Monday, July 2, 2007

The Summer of Roasting

Since New York has had a small respite from the heat, I decided to roast some things that have been sitting in my fridge.

Golden Beets: I looooove beets. It's all my mom's fault, she would buy beets all the time and make a nice roast beet salad with vinegar. So I roasted the small golden beets I got in my CSA share. They're surprisingly simple to make: just wash, cut off the greens, wrap in foil and toss the packet into the oven at 350 for 45 minutes. The smallest beets (that were the size of radishes) were sweet and soft while the larger ones were firmer and heartier. Cut and toss with a little cider vinegar for a surprisingly sweet salad.

Beef ribs: Thanks to Whole Foods (I don't care what anyone says, their store brand is affordable and better than Trader Joe's) I got to experiment with beef ribs for the first time. Again, foil came to rescue me from extensive preparation. After 30 minutes in the oven (the first 10 at 450 degrees, the last 20 at 350), they were juicy and meltingly tender. Deeelicious and fitting for a summer afternoon.