The following three varieties are key players at my local farmers market:

• “Burpee’s Golden”, a beet with orange-red skin and yellow flesh.
• “Chioggia”, an open-pollinated variety originally grown in Italy. The concentric rings of its pink/red and white roots are visually striking when sliced. As a heritage variety, Chioggia is largely unimproved and has relatively high concentrations of geosmin.
• “Detroit Dark Red”, with relatively low concentrations of geosmin, and is therefore a popular commercial cultivar in the United States.

When I was growing up, my grandmother & aunties would get together in the fall and have huge canning parties. They would can a variety of items; beets, tomatoes, green beans, apples and peaches. I was too young to do more than cause problems & be in the way. I was usually shooed out of the kitchen.

Fast forward about 10 years & I moved to Southern California. I saw all the seasonal fruit & veggies and thought, “I should be canning this stuff”. I ask my peers & they looked at me like I had lost my mind. Canning? Who does that? I called my mom and grandma for advice & recipes. I canned quite a bit the first couple of season. I enjoyed it, labor intensive, but after a few years I gave it up.

About 6 months ago, I found  The Lazy Ox Canteen. Their dishes are made from farm fresh ingredients. Chef Centeno draws his inspiration from modern and traditional French, Mexican, Japanese and Catalan cuisines. The plates are always changing depending on the seasons. One of the appetizers was pickled veggies – onions, beets and cucumbers. I fell in love with the beets! I ordered them every time I went, with hopes of re-create the recipe. There was one small problem, what was the acid ratio to sugar ratio? I called my Aunt Lisa & she gave me some suggestions, but I was still clueless. At wits end, I approached Chef with hopes of getting the secret.  He gave me the list of ingredients, but not the measurements.

The next day I went to the farmers market and purchased orange beets, pink beets, orange, dill and garlic. The reason you want to avoid the red beets goes back to the intro of this post. There is too much geosmin-”earth smell” in them & the flavor will delete the spices. My next stop was to get white wine vinegar & champagne vinegar. The champagne vinegar was the flavor that confused me when I was attempting to re-create the recipe. I ran home, grabbed quart jars & stuffed them full. I put them in the refrigerator and waited 2 weeks. Amazing!

Orange & pink pickled beets.

Since the pickled beets were a huge success, the back of my refrigerator and the dark corners of my pantry have turned into a food science lab. Pickled beets, balsamic pickled onion, cherry balsamic preserves and pickled cherries to name a few.

Pickled Beets
(This is my base recipe & a work in progress. Makes 1 quart.)

8 medium orange or pink beets
1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup white wine vinegar
3/4 cup champagne vinegar
Zest of 1 orange, use a sharp peeler to remove. Avoid the white pith
1 jalapeno pepper, slice in half, remove or leave the seeds – depending your heat preference
2 large sprigs of fresh dill
1 tsp. dill seed
4 cloves garlic, peel & slice in half

Remove the tops & roots of the beets. Take a large sauce pan & fill half way with water. Bring to a boil. Add the beets. Boil 15 to 20 minutes. (They should be just fork tender.)

Once they are done, place them in a colander & run cold water over them. When they are cool to the touch, peel & slice off a thin layer of the top & bottom. Cut each beet into quarters or smaller if they are bigger beets.

While the beets are cooking, wash quart jar with soap & water. Fill jar with boiling water & leave for 5 minutes. Empty water from jar. Put in the orange zest, jalapeno pepper, fresh dill, dill seed & garlic into jar. Add the quartered beets, pressing down gently. Fill almost to the top.

Pour the vinegars & sugar into a small saucepan. Place saucepan on stove & bring to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes or until sugar is dissolved. (At this point you can taste the mixture to see if it needs more sugar.)

Slowly pour the hot sugar/vinegar mixture into the jar. Fill to the very top of the jar. Wipe off edge of jar with a clean cloth & place on the lid & ring. Tighten ring, but not too much because you will have to get it off later. Shake jar well to move the spices around.

Place in the refrigerator and shake everyday for 7 days. Leave another 7 days. As temping as it is to taste them, they need this time to pickle & develop their flavor. After two weeks, they will be ready. Try not to eat the whole jar in one setting.

P.S. The pickled cherries are hanging out in white vinegar. After 10 days, they will end up in lots of sugar for 3 months. I will blog the results.

I am sorry guys that I have not been posting much lately. I am not going to make excuses, except I will say it is holiday time. =) I will defiantly be putting up more recipes and restaurant reviews. Steve and I have been going to some terrific restaurants lately. 

I have a friend on FaceBook that read my profile and pieced together the fact that I am a chef. I was telling him that I am currently looking for angel investors to aid me in launching my business. He ask for additional information about Mia Cucina. I am going to send him a copy of my executive summary and let him share it if he wishes. Any way, if he was interested, maybe there are some of my reader that are interested too. I am including a copy.

Mia Cucina
818-808-5856
miacucina1@gmail.com

Executive Summary

Mia Cucina is introducing five Health Department approved kitchens, under the same roof, for rent to fill the need of our clients that want to start or expand their food related businesses without the large expense involved in building a commercial kitchen. Mia Cucina plans to open this facility in the Las Virgenes area, located in between the Los Angeles and Ventura counties in California, in the spring of 2009.

Mia Cucina will dominate the current market because there are only 10 commercial kitchens, with multiple kitchens, for rent in the entire state of California. None of which are located within a 35 mile radius of the Las Virgenes area. With 50% rented space per month, Mia Cucina will generate enough income to repay a 1 million dollar loan in 3 years.

Mia Cucina’s revenues are focused on the rental from multiple users as opposed to limited income generated by one business using one kitchen. To open Mia Cucina, Ms. Doebler will need $800,000 to fully complete this project with $500,000 of the total being used for the initial build out. Income generation will begin as soon as ground breaking occurs through deposits of $525 per letter of commitment. Additionally, it is anticipated that revenues will be received through pre-registration of summer cooking classes. Once the kitchens are operating they will be open for 3,360 hours per month. If only 12 companies rent space for an average of 70 hours each it would generate over $30,000 per month. This is only 25% of potential usage, which exceeds the break even amount $25,000 a month. Currently we have several people that have signed letters of interest as well as numerous others who are anticipating our opening.  

Amy Wilcox Doebler’s passion is cooking and being a part of the culinary industry. As a personal chef, she has preferred to use healthy, organic foods and energy efficient products. Mia Cucina will continue the focus by addressing energy efficient concerns in its build out and it’s day to day functioning. The build out will include the use of sky lights as well as green focused products; both energy saving and non-toxic cleaning products.