How To Pickle Beetroot / Homegrown Garden

Foreign

pickle

d

beetroot

is one of my favorites and to be honest it requires pretty simple ingredients so I'll explain them now but I'll put them in the description below so I'm using 750 milliliters of white wine vinegar 120 grams. of mild brown sugar four to five teaspoons of coarse crystalline sea salt and then a mix of pickling spices now this includes a tablespoon of black peppercorns a tablespoon of coriander seeds a tablespoon of mustard seeds a couple of cloves and some chili flakes, as well as two bay leaves and also, of course, my

beetroot

. I'm using 1.3 kilograms and that's after you've trimmed and washed them to start, you'll want to clean and trim your beets now that they're freshly harvested from my plot so they're still covered in a little mud and the leaves though They've all fallen off, I'm not going to use them, you can eat them, but mine have shriveled up a little to preserve them, so all I'm doing is trimming off the tops leaving about an inch of stem attached to the beet and that's really very important because if you want to keep that beautiful deep crimson beet color, you don't want to cut too much off the stem, otherwise it will essentially bleed. the top and I'm just going to put this in my kitchen sink full of hot water and then I'm going to take my little carrot to clean them and get rid of any dried gunk just to make sure they're nice and clean before I move on to the next step, which will be roasting them in the oven.

You must be very careful when handling beets. You don't want to break the skin. The less damage you cause, the less likely it will be. They are for bleeding or that color and I mean what a beautiful color look at those to cook the beets I will be roasting them in the oven that I have already preheated to gas mark six which is 200 degrees C or 180 fan and I'm going to wrap the beets in aluminum foil and what this does is speeds up the cooking process in the oven and it essentially steams them at the same time as it roasts them and believe me, this roasting process can take quite a while so I'm filling a bowl with a little bit of olive oil and I just coat each beet with a little bit of oil to help them cook through and sprinkle a little bit of sea salt on which you then put it in the middle. a piece of aluminum foil and then wrap it individually to make a little pocket with all the edges sealed tightly so no air escapes because you want the steam to stay inside to help cook the beets, then you can put that in. on the baking tray ready to go into the oven and continue wrapping each of the beet sprouts in individual sheets of aluminum foil.

Now if you have quite a few smaller ones I like to put them together, just make sure all those edges are sealed really well before you put them on the tray and then when they're all wrapped up they're ready to go in the oven for what could take between half an hour and an hour and a quarter, so while the beet is cooking, I'll get started. my

pickle

mix, so to start I'm going to put all the spices in a dry pan, there's absolutely no oil in here and I'm going to toast those spices so you can smell them all. of that spicy aroma, that fragrant smell that fills the air before adding the vinegar and also the sugar.

Now we don't want this to boil, it's just going to simmer very gently until we're ready to jar our beet from time to time you'll want to check the progress of your beet and to do this you need to take a skewer or something nice and sharp, stick it in. the side of the beet at the thickest point and if it doesn't go all the way to the middle, it's going to need a little bit more time and these guys can take quite a while, especially if you have some really big ones, just be careful when you open those little pockets because they let out. a little bit of steam while the beets are in the oven and after they have cooked for at least 20-25 minutes I'm going to start preparing my jars and sterilizing them.

Now I deliberately choose jars that are dishwasher safe because it means they can withstand high temperatures and you should always make sure you read this information before you put them in the oven or do anything like that so my jar sterilizes them, I'm putting them in my sink full of hot water. soapy water giving them a very good thorough wash and then after you have cleaned them they are placed on a baking sheet and they should be placed in the oven for no more than 20 minutes so you should not do this until I think you are about to shake the beets when the beets are fully cooked it's time to peel them so the jars are still in the oven staying warm and my pan is still on the counter keeping the pickling vinegar pretty hot too so that's one of the slowest.

