Just picked 24 orange sized beetroot from the garden.with lots more to come. This lot will be simply bottled.and I will leave some nice smaller ones to roast and later make beetroot pickle. so scrummy. Here's my bottling method. BottledBeetroot Cook 5 - 6 beetroot in salted water until just knife tender. Combine:1 cup brown malt vinegar.1/2 cup water.1/2 cup sugar.1/4 tsp cinnamon.2 whole cloves.4 peppercorns.1 ~ 2bay leaves Simmer mixture for 15 mins.Pack sliced beetrootor (1.5cm dices) into hot sterilized jars and pour sieved vinegar over. Seal. I do both, some sliced and some diced which gives great flavour and colour to green salads over summer. great with goats milk feta cheese added which takes on the colour. Bottles/Jars; I use Pasta sauce bottles as they are of a size that allows you to open and use up over a short period. Jars are placed in dishwasher as are the lids and put through a cycle. the jars are then placed upside down on racks in the oven and heated at 100c for about 15 odd minutes. Removed, packed with sliced or diced beetroot and the hot vinegar mixture poured over.this gives a nice flavour and if you are adventurous, you can add a half deseeded chilli before sealing to some of the jars.
coolkat11,
Nov 7, 2:58am
Do you think you could use white vinegar instead of malt
beaker59,
Nov 7, 2:59am
nice, and they grow so quickly too :)
Really useful on the boat too, I have a few jars on the boat along with pickled onions then when going out for the day just take a loaf of homemade bread and some butter with some fresh lettuce leaves from the garden great sandwich material particularly with a fillet of fish fried up and some fresh mayo for lunch.
mazzy1,
Nov 7, 3:03am
Yum - I can't wait to give this a go. Last year I absolutely ruined kilos and kilos of our beetroot by bottling them with WAAAAAY too much chilli. I think I blamed Digby Law at the time. it was absolutely inedible!
pam.delilah,
Nov 7, 3:12am
thanks for the spiced vinegar idea. I just put mine in plain malt vinegar Iplants some rainbow ones a couple of weeks, so am looking forward to eating and bottling them In Feb I pickled some pears , nice but quite spicy and wow, may have used too much vinegar. Do you have a good recipe for pickled pears!
pam.delilah,
Nov 7, 3:14am
Another question Fisher , do you add the feta to the jars!
kuaka,
Nov 7, 3:33am
Whenever I think about cooking beetroot it always reminds me of the cat we had when I was a kid.It used to go crazy every time mum cooked beetroot and in the end she gave him some of the peel when she peeled the cooked beetroot.He scoffed it down.Just couldn't get enough of the stuff.We thought it quite weird at the time, but it wasn't just a "one-off".Every time she cooked beetroot he ate the peelings.
spot20,
Nov 7, 4:07am
Hahaha cats can be so peculiar! Love it
korbo,
Nov 7, 4:17am
I have a friend who always put a few in her roast vegys. sometimes the potatoes turn pink, but they are so nice.
fisher,
Nov 7, 4:55am
Coolkat: .always have used malt. my preference tis all. go for it. Beaker:these were ones I planted in the top garden in winter. got to about 10cms high and "stopped" .when I did the new gardens, I simply transferred them over and they shot away to produce these. dont like leaving them too long as they go woody.yes.a fillet of fresh caught fish, pan fried in butter and on your sammy. magnificent . especially tasty when out on the water. sounds magic. Mazzy. been there done that. it intensifies over time.I'll do 1 or 2 smaller jars with half a deseededsmall chilli from my garden.just put it on top before the lid goes on Pam.d. I use the cubed bottled beetroot when I make a green salad. Toms, spring onions, grated carrot or peeled strips, red oak lettuce, mustard lettuce, capsicum, celery, cucumberwith some fine chopped parsley, basil and mint. all from my garden.Add a raw fine sliced asparagus or two for that "pea" flavour and some mushrooms to make a magic salad.home made dressing and all tossed . then more slices of tomato and feta broken up small all over the top.I make a HUGE bowl full for the meal. leftovers into fridge. .just add more to it for the following day. Kuaka so funny. our 3 poodles eat the strangest things as well. Korbo.love them roasted especially picked straight from the garden. I try get the same size ones. good scrub (leave skin on) with wire pad and trim the pigs tail and leave about 4 cms of the stalks.drizzle of olive oil.balsamic vinegarand good grind of rock salt and black pepper.roast time is about same as spud and once turned , more olive oil balsamic and seasoning added. sooooo sweet. we love them.
lodgelocum,
Nov 7, 4:58am
Only justed planted our beetroot about 3 weeks ago.dam.got long time to wait till ready.
fisher,
Nov 7, 5:02am
when I pick some from my garden , I replenish the soil and plant another seed in its place. i have two gardens going all with different stages of plants.
uli,
Nov 7, 5:09am
You just made me go out and harvest some fisher :)
and I found 3 that had bolted already - so the kunes will be happy tonight too (can just about see their red fur dripping around the little mouths.)
fisher,
Nov 7, 5:16am
hi uli. yes the centre stalks go hard. and the beetroot flesh goes err 'grainy' .hahahahahahakunes with red jowls. nice sweet wee treat for them.
uli,
Nov 7, 5:17am
They probably grate it up as we speak LOL :)
twindizzy,
Nov 7, 5:19am
Do you always let them get that size before harvesting!
davidt4,
Nov 7, 5:20am
It's a pity that Halloween has passed - the red-chinned kunes would have been perfect.
kiwicarol,
Nov 7, 5:21am
use an egg slicer to slice beetroot. makes life much easier
fisher,
Nov 7, 5:36am
twindizzy. not really.these were underground.for bottling I let them go a bit bigger but watch the stalks to tell you when bolting, in particular the centre stalk .If left too long, when boiled, they are grainy and not very nice or edible. small apple size is ideal for roasting. Note: just finished bottling. all spot on.I like them 7/8 cooked and just "firm"
elliehen,
Nov 8, 1:30am
One of our cats used to steal freshly steamed asparagus and the other used to bite on corn cobs tossed out on the lawn for the birds ;)
kuaka,
Nov 8, 6:38am
It's weird isn't it.I always think that if cats eat what we consider to be "strange" things for a cat to eat, there must be something in that particular item that they need which is lacking in their otherwise "normal" diet.
elliehen,
Nov 8, 6:47am
kuaka, the current cat eats bunny heads and leaves the rest.I suppose there's good nutrition in bunny brains ;)
kuaka,
Nov 8, 9:41am
Yuk.Headless bunnies.We trained our current cat not to catch birds - took a while but she hasn't caught a bird now for about 13 or 14 years, and now she's so old she doesn't even catch rats or mice.
uli,
Nov 30, 9:45pm
bump for susievb
tommydog,
Dec 2, 5:27am
Its really good for you it purifies the blood.I remember a guy I meet who was Swiss saying when he had to do his time in the Army they were made to eat it everyday.
Since the public registrations are closed, you must have an invite from a current member to be able to register and post in this thread.
Have an account? Login here.