Beer Beet Risotto

I knew that today was the day I would finally use the beets from our farmshare, and I would make beet risotto! My friends Anne and Neil have made me beet risotto before, and it’s delicious, even though I’m normally fairly intimidated about beets.

Don’t be intimidated about beets, by the way. Sure, they gooze pink stuff all over your hands and your knives and your counter, but they taste somewhere between a carrot and a parsnip and a squash and all those other root vegetables. They just look awesome. Yeahhh, the presliced ones in the NYC deli salad bars… I frown on those, too, but if someone offers you something like beet risotto made from farm share baby beets! Don’t turn it down!

Anyways, today was the day, though, and I went home from work determined. I realized when I was on my way out the door, however, that I didn’t have any wine in the house, and that I didn’t have time to stop and get any (I was on borrowed time with the car I was driving).

I stopped in at the convenience store on the way home, hoping that they might be classy enough to have wine, but alas, they weren’t. They did, however, have a wide variety of beers for me to drown my wine-less risotto sorrows in.

Hark! I bought a six pack of Yeungling, and after I had it in my hands, I considered subsituting the beer for the wine. Beets are very earthy, and so is beer. I decided to run with it, thinking it crazy and brilliant, and when I googled it when I got home, it turned out that this person had similar thoughts.

By far the best part of this recipe, as I learned from Anne and Neil, is that you get to make these with the leftovers, which are these sort of risotto balls with breadcrumbs and cheese stuffed inside, then fried! Ohmygod doesn’t even cover it!

So here’s what I did tonight… (and got super intense colors from!)

Ingredients

1 cup risotto
1 bottle of beer (I used Yeungling)
4 cups of vegetable stock
1 onion, finely chopped
4-5 garlic scapes (again, they came in our farm share – if you don’t have scapes, feel free to sub about 2 cloves of garlic)
about a cup and a half of beets (mine were baby beets from the farm share – I’ll tell you how to prepare them later)
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, plus more for garnish
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary (our farm share herb of the week)
1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon
1 large pinch of nutmeg
salt & pepper to taste

Directions

So, the first thing you need to do is roast the beets. Set the oven to 350. Wash the beets and trim off any stems, but don’t bother peeling them – they’ll be much easier to peel after they’re cooked. Put them in a foil packed and cook them for about an hour.

This is where I did all my prep work because once you start cooking risotto, you don’t really want to stop stirring it. So, I did all my chopping, etc.

When the beets are done (you can stick a fork in them easily), let them cool, then pull the skins off. Chop them into small pieces, about 1/4 inch thick.

When you’re ready to go with the risotto, make sure everything is prepped. Keep the pot of stock warm on one burner, then, in a large pot, toss in your olive oil, and cook your garlic and onions on medium-high heat until the onions are soft, about 3 minutes.

Add the risotto, and cook for about a minute, stirring continuously. Next, add the beer, though you should probably do this in two or even three doses. With risotto, you want to add a little bit of liquid at a time and then stir it until all of the liquid is absorbed. After the beer is in there, it’s probably a good time to add the beets. Watch closely as they turn your pot from white to pale pink to a shocking fuschia.

Once the beer is absorbed, add the stock, one small ladle at a time, stirring constantly. Once the risotto is no longer clear and appears fluffy, you can taste it to see if it is the texture that you desire. I prefer it a bit al dente, but others like it softer.

When you’re nearing the end stages, add the nutmeg and tarragon, and stir until it’s distributed. Pull the leaves off the sprigs of rosemary and discard the stem. Stir the leaves into the pot. At the last moment, add the parmesan cheese, then salt, if necessary, and pepper. Serve with more cheese and pepper.