Technique-Well, Sorta

Okay, so I ‘m obviously a self-taught, at home “chef” if you will, so I don’t have much technique per say.  I have had a lot of questions on FB recently about the beet post, mostly how to roast, so I thought I’d show you how we do it at our house.  The night I took these pics, we also had krispy baked kale with sea salt, and soy glazed tempeh.  I roasted the beets this night at 400 degrees, as that is what the kale had to be krisped at, and I didn’t want to spend too much extra time with the oven on during a hot night.  So basically, you do this: wash the beets to get off all the dirt and critters, cut off both ends, roll in foil with skin ON, roast until tender on a cookie sheet with a rim, just in case the juice runs out of your foil, then you don’t end up with a dirty oven like I have in the pics 🙂  This takes about an hour on 350, a little less time on 400.  Do not let them turn to mush, this is called Borscht and is wildly popular in Russia.  Just kidding…well, sorta.  When you remove the foils, wait for them to cool down enough to touch, THEN peel off the skin.  It comes off a ton easier this way.  Trust me.  I try everything the hard way first.  Krispy Kale is delish.  Your friends and kids will think it tastes like those really pricey root chips in the nature food store.   Rinse kale well, and I mean well, it is DIRTY and bugs love building homes in it.  Yes.  They.  Do.  Towel dry it lightly, sprinkle with sea salt and lightly spray with EVOO Pam.  Toss in oven at 400 until crisp.  Like falling apart crisp, any less and it will be chewy you almost burn it, so keep an eye on it.

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Lastly, a word or two or okay, a bunch on/about Tempeh.  Yes, it looks and smells HORRIBLE.  No, it doesn’t actually taste that way.  If you haven’t tried it, you should.  I know, I know…  It’s not that gross, if you prepare it in a way that is pleasing to you.  I like to make mine a bacon-like texture and flavor it with a salty/sweet sauce or marinade.  It holds a marinade really, really well.  It’s low in calories and in fat.  You can get it in many “flavors”, soy, veggie, wild rice…seeeeee it’s got mad appeal.  My tip to you:  rinse it BEFORE you do anything with it, immediately after you take it from the vacuum sealed pack-get off that icky whatever slime is on there.  This will make it way easier to handle, and the taste will not be so musty (it is afterall, um, aged).  I usually marinade it before in something then drizzle it with something else after.  For this dinner, I soaked it in reduced soy sauce for 30 minutes on the counter, pan fried to reduce the soy sauce, then took it off the heat and glazed it with a little bbq sauce.  Delish.  Tempeh is my staple “B” substitute in my amazing BLT sammie that Mr. Wonderful now confidently refers to as TLTAs:  tempeh, lettuce, tomato, avocado-this is why he is the PR guy and I am just a home chef.  🙂