Roasted Beets & Sheep's Milk Feta

No blog can get through the winter without sharing at least one beet recipe. Although warm, or even hot beets can be pretty darn delicious, I can't resist a roasted beet salad.

Typically, beet salads feature a goat cheese and are dressed too heavily. I like to lighten up the flavors with an orange and mint champagne vinaigrette. And thanks to Sitka & Spruce, I can't help but use sheep's milk feta instead of goat cheese, which I think helps to prevent the cheese from stealing the spotlight.

To offset the noticeably creamier sheep's milk feta, I like to use the bitterness of arugula. Finally, I use the sweet and salty nuttiness of salty candied hazelnuts (rather than the more typical plain toasted hazelnuts or strictly sweet hazelnuts) to round out the dish and add some crunch.

So here's my go-to recipe when I'm craving that tender earthiness that only beets have to offer.

Enjoy!

Ingredients for four appetizer servings of Roasted Beets & Sheep's Milk Feta

4 small handfuls of arugula

4 small red beets

4 small golden beets

3 T extra virgin olive oil + extra to coat the beets

1 medium navel orange

2 T champagne vinegar

2 pinches finely chopped fresh mint

1 generous handful of salty candied hazelnuts (Whole Foods sells some of my favorites, or you can follow this great recipe from Smitten Kitchen)

4 to 6 oz of sheep's milk feta (depends on just how much you love the stuff)

Kosher Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Scrub all the beets and pat dry.

3. Coat the beets with olive oil, kosher salt, and pepper in an oven-safe baking dish or roasting pan.

4. Cover the dish or pan with aluminum foil.

5. Roast for at least 1 hour and 45 minutes until tender when pierced with a fork or knife.

6. In the meantime, squeeze the juices of the orange into a jar and add the olive oil, champagne vinegar, and mint. Shake the jar to emulsify. Add salt and pepper to taste. Put the dressing in the refrigerator until needed.

7. Crush the hazelnuts with a mortar and pestle or a similarly effective method.

8. Let the beets cool until you can handle them. Cut the beets into cubes (cut the golden beets first to avoid discoloring from the red beets) and place in the refrigerator until cool, but not cold.

9. Arrange the arugula onto a plate, followed by the cubed beets. Crumble the cheese by hand and sprinkle over the salad, along with the crushed hazelnuts.

10. Shake the dressing jar again to emulsify and lightly drizzle over the salad.

Wine Berries with Whipped Mascarpone

It's been a while since I've shared a personal recipe, so here's one that's relatively simple and satisfying. What's that you say? I've only shared two original recipes on this blog? Well, you're right. That's one recipe per year, folks. So bask in the rarity of this type of a post.

Really, though, one of my resolutions for 2012 was to jumpstart my creative juices, and actually measure out and share the results through a recipe, more frequently. So here's the first for 2012.

This recipe was inspired by a dessert I had at Los Angeles' Angelini Osteria: Mascarpone with Strawberries and Wine. I wanted to capture the light creaminess of the mascarpone and the sweetness of the strawberries, but with more berries and a bit more acidity.

I've made this recipe quite a few times now, but I've been too lazy to measure things out. Ideally, you'd enjoy this in the summer when berries are in season, but sometimes, you just need your fix of berries, and this is one of my favorite ways to indulge that craving. The sweet fluffy mascarpone takes on the consistency and flavor of a homemade vanilla ice cream and hits just the right notes of lemon with the boozy berries and refreshing herb of your choice.

Ingredients for six servings of Wine Berries with Whipped Mascarpone

4 cups of a fruity Merlot or Zinfandel

3 t + 1 t fresh lemon juice

1 cup white cane sugar

1 lb strawberries, trimmed and halved

1/2 pint blueberries (8 oz)

1/2 pint raspberries (8 oz)

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 t vanilla extract

2 T light brown sugar

3/4 t finely grated lemon zest

1 cup mascarpone (8 oz)

Fresh mint or basil

1. Stir together the wine, 3 t of lemon juice, and sugar in a bowl.

2. Add the berries to the bowl and let the berries macerate for at room temperature for 1 hour.

3. Chill berries for at least 30 minutes and up to 1 hour.

4. In another bowl, beat the heavy cream with the vanilla extract, brown sugar, and lemon zest until soft peaks form.

5. Add the mascarpone and 1 t of lemon juice until blended.

6. Scoop the mascarpone into 6 serving bowls, add a couple scoops of wine berries with a slotted spoon, and garnish with ripped/chiffonade mint or basil.

