Meet the queen of beets | Stuff.co.nz

Meet the queen of beets | Stuff.co.nz

Chioggia beetroot has been heaven-sent at the Marlborough Farmers' Market. Those who have only ever eaten tinned beetroot are missing out on a real taste of summer.

The chioggia beetroot is the queen of all beets and can be found on the stall of Sharyn and Neville White, who grow and sell heirloom vegetables and fruits.

An Italian variety that is best eaten raw (the beetroot does fade to light pink when cooked though), it is proving to be a popular addition to the dinner table during the summer months.

Sliced thinly or grated it is a very sweet tasting variety that does not bleed or stain your hands like other beets (10 points already). The young beetroot leaves can be used in salads or cooked like spinach/chard, adding a nice texture to your summer creations.

Chioggia is a sweet, round beet with a smooth, light red skin. The inside has concentric rings of red and white flesh with fluctuations in temperature enhancing these zones of colour.

This little-known beet comes from the coastal region of the Adriatic near Chioggia in Italy, hence its name.

Beetroot is a very highly regarded vegetable throughout the world for its health properties, and can be found in a multitude of colours from red or purple to yellow, with different countries producing different varieties, sizes and colours.

When consumed as a juice, beetroot offers many benefits and has plenty of nutrients including vitamin C, proteins, antioxidants, amino acids, sodium, potassium, silica, phosphorus and iron.

The deep red colour of beetroot is because of the antioxidant betacyanin. This antioxidant is essential for blood formation and a major benefit of beetroot is that it reduces anaemia (when the number of healthy red blood cells decreases).

Consumption of beetroot on a regular basis will help give you a healthy heart as it is loaded with plenty of vitamin C and other goodies.

Ask Sharyn and Neville what their favourite way of using the beet is.

BEETROOT AND PUMPKIN SUMMER SALAD

200g beetroot, scrubbed and grated raw

300g pumpkin, peeled and grated raw

1 large apple or pear, sliced thinly

100g red onion, peeled and thinly sliced

Handful of freshly picked parsley and/or mint, chopped

Juice and zest of one lemon

Drizzle of Marlborough olive oil

Sprinkle of Marlborough sea salt

Mix all ingredients well

Chill for 30 minutes before serving with chicken, seafood or lamb.

So what is a localvore then ?

Sounds like some sort of posh y name for somebody who has too much time on their hands.

Well you can be a herbivore or an omnivore, so why not somebody who pays attention to where their food comes from and commits to eating local food as much as possible? This is not some nutcase religion, it is just about eating local. It is not an all-or-nothing venture, it is all about helping the environment, protecting your family's health and supporting small farmers and food producers in your region.

The first bite to being a localvore is to determine what local means to yourself and your family: it could be food from a 100-kilometre radius, if could be from the whole of the South Island or even the whole of New Zealand. It is an individual decision that you need to be comfortable with.

The key is that by creating a boundary, no matter how large or small, you are becoming conscious of the origin of your food. You can even go one step further and draw a circle around your home or region and this will help you with your food choices.

We are all born localvores, it is just that sometimes we forget just what is in our backyard and what is in season.

We may not be able to tackle the big issues of the world, but we are able to help build sustainable and connected communities by supporting each other.

Five ways to become a localvore in New Zealand

Visit a farmers' market. There are now more than 50 located from Invercargill to the Bay of Islands. Some are big, some are small, but the key is that they represent their regional seasons and producers. Farmers' markets keep small farms in business. Rather than going through a middle man, the farmer or producer will take home nearly all of the money you spend on regional produce – there are no on-sellers, resellers or people that just buy at the cheapest price and try to move it as fast as they can, regardless of the quality or where it has come from.

Ask your supermarket manager where your meat, produce and dairy is coming from. Remember that supermarket managers are influenced by what you say and do. Let the managers know what's important to you.

Preserve a local food of the season. By freezing, bottling and preserving you get to eat and enjoy flavours all year.

Have a look for restaurants in your area that support local farmers and producers. Ask the restaurants about ingredients or ask your favourite farmers what restaurant accounts they have. Frequent businesses that support farmers in your region.

