Beets that CAN be Beat

The beets were supposed to be the star.  This weekend we found some orange beets at our local grocery store and I was excited to try my hand with them.  Looking through the internet, I finally found a recipe that looked interesting.  Roasted Carrots and Beets with the Juiciest Pork Chops by Jamie Oliver looked like a real winner.  So with grand anticipation, I merrily set to work fixing the carrots and beets for the roasting pan.  I also prepared some broccoli for roasting since we needed something green (other than the rosemary on the beets). 

Anyway, I put the beets and carrots in the oven and about 40 minutes later I put the broccoli in.  At the 55 minute mark, I started some pork chops and anticipated the entire dinner would be ready in about 15-20 minutes.  Imagine my disappointment when I checked the beets after 70 minutes of cooking and discovered they were as hard as they were when I first put them into the oven … unfortunately they were also getting quite black.  We covered them and continued roasting for another 20 minutes while I pulled the broccoli out of the oven.  I also turned the pork chops way down and covered them to stall their cooking. 

When I came back to the kitchen to check on everything, I found the pork chops swimming in a pool of their own juices (by the way, it’s never a good idea to boil meat) and the broccoli was cold.  The only fix I knew of was to put the broccoli back into the oven while I partially drained the pork chops and turned them on high.  A long 10 minutes later, I served this disaster.  I have to say it was better than I expected but not nearly as good as I had hoped.  The beets and carrots were still hard (even after more than an hour and 45 minutes in the oven) but the pork was surprisingly tender after being boiled alive.  As you can see from the picture above the plate even looked presentable.  All things considered this was a dinner which provided nourishment but was far short of the anticipation.

As a contrast, the dinner was paired with a 2008 Corbières Rouge, Grande Cuvée from Castelmaure Vineyards.   This wine is a blend of Grenache, Syrah, and Carignan and was purchased for about $12.  It is rated 91 points by wine enthusiast and was dark and intense and paired well with the pork and (highlight of the dinner) the chocolate.

Wild Boar

One of my favorite diners in Italy was a Wild Boar Pappardelle.  This was served with fantastic Chianti and made for a fabulous meal!  I have been trying to figure out how to recreate this ever since.  My daughter even went so far as to give me a pasta machine for my birthday so that I could make the Pappardelle pasta.  I was thus only missing the key ingredient … wild boar.  You would think that finding a boar in the DC area would not be that difficult but for some counterintuitive reason it seemed to be.

Imagine my excitement when we found a Wild Boar shoulder at Wegman’s this weekend!  I could finally recreate my vision of culinary nirvana.  After a search on the internet I found a recipe by Anne Burrell.  The fact that it included unsweetened cocoa powder only served to convince me that this was the recipe I should attempt.  After three hours of cooking, it turned out very well if I do say so myself.  The boar was very tender and the sauce was thick and rich.  The only improvement I could make would be to add fresh ground nutmeg early in the cooking to give the dish a little more depth.  I even had some success with the pasta.  I have to admit that it was not as good as that memorable meal in Italy but it was never-the-less delicious and worth a repeat performance.

The dinner was paired with what has become our house wine  and a wine I have talked about before.  d’Arc from Tre Donne is a delicious wine we discovered at a local wine shop in Fredericksburg.  It is a blend of varietals from the Piedmont region of Italy and is smooth and intense and paired well with both the boar and the chocolate.