You just can’t beet this!

I don’t know if it’s because of my family’s peasant, Germans-from-Russia roots*, or because I’m weird (maybe both?) but I really like beets. I do. Honestly!

So when a friend in Scotland wrote a blog post about her “fridge surprise supper” last month, my mind instantly thought that the photo was a big bowl of borscht. But instead, it was a big bowl of beet risotto – with a rough recipe for readers who wished to emulate. And I did. I really, really did.

After a trip to the Moscow Farmers’ Market yesterday (and a second trip to town for the forgotten onions today) I had everything I needed to make my first-ever risotto. (I know! Can you believe that I’ve never made risotto before? In fact, I had to call my mommy to help locate plain risotto in the store. Which is actually called Arborio rice. Who knew? Well, apparently Mum did…)

The recipe called for crumbled goat’s cheese and I wasn’t certain if that meant feta or chevre. By the time I started cooking I realised that it was well past bedtime in Scotland, so thought I’d best not send a text. It seemed to me that the less “flavourful” chevre made more sense in this dish, so that’s the type of goat’s cheese I used. (Is it strange that I had two types of goat’s cheese in my fridge?)

The recipe also called for red wine, so being clever I thought I would open a bottle of French wine because of the Auld Alliance with Scotland. Sadly, the bottle I opened had turned and was closer to rancid vinegar than anything else. So I had to open a new bottle, which was OK since the new bottle was a Washington State Merlot and you just can’t beat Washington State premium wines!

The meal was fab! I mean it. It was really good. I don’t know if it tasted like my friend’s version, but I liked it and will be cooking it again!

Oh, I also made a big pot of borscht. I mean, if you’re going to get your hands all stained red with beets, you may as well go whole-hog in the process. This means that I now have several portions of yummy soup in the freezer. Yay!

I’m tellin’ ya, I’m in beet heaven today!

* The majority of my family emigrated from Ukraine and are sometimes referred to as Black Sea Germans. If you wondered.

6 Replies to “You just can’t beet this!”

  1. Yay, Beet risotto makes it stateside. And it looks and sounds fab!
    Did I really say use goats cheese? I think I told your sister to use parmesan!

    1. Of course, now I have a big container of risotto so I need to find more recipes!!
      You said goat’s cheese, but I can see how Parmesan would work, too. Or any nice cheese really… Now that I have the basic recipe down, I’m sure I’ll try it a few different ways.
      (But it was really, really good!)

  2. OUCH!! I just checked out the Germans from Russia site you have set up…WRONG!! Considering where our ancestors came from you should have a link to the site out of ND….https://library.ndsu.edu/grhc/. When I checked it out just now, there was actually a photo and link to other photos from the Jolenta Fischer collection. (Her father was a cousin to your grandfather.) It’s a wonderful site and I have found some good info on it. (Even alternate recipes for “red eye” aka booze.)

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