

For serving slice the beets and serve about one half a beet per person.

Top the beets with a scoop of contents fro the fry pan.

Top each serving with scallions, blue cheese,  dates, honey, extra virgin olive oil, toasted almonds, fresh ground sea salt and Aleppo pepper.

Enjoy!

Pickled Beets with Stems, Leaves, Clementines and Blue Cheese

Forking Yummy!

The Forking Truth

Forking Delicious Lime Water Ice

Water Ice, Italian Ice and Granita are basically the same thing. They all are sugar, water and fruit or juice. In the US Water Ice and Italian Ice are a popular regional food that is common in Philadelphia and in the Delaware Valley. This food has been brought over by Italian Immigrants  so it is known as Italian Ice. When your making a non-traditional flavor the icy confection should be called Water Ice.

Granita usually but not always has more of a scrapped ice texture that differs around different areas of Italy. Granita in Italy is served usually like a slush like drink and in certain parts of Italy (according to Wikipedia) is a slushy beverage that’s a part of breakfast sometimes with a Brioche.

In Philadelphia and other parts of the Delaware Valley the Italian Ice or Water Ice is often a street food sold as a cooling refreshing snack or dessert.

This recipe for Lime Water Ice is ONE PUNCH ABSOLUTELY PERFECT! It’s easy to prepare and delicious. It so light and fluffy. I DO WARN YOU YOU that this is tangy, tart, sweet and flavorful and might not be for kids. If you are used to your Icy treats very sweet this will not be sweet enough for you and you might prefer to add more sugar to this recipe. Try it this way first because the point is that the ice is suppose to be refreshing and not too sweet. Add more sugar if you need too. You will forking love this and will make this over and over again.

Ingredients for 6 servings

1 cup lime juice – fresh squeezed from Persian Limes and all the zest from all your limes. be careful and only get the green zest and not the white part because the white part is bitter. If you put the white part in I do warn you that will taste bitter.

1 1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cup water

Directions

In a small sauce pan on medium heat bring the sugar and water to a boil and let boil till sugar is dissolved. About 1-2 minutes.

Pour into a container that can go into the freezer.

Add the fresh squeezed lime juice and zest.

Leave on the counter till it cools down a bit.

Put in freezer and check it in around 6-7 hours and fluff it up a little. Put back in freezer and fluff it up in another 2 hours.

After about 9 hours fluff it up again.

At this point I left it in the freezer over night and the next day scooped it out.

Forking Delicious Lime Water Ice

Your Welcome!…This one is A Crowd Pleaser!

The Forking Truth

Fresh Basil Turkey Meatballs

These Fresh Basil Turkey Meatballs are Forking Delicious and Very Juicy! No-one will even think they are reduced in fat. Instead of breadcrumbs I used a combination of rice and oats. I also don’t use cheese or milk or oil. I have a couple of tricks to make the meatballs moist. One trick is to use finely chopped raw onion. In most recipes they sauté the onions in oil and that gives you tasty onions. I use raw onions to flavor the meat and the onions also put moisture and flavor into the meat. My other trick is adding a small amount of stock to the mixture that is also flavorful. Lastly the fresh basil adds a lot of fresh flavor and also adds moisture. These meatballs are’t mushy either. When my husband tasted them get smiled and said UUUMMMMMMMMM! How did you make them! Then he gobbled up the sample I photoed.

Ingredients for 6 servings

1 lb ground turkey

1 cup cooked rice

2 XL eggs – beaten

1/4 cup vegetable stock

1/4 cup whole grain oats (not instant)

1 garlic clove – grated

1/4 cup sweet onion – chopped fine

1/4 cup basil leaves ( Cram the leaves in the cup ) – chopped well

1 Tablespoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper

pinch ground fennel

non-stick spray

Directions

Turn your oven to 350 degrees F.

Get a large bowl and mix everything together.

Get a baking sheet(s) and spray it with non-stick spray.

The mixture is soft so you need a small scoop to scoop out the meatballs.

Scoop out meatballs till you are done.

I got 31 meatballs.

Put in oven till they are done. In my oven they took 12 minutes.

These meatballs are flavorful and juicy. Forking Delicious with the fresh basil! You only need to serve them with grated cheese or a very thin light sauce.

Fresh Basil Turkey Meatballs

Crowd Pleaser!

