Prior to moving to Canada, beets were more
of a curiosity to me than an ingredient I gave much thought to. A local
restaurant in my youth made awesome pickled beets (or 'beet pickles' as I've
come to know them here) and my dad grew them in our garden one year. To
his credit, he did pull off a pretty good batch of pickled beets with them; we'll
defer to my mom on whether or not the resultant product was worth effort in kitchen
cleanup. It was only when I moved to Calgary that I began to discover the true
potential for this sweet, aromatic, rock hard, shirt (and everything else)
staining root vegetable.
Beets grow incredibly well here.
Walking through the summer farmers markets in Calgary, the Hutterite
colonies have baskets of beets, red and yellow, large and small.
Ukrainian babas have rolled beet leaves around dough to make beetniks.
And at several of the local restaurants, there are some fantastic
variations on the beet salad. So when we were traveling for our friends'
wedding in Chicago, and eating at the Girl and Goat restaurant, as a testament
to the familiar flavours of her youth , my fiancée ordered the beet salad.
I must preface this recollection by
stating that, short of the reservation we'd made at Alinea (a meal that did not
disappoint in the least), this was the meal we were most looking forward to on
this trip. While the meal itself was not without its successes, the beet
salad was a complete disappointment. It consisted of a few lightly
pickled beets, some greens, some toasted squash seeds, and little dressing.
As we'd experienced better from salad bars and quick lunch spots, it is
hard to overstate our disappointment with this lackluster effort. Yet it
was this uninspired rendition of a beloved dish that challenged us to seek out,
and ultimately to create a better beet salad.
The number of times along this search that
my fiancée and I uttered the words, "how was Girl and Goat that bad when
this humble lunch spot made it so great?" are nearly impossible to count.
Along this path we discovered a few things. Goat cheese and beets
are a classic paring for a reason. The creamy, savory funk of the goat cheese
is a near perfect counter balance to the earthy sweetness of beets. Also,
the concept of "if it grows together, it goes together" was never
more evident than in my Mother-in-law-to-be's garden, where dill seemingly
grows wild amongst her beet crop. It provides a nice freshness to a root
vegetable and enhances its lighter aromatic qualities. But the true
revolutionary moment was a meal we had at a new local restaurant in Calgary.
In an historic dilapidated hotel building
in Calgary's up and coming Inglewood neighborhood, Chef Michael Noble of
NOtaBLE fame revitalized the building with The Nash Restaurant and Off Cut Bar.
The menu is entree focused which is not typically my preferred style of
dining. Each dish, with multiple elements and balanced flavors and
textures, are planned and executed in a manner that provides similar intrigue
to a multi course tasting menu on a single plate. It's a challenging feat
that Chef Noble and his team execute to perfection. On their appetizer
menu, sits a beet salad that is nothing short of inspired. Complete with
beet sorbet, red beets, golden beets, candy cane colored Chioggia beets, and
multiple preparations of each, it's a challenging dish to share because there
is a new flavor or texture in every bite. It is from this dish, and the
learnings of the aforementioned complimentary ingredients, that Lindsay and I
have drawn inspiration to craft our own beet salad preparation.
Our beet salad has four different beet
preparations. We start with cubing red beets and boiling them in a
pickling liquid, complete with sugar, salt, citric acid, and pickling spices,
until soft. Half of these beets are reserved with a quarter as much (by
volume) of the pickling liquid to make a beet sorbet (thank you Chef Noble for
this fantastic idea). The other half of these beets become a core
component of the salad, the flavor and texture of which are reminiscent of the
beet pickles of Lindsay and my respective childhood's (did I mention that her
mother makes a beet pickle that rivals my hometown restaurant?).
For the beet sorbet, we puree the reserved
beets and liquid and strain it to make it smooth before running it through our
ice cream machine. The goal of our beet sorbet is to pull it more savory
and acidic than sweet. The other beet components of the dish have enough
natural sweetness to provide that element of balance. The beet sorbet,
once added to the final salad, is one of two sauce/dressing components, the
cool tartness of which balances the rich creaminess of the goat cheese
crema.
This is one of only 2 elements of the dish
that does not actually contain beets. We combine approximately equal
parts heavy cream and goat chevre to a smooth consistency. We add salt, pepper,
a tablespoon or so of dill oil, and chopped fresh dill to this cream mixture.
(As you’ll notice, each element of the dish is seasoned to a point of
balance and could stand on its own with flavors.) The dill and goat cheese are
the pairing elements that go so nicely with our beet components.
Next, we roast quartered golden and red
beets. Prior to roasting, we toss the quartered beets (separated by
color) in camelina oil (a local product with a peppery quality - olive oil is a
fine substitute), fresh dill, salt and pepper. We wrap them in foil and
bake at 375 until soft (approximately 45 minutes). Once cooled, we slice
them about a 1/8 inch think and plate. This preparation is the most
earthy and savory preparation.
Our final beet preparation is the quick
pickle. On a mandolin, we slice red beets in rounds nearly paper thin.
We rest them in a brine of white vinegar, pickling spice, salt, sugar,
fresh dill, and red onion for about a half hour. This provides a bright,
sharp flavor (we pull this brine very acidic with the white vinegar - Lindsay
might argue a bit too acidic in my latest attempt) and a crisp textural element
to the salad.
Finally, we assemble all of the components
as pictured, topping with toasted walnuts (or pine nuts depending on your
preference). Presentation is one of the fun elements of this and we've
done it several ways. Our favourite is
on the long plates pictured, the purchase of which has been disputed as an
unnecessary extravagance. The alternate position here being, it looks
really cool.
There are several things we love about how
this dish comes together. The sorbet and crema complement each other with
different textures, temperatures, and flavour elements and act as a dressing
for this salad. The roasted beets and hot pickled beets provide the soft
textured elements of the dish and balance with the crunchier quick pickled
beets and toasted nuts. There are creamy, sweet, sour, herbal, nutty, and
earthy flavor elements to this dish and they combine differently depending on
which elements you put on the fork together. It's intended to be playful and
allow the person enjoying it to write their own path as they eat it. This is
not a dish that is a quick 30 minute meal, but it presents well and tastes
fantastic. It is a beet salad as beet salad is intended, displaying beets
in ways that might not be unfamiliar and a bit surprising (beet sorbet) but
still strikes a chord of nostalgia with the familiar pickled beet/beet pickle
flavours we grew up with. And that for us is the fun of it, and the point
of pride we take in having created it.
