Something of a pickle

It was probably this time last year when I last mentioned beetroot. Apart from the ever-present jarred variety which lives in the fridge, I seem to only ever taste the fresh stuff in the summer time. But better still, people seem to give me more and more beetroot, as the summer wears on.

If memory serves me, the last time I was talking about beetroot, I was roasting big beets in the oven, wrapped in tin foil with butter and balsamic and lots of salt and pepper – when the beet drops in. Funnily enough, that’s what I was doing last week too, following a gift of more beets from my mother. I love the unwrapping of the tin-clad beets too after they come out of the oven, steaming hot and fragranced with that earthy tang of woodland. Better again is the eating and then the scraping the tinfoil clean of a balsamic reduction – waste not, want not!

A real boon for your health – beetroot is apparently beneficial for helping lower blood pressure and even slowing dementia – but to be perfectly honest, if it didn’t have the taste it wouldn’t be on my list.

Last week it was decided that some ham was required for making sandwiches and I, having lost the game of rock, paper, scissors to decide who would go, found myself on the way to the shop to procure said cured delicacy. On the way, however, I met a very kind lady who had been on her way to see me. Mary had sought me out specifically, knowing me for the glutton that I am. Long-story-short, she was going away for a few days but had an excess of beetroot and she didn’t want to see them going to waste. In short, she needed a greedy bugger like yours truly to eat the beets before they turned the best before corner.

“No better man,” says I, gratefully receiving a goodly half stone of beets. “My bib will be purple the night!”

Being in receipt of a lot of fresh beetroot obviously meant there was more then I could safely deal with via the tinfoil and balsamic method. That left one vital option: The aforementioned pickled variety.

Mary was also kind enough to recommend a pickling recipe that she used in the past, one which including a surprising ingredient (horseradish) and in return for the bounty of beets, I promised her some free range eggs if and when the pullets start laying.

The following evening I was pink to the elbows pickling my beetroot (school boy error – I should have worn rubber gloves), two kilos of which filled two enormous mason jars that I normally reserve for my sourdough production. From start to finish, the whole process took a little under two hours and according to the recipe, in less than two weeks, the beets will have pickled sufficiently that I can commence consumption (the eating, not the pulmonary disease). That’s two weeks’ waiting to see if the pickling has been a success and two weeks’ wondering what the taste will be like. Two weeks! Still, if both the big jars work out, I’ll have enough beetroot to last well into the autumn.

I’d normally wait until the tasting of a new dish/creation before providing you with the recipe but I have a sneaking suspicion this one is going to be a cracker. Also, I can’t wait for two weeks.

INGREDIENTS

2kg of beetroot

1 litre of white vinegar

750g of caster sugar

handful of black peppercorns

1 tsp of dried thyme

1 tsp of mustard seeds

1 tsp of salt

THE PLAN

You’ll need a few jars for the sliced beets. As I said, I used two big mason jars but you can also use jam jars and the like. Whatever kind of jar you’re using, just make sure to sterilise them first. I washed my jars in hot soapy water and then rinsed really well and then they went into a low oven for ten minutes. The lids and the rubber seals I bathed in just boiled water for the same time period.

As for pickling…

First wash and trim the beets but leave the skin on. Put the beets into a large pot, cover with water, bring to a simmer and bubble gently for 45 minutes or until tender. Think of it like cooking purple spuds.

That done, drain the beets and then fill the pot they’re in with cold water.

This makes the peeling much handier. The skin basically rubs off in your hands.

That done, make the pickling brine: Into a saucepan, add the vinegar, sugar, peppercorns, thyme, mustard seeds and salt and bring to a boil.

Stir and bubble until the sugar has dissolved.

After you’ve de-skinned the beets, slice these up as thick or as thin as you like and place these into the jars. Pour on the pickling brine and seal them up and that’s it.

Retire to a cool, dark place for at least two weeks before cracking open.

Apparently, four weeks is the optimum time for the pickling to take place but there’s no chance of that for me. The anticipation would kill me.

Thanks again, Mary!