Roasted Beets
When we closed down the garden a couple weekends ago, I forgot to mention that we also pulled some beets. Throughout the fall we had mostly been using the beets for salad greens (their red stems are pretty, and they offer a different flavor), but we pulled the roots of all that were left. You may also recall that we had a fire to warm us while we worked outside that January day:
So what could be better than roasted beets? Kirk washed them off, wrapped them in foil, and tucked the packet in among the smoldering bits of wood that had fallen through the grate in the fire bowl:
As you can see above, this was hardly a great, roaring fire. The beets were added near its end, and it had died down to mostly coals rather than flames while the beets were roasting. Kirk figured we'd let the fire burn out, and he'd grab the foil packet later in the afternoon when it had cooled (so as not to worry about burning his fingers or having to find any of our old fireplace tools).
Results?
Complete and utter failure. These are the remains of the beets. They had been turned into pure charcoal briquets in the fire: hard as rocks, we could have used them to draw if we had been so inclined.
Kirk almost didn't let me take the picture, but I got it anyway. This isn't exactly our finest moment in the garden, or at the fireside for that matter. Lesson learned: The beets will keep cooking if you leave them in the fire bowl, and a whole afternoon in the coals will leave them just a smidge overdone.
So what could be better than roasted beets? Kirk washed them off, wrapped them in foil, and tucked the packet in among the smoldering bits of wood that had fallen through the grate in the fire bowl:
As you can see above, this was hardly a great, roaring fire. The beets were added near its end, and it had died down to mostly coals rather than flames while the beets were roasting. Kirk figured we'd let the fire burn out, and he'd grab the foil packet later in the afternoon when it had cooled (so as not to worry about burning his fingers or having to find any of our old fireplace tools).
Results?
Complete and utter failure. These are the remains of the beets. They had been turned into pure charcoal briquets in the fire: hard as rocks, we could have used them to draw if we had been so inclined.
Kirk almost didn't let me take the picture, but I got it anyway. This isn't exactly our finest moment in the garden, or at the fireside for that matter. Lesson learned: The beets will keep cooking if you leave them in the fire bowl, and a whole afternoon in the coals will leave them just a smidge overdone.
Comments
Post a Comment