BEET SEASON
PART OF VALENTINE’S DAY MENU
The beet is the most intense of vegetables. The radish, admittedly, is more feverish, but the fire of the radish is a cold fire, the fire of discontent, not of passion. Tomatoes are lusty enough, yet there runs through tomatoes an undercurrent of frivolity. Beets are deadly serious. ~Tom Robbins (1936- )
CHOICES
Everyone likes choices, so I have vegetable alternates for the Valentine’s Day Menu, some more serious than others.  Buttered carrots, broccoli, green beans, Brussels sprouts and zucchini — all bring good color to the plate — were presented on Jan 11th. Winter is a season for beets. Root vegetables with a sweet and distinct flavor, both red and golden beets can be simply boiled until tender. Golden beets are that color inside with orange skin. But I prefer the deep, magenta inside and out of red beets, a color unrivaled in the vegetable world. I associate the color with the flavor that tells me I am eating — in no uncertain terms — beets. They make a statement on the plate if only because you don’t see them so often. But they are there, just about every day, in produce departments and green markets.
I can remember surprise upon discovering that fresh beets were as deeply colored as their half-brothers I grew up eating. Not that canned beets were bad in the scheme of things. But fresh beets are such a unique delight that I encourage you to bring some home. They may seem unwieldy, their long leafy branches requiring additional space in the grocery bag and the refrigerator crisper, but well worth it to taste their firm flesh as a sidekick to a mild main course, such as chicken. They are also good combined with baked ham and Divine Mashed Potatoes, from the first week.
You can tear off the tops to conserve space, but the beets will remain fresher for longer if you keep the tops attached until you’re ready to cook them. Beet greens can be cooked like chard or other greens, but we will concentrate here on cooking just the root of the beet.
When making beets for dinner with my young nieces, I would tell them, “Now, if you go to the bathroom and it’s pink, don’t worry. It’s just the beets.” It became a familiar reminder, so their parents wouldn’t be concerned: It’s just the beets! As a counterpoint to this bit of extraneous information, beets can also lower blood pressure, and is one of the eight vegetables contained in V-8 juice. The Romans considered beet juice an aphrodisiac.
To avoid the deep red pigment from leaking excessively out of the cells of the beet, cook before peeling. Otherwise, the inside will not be as evenly colored.  They are actually easier to peel after cooking. Plunge into cold water and they just slip right off. If you care to save the water from cooking the beets, you can dye the outside of hard-cooked eggs by pickling them in water made with the beet cooking liquid. That is, if you like your hard-cooked eggs pink.
Smaller, younger beets will cook faster. And here’s a zippy little tip. Having a hard time cutting a hot, round beet into even slices? Use an egg slicer!
