Pickled Baby Beets

Yesterday evening was quite the traffic jam on TV. Should I watch the new episode of Keeping up with the Kardashians, or catch up on the rerun of Teen Mom, which I was not able to see on Tuesday due to the DirecTV/Viacom dispute, which led to MTV being chopped off my channels. Or the finale of Food Network Star? This morning I realized no one had told me that the finale of the Bachelorette also aired. Doh! I taped Teem Mom, watched KUWK (Kris, naughty naught Kris), and I still don't know if team Giada won. Oh well. But Emily has her guy. Somehow I always thought that Jef is gay, no? Oh well, he bailed on the 'getting to know you better' suite, so she'll find out eventually. He will, no doubt, always be a good friend. 


On to the real important things: food. I had bought the first beets this weekend on the farmers market, and since I often eat the beet salad in restaurants I was ready to try out something new. How about pickled beets? These are much tastier than anything from a store. 

Pickled baby beets (makes on larger jar):

• 4-5 small beets, scrubbed
• 1/2 white onion, thinly sliced with a mandolin
• 2/3 cup apple cider vinegar (or any pale vinegar like rice vinegar)
• 1 cup water
• 1 TB sugar
• 6-10 juniper berries
• 10-15 pepper corns, whole

Special equipment:

• aluminium foil
• sterilized jar (boil in hot water for ca 5 min)

Preheat the oven to 375F. Wrap each beet tightly in foil, place on a baking sheet, and bake for ca. 1h or until tender (can be less if beets are really small). Unwrap, and let slightly cool. The beet skin should slide right off.  

In a sauce pan, heat the vinegar, water, peppercorns and juniper berries and the sugar, but don't boil it. Keep hot. Now, slice the beets, and layer with onions into the sterilized jar. A layer of beet slices, onion slices, beet slices, and so on. Once the jar is filled, cautiously pour the vinegar mix over the beets, also add the spices. Let slightly cool, the close with a lid. The onions turn wonderfully pink because of the beets, and the beets are ready to eat in a day. Keep in the fridge!