Ask about origins. What you may have taken for granted as New Zealand-produced may come as a surprise.

HONEY-SPICED APRICOTS

Serve these with dollops of yoghurt for breakfast or dinner, or add a crumble topping and bake in the oven for a quick dessert. If all else fails, just eat them straight from the jar.

2kg whole Marlborough apricots

cinnamon sticks and cloves for each jar

4 cups white wine vinegar

500g Marlborough honey

With a fork, prick the apricots all over and place them into cold sterilised jars. Place two cloves and one cinnamon stick in each jar. Bring the vinegar and honey to the boil and simmer for five minutes until it just starts to thicken, then pour over the apricots. Leave to cool before sealing the jars. For best flavour, leave for one month and use within 12 months.

Marlborough Farmers' Market 2011

Taste Farmers Markets New Zealand Awards 2011

Taste Farmers Markets New Zealand Awards 2011: "Objectives of the Taste Farmers' Markets Award

The FM movement is about building and strengthening local communities, supports local businesses. The brand is environmentally sustainable and projects fresh, seasonal, quality. Customers are interested in their health, knowing where their food comes from and are well read and educated people. They’re also looking for social interaction and learning more about food

Objectives of the Taste Farmers’ Market New Zealand Awards 2011

• To celebrate Farmers’ Markets and their regional food producers

• To support regional food producers and networks through celebration of achievements

• To stimulate additional business for Farmers’ Markets and food producers of NZ"

How to make a man cry

I  have found the perfect reason to cry. If you are going to cry, it had better be for a good reason, and one good reason is the new-season white pearl onions from the Marlborough Farmers' Market.

If it is from the farmers' market, that must mean it has been grown in our region (good to keep the money and jobs local), it must be sold by the producer (tick that box – Steve is the man who made me cry), and it must be edible (that's my favourite part).

For a sweet little onion, the white pearl packs a punch, reducing a grown man like me to tears in a matter of minutes as I stood at the bench peeling them in preparation for the potato salad.

The white onion is popular raw or sauteed in salads, as it has a higher moisture content than normal onions and is somewhat sweeter. It is also just as good roasted in its skin (ahh, no more crying).

The onion has been traced back as far as the Bronze Age and was worshipped by the ancient Egyptians, and eaten by the Israelites during their bondage in Egypt. Onions were rubbed over the muscles of Roman gladiators, used to pay rent in the Middle Ages instead of money, and were highly praised for their culinary contributions.

No good kitchen today would be without onions in the pantry, so how do we enjoy their oniony goodness with reducing ourselves to tears?

Here is the easy of why we cry: when you cut into an onion, its ruptured cells release all sorts of goodies like allinase enzymes and amino acid sulfoxides. The former breaks the latter down into sulfenic acids.The sulfenic acids, unstable bunch that they are, spontaneously rearrange into thiosulfinates, which produce a pungent odour and get the blame for our tears. But there is more. The acids are also converted by the LF-synthase enzyme into a gas called syn-propanethial-S-oxide, also known as the Lachrymatory (crying) Factor. Syn-propanethial-S-oxide moves through the air and reaches our eyes. The first part of the eye it meets, the cornea, is populated by autonomic motor fibres that lead to the lachrymal glands. When syn-propanethial-S-oxide is detected, all the fibres in the cornea start firing and tell the lachrymal glands to wash the irritant away.

Our eyes automatically start blinking and producing tears, which flush the irritant away. Of course, our reaction to burning eyes is often to rub them, which only makes things worse, since our hands also have syn-propanethial-S-oxide on them. It only takes about 15 seconds to start crying after the first cut. That's all the time needed for the syn-propanethial-S-oxide formation to peak.

WARM POTATO AND ONION SALADAnd you thought onions were just another simple vegetable! So bear up and just slice into them, and remember that Steve, who grew the onions, has to pick and harvest tonnes of them at a time. A little bit of Lachrymatory Factor never hurt anybody.