The Forking Truth

Easier Very Crisp Chicken Skin

This is how you get shattering crisp chicken skin. You spread out your chicken skin on a double layer paper towels underneath the chicken skin and above the chicken skin press out all the dampness with your hands. Then the chicken skins go on parchment paper and get covered with parchment paper. You can season lightly if your careful because the skins will shrink in half so you only need half the seasoning as you think. Get a piece of parchment paper to cover the skins and press with your hands so the skin is almost sealed in with the parchment paper. They go into a 375 degree oven for 45 minutes. The skin with be very hot with lots of loose oil that was released. You need to get the chicken skins out of the oil and drain on a paper towel lined pan.

Easier Very Crisp Chicken Skin

It’s trendy to add a piece of chicken skin to sandwiches or you can dress the skin with tasty sauces.

Forking Good!

The Forking Truth

Faux Mushroom Potatoes

Aren’t these FORKING cute!

I was spiralizing some potatoes with my Paderno Spiralizer on the ribbon blade and what’s left behind looks like a mushroom.

So I saved my potato mushrooms and sprayed a sheet pan with non-stick canola oil and placed my potato mushrooms on the pan and into a pre-heated 350 degree F oven for thirty minutes.

Added Fresh ground sea salt and black pepper.

Would these Faux Mushrooms be great next to a steak or in a pasta dish with mushrooms?

I think they look nice coming out of the mashed potatoes too!

Ingredients for up to 8 servings

3 lbs russet potato cores (leftover from something else you spiralized)

non-stick canola spray (or any spray you like)

fresh ground sea salt to taste

fresh cracked black pepper to taste

Directions

Set your oven to 350 degrees F

Spray your baking sheet with non-stick spray.

Gather up your mushroom potatoes and place them on the sheet tray.

When the mushrooms are slightly brown remove them from the oven. (about 30 minutes)

Faux Mushroom Potatoes

Forking Cute!

The Forking Truth

Forking Great Egg Salad

If you read my recipes you know that I never use full fat mayonnaise because it is very high with fat and calories and I feel with enough flavor in your food you can usually use light or fat free mayonnaise. The exception for me is egg salad or deviled eggs. The light or fat free just isn’t good on egg salads so you have to make the fresh mayo/dressing for this egg salad. This egg salad comes out forking delicious. The dressing that you make will have all the seasoning in it to make it perfect. This should have been four servings but husband kept snacking on it so I only got two lunches (mine and his) and my husband got three snacks. He also asked me if I wrote down how I made it. I am guessing so I make it the same way again for him.

Ingredients for four servings (unless someone can’t stop themselves)

1 XL egg yolk – for dressing

2 Tablespoons dijon mustard – for dressing

pinch salt – kosher or sea salt – for dressing

1/2 cup canola oil (1/4c & 1/4c) – for dressing

2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar (1 T & 1 T) – for dressing

dash Worcestershire sauce – for dressing

1/4 teaspoon cayenne – for dressing

pinch Hungarian Paprika – for dressing

pinch white pepper – for dressing

8 XL eggs

1 Tablespoon of kosher salt – for boiling the eggs

1/8 cup sweet onion – chopped fine

1/8 cup celery – chopped fine and the leaves plus a few extra leaves

fresh ground sea salt

fresh ground black pepper

Directions

Using a blender of some kind add the egg yolk and dijon mustard and blend till emulsified.

Add pinch of salt and slowly add 1/4 cup of oil and blend till emulsified.

Add 1 Tablespoon of vinegar and blend till emulsified.

Add remaining oil and blend till emulsified.

Add Worcestershire, cayenne, paprika, white pepper and blend till emulsified.

Cover and put in your refrigerator to chill.

Put your eggs into your sauce pot and cover the eggs very well with water and add the salt. Bring to a boil and then SHUT THE HEAT OFF and leave the pot stay on 5 minutes. Exactly after the five minutes throw out the hot water and replace with cold running water and add some ice to chill the eggs. (The eggs will be cooked medium with a slightly soft center) Chill the eggs really well so the shells will be easier to remove. Get a large mixing bowl. When the eggs are cool then peel them and cut them in quarters and add to bowl. Add the onions, celery, some of the celery leaves rough chopped and reserve a few leaves for garnishing. Add fresh ground sea salt and black pepper.

Now fold in your dressing as needed. You might not use all the dressing so keep a little on the side that can be used later or for a sandwich. It’s better to leave the salad on the dry side because your leftover will get slightly moister from a small amount of water that comes out of the vegetables.

Add reserved celery leaves as the garnish.

Serve on cucumber slices, crackers or your favorite bread.

Forking Great Egg Salad!

The Forking Truth