KITCHEN ADVENTURES: OH, BLENDER, WON’T YOU HELP A FIRST OFFENDER? Two things I’ve eaten recently.

Sorrel thing: The idea here was to make a sorrel soup, but that didn’t really work. I think as a condiment, for example a sauce for chicken or (in a smaller quantity) salmon, this might be perfect. On its own it was thick and, more importantly, unbalanced: too tangy.

Anyway, I chopped up a bunch of fresh sorrel, a small tomato, and maybe three medium cloves of garlic. I blended that with sour cream and (if memory serves) cumin and fresh tarragon, and maybe a small amount of dried rosemary. Then I cooked, salted, and ground some black and white pepper over it.

To do this as a soup I would substitute heavy cream for the sour cream. I think that would balance the tangy sorrel. This was tasty but not quite on-target.

Beet thing: Vastly more labor- and time-intensive, but also much better!

I set the oven for 375, peeled two small beets and one large, quartered the small beets and cut the big one into chunks of that size. I foiled a baking tray, put the beet chunks on it, and rubbed them with olive oil. They went in the oven for a guesswork amount of time, maybe 20 mins? Your oven will vary since mine is old and cantankerous. Meanwhile I chopped two medium cloves of garlic and a big chunk of jalapeno, and got them a bit past golden-brown (that was an accident–I was aiming for golden–but it didn’t mess up the flavor at all) in a saucepan w/a bit more olive oil.

I pulled the beets out of the oven. The chunks which were already tender (easily sliced w/a dull knife) came out onto the cutting board; the ones which were still hard got cut into smaller pieces and went back in the oven. While the harder pieces were finishing I did a fine-ish chop on the softer pieces. Then finished chopping the remaining beets. The beets went into the saucepan with cumin and salt, and I covered all of that with water. I brought it to a boil, then turned it down to medium heat and simmered it. I experimented with cover-on or cover-off cooking and ultimately, I think, overestimated how much of the water I wanted to cook off, but that didn’t affect the taste.

Then I blended the beet mixture, returned it very briefly to the heat just to make sure it was nice and hot, and scraped it into a bowl. It was a mash, not a soup, really. A bunch of dollops of sour cream went on top, and then some fresh tarragon and lots of freshly-ground black and white pepper.

This is sooooooooo good! I’m eating it now. The jalapeno is noticeable but not at all assertive, and the garlic is mild but welcome. The cumin is delicious. The tarragon seemed too strong at first bite, but as it started to cook a bit in the heat of the dish, or maybe as it blended in more with the other ingredients, it started to really “play well” with the pepper. And of course beets and sour cream are a classic combination. This is a super beety dish which isn’t at all overwhelming; it’s balanced. I’m really happy with it. The only issues, as I noted, are that this is a LOT of work and time for a lunch dish.