4-20 Fare Exchange: Just beet it — three recipes for the purple veggie

Good morning, readers. It was good this week to get notes from some of you, both for publication and not. Sometimes just a chat, as it were, over a cup of coffee or a glass of tea has its own refreshment. Recipes aren’t always required.

Here, however, are today’s requests: First, where does one take out-of-town and out-of-country guests to dine around here to give them a regional taste and feel?

Readers asked for these recipes as well: How to make a gourmet milkshake and malted, and directions for gluten-free granola. “Chocoholic” offered a plaintive repeat request for more chocolate desserts – “always more” – and a reader has checked to see if Fehn’s clam chowder has arrived yet. Not yet, not yet

The first request was overheard around the table at Southern Star restaurant; the next three are from Marguerite McCammon.

COLORFUL CONCOCTIONS

Today’s recipes are bright with color. As I read Linda Leake’s three recipes for beets below, I couldn’t help thinking how the preparation would turn the cook’s fingers a robust pink and would be absolutely worth it.

Stuffed Beets

1 (16-ounce) can whole small beets, reserve half the juice

1/2 cup cider vinegar

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons sugar

1 (3-ounce) package cream cheese

Cream or milk

1 large clove garlic, pressed

Parsley for garnish

Scoop a small segment from the top of each beet. Place beets in a glass jar. Mix half of beet juice with vinegar, salt and sugar. Pour over beets. Chill 8 to 10 hours.

Before serving, soften cream cheese with cream or milk as needed. Add garlic.

Drain beets. Stuff with cheese mixture, heaping slightly. Chill. Top each beet with a sprig of parsley. Makes enough for a medium platter.

Orange Beets

2 (16-ounce) cans sliced beets

1/4 cup cider vinegar

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon butter

3 tablespoons cornstarch

Juice of 1 orange

Rind of 1 orange, grated

Drain beets, reserving cup of juice.

In a saucepan, combine beet juice with cider vinegar, sugar, salt, butter, cornstarch, orange juice and orange rind. Cook over medium heat until thickened.

Add beets and mix well. Let stand at least 2 hours before serving. May be served warm or at room temperature. Keeps in refrigerator for two weeks.

Beet and Nut Salad

1 (20-ounce) can sliced beets, cut into strips

1 (20-ounce) can crushed pineapple

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup white vinegar

3 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon sugar

1 (3-ounce) package raspberry-flavored gelatin

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Drain liquid from beets and pineapple and reserve.

Mix water, white vinegar and lemon juice and add beet and pineapple juice to make 2 cups. Add sugar and stir. Heat mixture to boiling. Remove from stovetop and dissolve gelatin in liquid.

Stir in beets, pineapple and walnuts. Pour into a mold and chill.

SUGAR-FREE GOODNESS

We got a report from a reader that last week’s Lemon Lush is most tasty, and that she prepared it with sugar-free ingredients and no one who enjoyed it was the wiser. Now that is good news.

In the search for good chocolate desserts, A.E. came across two recipes fit for summertime but not chocolate. Here they are, “both from one of my favorite cookbooks, ‘Dinner on the Diner’ from the Chattanooga Junior League years ago.” There are no eggs in the applesauce cake, by the way.

Lemon Applesauce Cake

Cake

16 1/2 ounces applesauce

1/2 cup shortening

1 cup sugar

1 cup raisins

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

Lemon Icing

3 tablespoons butter, softened

1 1/2 to 1 3/4 cups powdered sugar

Juice (about 3 tablespoons) and grated rind of 1 lemon

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9-by-13-by 2-inch sheet cake pan.

In saucepan over medium heat, stir together applesauce, shortening, sugar and raisins until sugar is dissolved. Set aside and cool. Sift together dry ingredients and combine with applesauce mixture. Stir well and pour into prepared pan. Bake for 30 minutes.

Mix icing ingredients until smooth. Add sugar to spreading consistency and spread on warm cake.

Yield: 10-12 servings.

French Strawberry Glacé Pie

3 to 6 ounces cream cheese, softened

9- or 10-inch cooked pie shell

1 quart fresh strawberries, divided

1 1/2 cups water, divided

1 1/2 cups sugar

4 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

Whipped cream

Evenly spread softened cream cheese on bottom and sides of pie shell.

Simmer 1 1/2 cups strawberries in 1 cup water for approximately 3 minutes.

Mix sugar, cornstarch and remaining water. Add to simmering strawberries and boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and cool completely.

Arrange remaining strawberries in pie shell and top with the glacé mixture. Refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours.

Garnish with whipped cream.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings.

TEA TIPS

Finally, here’s a toast to tea from Lynn Carroll. She addressed the question about lemongrass tea and where to find the lemongrass to make it.

“Indo Market at 6040 Lee Highway sells fresh lemongrass by stalks. Very fresh. It also makes great soup. Later in the summer, Lowe’s sells (Bonnie) lemongrass for planting. I have had lemongrass survive in my garden several years by trimming down to the ground in late late fall and very heavy mulching through winter.

“In regard to great green tea: For years my family has ordered all our green tea from Tenren.com, a tea company located in San Francisco. They have a great Internet site describing all their many teas. They are priced right and are safe teas to drink, as many teas from parts of Asia are not. Dragon Well Green Tea is a great-tasting tea and comes in bags. Usually they throw in samples of various teas with your order.”

ONE MORE THING

These are salad days, and I sampled an especially good one recently at Big River Grille: Chopped salad. A chopped salad is easy to eat, much easier than the salad I had later at another local eatery, which was mostly big pieces of lettuce hard to manage in polite company. Let us know if you have been making inspired salads lately and then tell us how you are doing it.