600g potatoes, unpeeled

4 bacon rashers (Premium Game do great wild pork bacon)

5 Tblsp Marlborough olive oil

1-2 medium-sized sweet onions, sliced into rings

1-2 garlic cloves, minced (Marlborough, of course)

1 cup white wine vinegar

1 Tblsp wholegrain mustard

Marlborough flaky salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Chopped fresh parsley or other soft herbs, chervil, chives etc

Cook potatoes in a large pot of boiling salted water just until tender (about 20 minutes); do not overcook.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a large non-stick frying pan over a medium-low heat. Add the bacon, onion and garlic. Cook until the onion is golden and caramelised.

Whisk together the vinegar, mustard and oil. Season with salt and pepper.

Add the onion and bacon and chopped herbs to the warm potatoes. Pour over the dressing and toss the potatoes to coat.

A great night out for a great cause!

This Wednesday at 8:30pm NZ will see the premiere of the movie Food Inc.

It is probably the most important food movie of the last few years and is creating huge discussion overseas.

Food Inc is a movie about the food we eat. It challenges us to think about who grows it and what modern
developments in food production mean to our health and our environment.

You can see for yourself what all the talk is about by attending the open night screenings throughout
the country.

Farmers Market New Zealand is hosting this premiere in celebration of the new growing season and $5 from
every ticket sold will go directly to your local Farmers Market.

Greystone Wines from the Waipara Valley in North Canterbury will be providing a free glass of wine at
each of the Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch screenings.

For more information and to purchase your ticket for only $20 go to www.fmnzfoodinc.org.nz.

Show support for your local food producers and have a great night out at the same time.

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Cabbage - why we love to hate it

The enduring memories of our childhoods often  come back to haunt us, that of cabbage being boiled for hours and the kitchen smelling of sulphur and a grey soggy mess appearing on the plate.  We would be served this unpleasant texture one night, stir fried the next night  and then even in the school lunch box the next day if it was not consumed (and mums and dads wonder why it is not consumed!).  We were told as children it would  keep our hair shiny (and?) and if we did not eat all of our vege we would not get any pud (we did not have pudding very often then)

It is a common fact known to the Greeks,  that grape vines, source of wine, do not flourish when grown near cabbage. The Greeks converted this agricultural knowledge to myth, the myth told of the god of wine, Dionysus, who wandered to Thrace accompanied by his loyal followers . Threatened by Dionysus arrival, Lycurgus captured both Dionysus and all the Bacchae.  To revenge this action, Dionysus had Lycurgus driven mad.  Not in his right mine, Lycurgus mistook his son for a vine and cut his son to pieces. Learning what he had done, Lycurgus wept, and from the tears that fell to the ground sprang cabbage.

It is interesting that the Egyptian Pharaoh used to consume immense quantities of cabbage before setting out for a night of merriment and drinking. They believed that consuming the cabbage gives them freedom to drink more alcoholic beverages without fear of its adverse side effects. This ideology still stands today, with people still practicing the use of cabbage cooked with a bit of vinegar as a cure for hangovers. 

This may explain why Alister sells so many cabbages at the market, it could explain why my hair is not shiny and it could be the reason why there are not many cabbage growers in the Marlborough region.   It could just explain that while you cant force little kids to eat their cabbage the  first night the fear of getting it as left over three days in a row is far greater than any smack as part of good parental correction

BRAISED RED CABBAGE                                                                

                                               

200                         G             ONIONS (THINLY SLICED)                                                                             

1                              TBSP      CRUSHED GARLIC                                                                            

800                         G             RED CABBAGE                                                                  

200                         G             BROWN SUGAR                                                                               

200                         MLS       WHITE WINE VINEGAR                                                                 

200                         MLS       RED WINE                                                                           

1                              TBSP      SALT                                                                     

1                              TSP         BLACK PEPPER                                            

                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                               

METHOD:                                                                                                                           

THINLY SLICE RED CABBAGE REMOVING ANY THICK STALKS - PUT ALL INGREDIENTS INTO STAINLESS STEEL POT AND BRING TO THE BOIL - REDUCE TO A SIMMER FOR 45 MINUTES UNTIL THE LIQUID HAS REDUCED