The processes actually involve removing the skin from the beet and it can be a little tedious and take a little bit of time, but as long as you've cooked the beet all the way through, they should have this kind of charred, blistered effect on one side and that makes make it It's really easy to peel them and it should come off pretty easily, like I say, as long as they're fully cooked and then we're going to cover them and remove the roots and the leftover pieces of those stems and we have a good cleaning. beet that's almost ready to shake so go ahead you know peel off all those skins once all the beet sprouts have been peeled it's time to slice them or maybe you want to grate your own this part completely depends on you.

I like a nice thick piece of beet like a cracker with lots of cheese, maybe you prefer yours cubed, maybe you like it grated so you can spread it on something, maybe you want to keep it really thick, like quartered pieces, it depends on you cut it however you want. But honestly, look at that color. I think this is the Bolt Hardy Beach shoe or the Moulin Rouge. It is such a beautiful deep crimson color. I love it. So when they've all been cut, it's finally time to start shaking them out. This process is very easy. but it is very important that we have hot vinegar, not boiling, not cold, not lukewarm, but hot and we also need hot jars.

Now I took out this entire tray of jars, but it's actually better to take a jar out of the oven as needed. so it stays hot and that has to do with the vacuum sealing process. If you want your jars to be sealed so that they can be stored and preserved for a long time, then you need to have hot jars and hot ingredients inside them. Again, make sure you read the fine print on your jars and make sure you don't heat them too much because not all jars are created equal, so be careful when you take them out of the oven, it will obviously be hot.

I also put my lids in the oven and my little funnel, which is really helpful because you don't want to get the rim of the jar dirty because then it might not have a proper seal and it might also get bacteria and then start making a mess. Okay, so I'm putting a little bit of vinegar on the bottom. I'm not filtering or straining any of those peppercorns or anything like that because I think it adds a lot more flavor over time, you could if you wanted to, but I just like the effect of leaving them on.

I washed my hands well the way they are clean and also if you're doing this you should probably use gloves or tongs because beets, as you probably know, stains your fingers and in fact, I did. this on Halloween, so it gave me a pretty cool Halloween costume when I came out with bright red hands for the next day, so yeah, I'm using my funnel just to help me push them out to the sides and then use a fork to press it down because you want to fit as much as you can in here really pack them in and release the air bubbles out the sides and then I have room for just a couple more and then I finish with a little bit more vinegar and you want the vinegar to get to the bottom of the neck of the jar just after entering where it narrows, so we have about a centimeter of air space right at the top.

Then I use a damp tea towel to wipe down the room to make sure. it's nice and clean and then squeeze it now because I'm using hot ingredients with hot jars as those temps start to cool down that's what SEALS the jar and creates that little vacuum space that's why I'm not going to put these in a bath of water and I know that scares some people but it's perfectly safe so when you've sealed the last jar it's time to set them aside and write some labels, obviously you want to remember what's in them in a few weeks time and also set the date because it's so handy especially if like me you have cupboards full of Jarred's stuff and this is where you can get really creative and if you're going to make Christmas hampers or give any gifts you can, really put it with a nice piece of tape or a little tag, you know, make it yours, but I want to emphasize that this should not be eaten for at least a couple of weeks.

Let's say a month because you really want the flavor of the vinegar and sugar to balance out and if you eat it right away it's usually quite pungent and doesn't really reflect the end result, but I'm just doing it here to show that it does. Eat a big cracker with some cheese and there's nothing better than enjoying your own

homegrown

produce. Now I'm going to turn up the volume because what I want you to hear is that absolutely important pop when you open your jars, this is what you want to hear to know that it has a really good seal, that it has a safe environment inside and that you did it correctly , if it doesn't have a pop, it may not be sealed and you just want to duplicate it.

Check for bacteria, mold or anything growing on the surface when you open the jar and then once you've opened it you can store it in the refrigerator and use it within about six weeks, but when unopened it should easily store for about six months or more but I would recommend you eat it before those six months are up for the best flavor and trust me it will taste amazing, enjoy. I hope you find this recipe helpful and maybe give it a quick try. if you haven't tried it yet