I got The Bride back! Well, for about a week and a half, anyway. She returns to China for another month in a few days, after our trip to D.C. Thus, this week is, of course, all about her. All summer long I get to cook whatever I feel like, but for the times that she is here she dictates what we eat as she often cannot get most of those items while abroad. The Bride called for an oldie-but-goodie, but I did not want to waste a good grilling session, so I picked out a side for us that I haven't already done, the Spring Vegetable Platter on page 347.
As this entry's title indicates, there were two things brand new to me in this recipe. First, I had never cooked a beet. In fact, I have little experience with beets. The only time I can recall ever trying one is out of a can on Thanksgiving, and let's just say that I was less than impressed. In reviewing the recipe to formulate a game plan, I noticed something odd. It calls for the beets to be grilled over direct medium heat for one to one-and-a-half hours! This seemed rather strange to me. I know that if I did that to something comparable, say a potato, it would be ruined. Even potatoes would use indirect heat if cooking for that long. The more I thought about it, I couldn't remember anything being cooked over direct heat for anywhere near that length of time. Still, I trusted Weber and went about preparing the beets.
As the beets were on the grill for a long time, I could casually go about making the rest of the dish. The remaining vegetables were going to be brushed with a garlic-infused olive oil, so I made a paste out of the garlic clove, salt, and pepper. I then added this to the olive oil to for a little steeping.
A gentle stir later and I had a nicely flavored brushing oil.
Here's the embarrassing second new technique I learned today. Here I stand, at thirty-five years of age, and I've never boiled an egg. I've fried eggs, scrambled eggs, and even made omelets, but never boiled an egg before today. I have nothing against hard-boiled eggs, in fact I've consumed them quite often. It's just that someone else has always prepared them. So I decided to do a little research in the matter. It turns out that there are QUITE conflicting approaches to something that would seem so simple.
Method one suggests using eggs at least a week old, place eggs in an empty saucepan, cover with cold water, cover and place on heat, bring to a boil, uncover, reduce heat to a simmer, and cook for 15-18 minutes. Add cold water to the water in the saucepan, then peel and eat. Whew!
The second method I found suggests something rather different. First, boil water and THEN add the egg, and then boil for only SEVEN minutes, which was about half the time as the first video. Then drain the boiling water, swirl the egg around the saucepan to crack the shell, and then add cold water to the pan.
Could these be any different? Finally, it hit me...I looked up the video that I should have started with in the first place. I typed in "Alton Brown hard boiled egg" into YouTube's search box. For those of you who don't already know, I consider this guy THE MAN when it comes to the science of food. He had something altogether different, but it was the one I trusted the most.
This third method I watched and decided to use did present me with a problem, though. I didn't have one of those steamer inserts for my saucepan. In the spirit of Alton Brown, however, I remembered he often uses crumpled up balls of aluminum foil as spacers. So I made a few and added them to the pan.
See? They elevate the egg for steaming instead of boiling! I was quite proud of myself.
The beets were nearing completion, so I brushed the remaining vegetables with the garlic-infused olive oil.
It was time for the moment of truth! The shell came off quite easily.
I cut the egg in half, and was rather happy with my result. I had just hard-boiled my first egg!
Here are the beets and potatoes, fresh from the grill. The beets are those rock-looking things on the right. So far, I wasn't excited about them. The potatoes did look nice, though.
Once you peel the beets, inside you should find a nice soft and tender inside. I'll be darned...Weber's cooking time was right on.
I sliced them up, and added them to the dressing bowl for a quick tossing.
The last of the vegetables came off the grill, and I was almost done.
All of the grilled vegetables received their turn in the dressing bowl, and then I plated. Starting on the right side of the bottom layer, we have the grilled beets, potatoes, asparagus/green beans (I mixed them together), topped by a second layer that had the eggs, olives, and goat cheese. Oh, and The Bride's favorite, the Oak Grilled Salmon was our main dish tonight. Like I said, this week she gets whatever she wants!
For such a long entry, it's a shame that I have to tell you that I won't make this again. Don't get me wrong, this was a nice salad and The Bride thought it was wonderful. While these grilled beets are indeed much better than what I remember from some Thanksgiving a long time ago, I can now tell you with certainty that I still don't care much for them. They aren't repulsive, they just aren't all that appealing, and don't do much for me at all. Also, if anyone else decides to make this, I would recommend cutting down on the amount of orange zest, or eliminating it altogether. I like oranges. In fact, orange juice has more of an appeal to me than ice cream, and I really like ice cream. I just thought that the zest dominated the dressing and thus the salad. But overall, who cares? I've got The Bride back. It was so nice to cook for her again!
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