Thai-Marinated Roast Chicken (19/24)

When you think of Christmas, you probably don't think of Thai food. And neither do I. But unfortunately, or fortunately, for all of us, chicken number nineteen, roasted about one week before Thanksgiving, was inspired by Thai flavors.

Now, unlike most of the chicken recipes I had done before number nineteen, I couldn't find a definitive, well-received Thai roast chicken recipe out there. Even the few Thai-influenced chicken recipes that didn't even involve roasting the chicken seemed just a tad bit lackluster. Maybe lackluster isn't the right word. I think I just knew I wanted to do a Thai-inspired roast chicken and I wanted something that would be spicy, sweet, savory, and zingy all at the same time. A flavor bomb, basically. So naturally I decided to use this opportunity to tap into that wellspring of creativity in my head and put together a recipe myself.

After realizing that my wellspring isn't the most frequented part of my brain, I turned to some veterans in the food blog world. Serious props and appreciation go to Almost Bourdain, Smitten Kitchen, and Leite's Culinaria for this hodgepodge of a recipe, the last of which was the source for Mindy Fox's awesome Peruvian roast chicken from the summer.

Ingredients for one flavor bomb-tastic Thai-Marinated Roast Chicken

6 garlic cloves

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

1/4 cup vegetable oil

2 T hoisin sauce

1.5 t ground coriander

1.5 t kosher salt

4 lemongrass stems

2 red chilies

1 t ginger

2 T Maggi sauce

1 4lb chicken

Freshly ground white pepper

1. Rinse the chicken and pat dry inside and out.

2. Coarsely chop 5 garlic cloves.

3. Crush 1/2 t of kosher salt and the chopped garlic with a mortar and pestle until it becomes a loose paste.

4. Loosen the skin of the chicken from the breast meat and gently work the garlic paste under the skin.

5. Place 1 garlic clove, 1/4 cup water, and the rest of the ingredients into a blender or food processor to make the marinade.

6. Place the chicken and the marinade into a resealable bag and rub the marinade all over.

7. Put the bag, with the chicken's backside down, into the refrigerator to marinade for at least 6 hours, flipping the chicken once at the halfway mark.

8. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

9. Transfer the chicken to a baking dish and reserve the marinade juices for basting.

10. Season the chicken with freshly ground white pepper.

11. Tie the chicken legs with kitchen string or twine.

12. Roast the chicken for 15 minutes at 425 degrees.

13. Baste the chicken with the marinade and reduce the oven to 375 degrees.

14. Baste the chicken every 20 minutes with the marinade and pan juices for 1 hour.

15. Roast the chicken for 15 more minutes, for a total roasting time of 1.5 hours.

16. Remove the chicken from the oven and let the chicken rest for 10 minutes.

And out pops a delicious, rich, and flavorful roast chicken. The homage to Thai flavors was unmistakable.

Though the skin wasn't crispy, the meat was juicy. The few dry portions of breast meat were easily scarf-able after a dip in the flavor pool of marinade and pan drippings, and the dark meat was to die for. The chilies add a light kick of spice, the lemongrass, ginger, and cilantro add some zing and zest, the coriander and white pepper add some depth, the Maggi sauce adds some of that good ole umami, and the hoisin and fish sauce add that distinctive Thai sweetness.

All with a side of your go-to Thai restaurant's pad thai and some rice? Awesome. And as far as leftovers go, even if there isn't any chicken meat left, the marinade and pan drippings go great over a bowl of rice. Stretching your leftovers, at its best.

While I won't deny that fact that this chicken lacks any form of subtlety, the flavors will ensure that your meal will be anything but boring.

Chicken number twenty, coming up.

Korean Seasoned Spinach

Korean seasoned spinach, or shi-geum-chi, is one of my favorite Korean side dishes. It's also one of the easiest.

Ingredients for one large fist of Korean seasoned spinach

1 bundle of spinach

2-3 medium cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 green onion, chopped

2 tablespoons of soy sauce

1 teaspoon of sesame oil

1 teaspoon of toasted sesame seeds

1/2 teaspoon of crushed red chili peppers or cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. After washing all the nasty stuff from the bundle of spinach, blanch the spinach in boiling, salted water for 20 to 30 seconds.

2. Drain the spinach and shock the spinach under running cold water.

3. Gently squeeze the spinach to remove excess water.

4. In a mixing bowl, add all the ingredients and mix them into each other by hand.

5. If necessary, add more of any ingredient to taste.

The end result should have a light balance of spicy and salty, and should have a decent punch of garlic and green onion with each bite. Try pairing this with your next stew, grilled protein, or roast chicken. The cool, refreshing spinach is usually a great way to balance out warm and meaty dishes.