Beet and Tomato Ragout with Twice Baked Souffles

I made this ragout for Christmas dinner, and I loved it. I think everyone else liked it, too. The beets were a little too firm in texture, but the flavor was excellent. Both the beets and the souffles can be prepared in advance, and then reheated when you're ready to eat. This made it easy to have dinner ready when everyone had arrived, eaten some appetizers, and relaxed a little. The twice-baked goat cheese souffles are delicious and easy. If you have leftover souffles, you can rewarm them in the oven by pouring a little cream over the top of them and baking them for 20 minutes. This causes them to puff up again and be really beautiful and tasty.

The recipe recommended serving this with baby bok choy, but I made leeks in mustard vinaigrette instead. I also made brussels sprouts, which my family enjoyed immensely. With all the yummy butter and garlic, it's hard to go wrong.

I wasn't sure how big a large beet would be, so I used 6 medium beets instead of 4 large beets.

Let's get started

First, make the souffles through their first baking. Here's the full recipe for twice-baked goat cheese souffles.

Then, prepare the vegetables for the ragout. Finely dice 1 medium red onion. Peel and cut 4 large beets into irregular 1/2 inch dice. Dice one cup fresh tomatoes with their juices, or you can use 1 can of diced tomatoes, preferably organic. Since it was winter when I made this, I used the canned tomatoes. The recipe said to use 1 cup of canned tomatoes, but I used the whole 14 oz. can. Chop 2 T. tarragon, and 1 small garlic clove.

Melt 1 T. butter in a medium saute pan. Add the onion and cook over medium heat until it starts to color, about 7-10 minutes. Stir in 1 T. tomato paste, 1 T. brown sugar, the chopped garlic clove, a pinch of the tarragon, and 1 cup water. Simmer about 20 minutes until the onions are soft and the liquid is reduced. Add the beets and tomatoes, season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook another 25-30 minutes, adding more water as needed so there is a little sauce at the end. Add 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar and 1 T. tarragon. (The rest of the tarragon will be used for garnish at the end.)

Twenty five minutes before you eat, heat the oven for the second baking of the souffles. (See recipe link above.) Reheat the beets. Serve the beets on each plate along with some of the sauce, placing a souffle on top of the beets. Garnish with the remaining tarragon.

Serve with a green vegetable such as bok choy with butter and tarragon, brussels sprouts with butter and garlic, or steamed leeks with mustard vinaigrette.

Cost to prepare

4 large beets - $3.60

1 medium red onion - $.80

2 T. chopped tarragon - $1.00

1 T. tomato paste - $.25

1 T. brown sugar - negligible

1 small garlic clove - negligible

1 14-oz can diced tomatoes - $1.00 or 1 cup fresh tomatoes - $1.00

salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar - negligible

TOTAL cost of beet dish alone - $6.65 for 4 or more servings. There were 5 of us for dinner and we had leftovers, but we also had appetizers and several other dishes for dinner.

TOTAL cost of souffles - $9.80 for 8-10 individual souffles.

When beets are in season from the farm, I will try making this with brown and wild rice instead of the souffles. This is a lovely and tasty dish for company.

Root Vegetable Ragout under a Wild Rice Pancake

January 11th, 2010

Can we talk about equipment? Why is it I can never figure out the appropriate tool until it's too late? I was supposed to shred the root vegetables and thought it would be a piece of cake with my flat grater. Halfway through I realized I needed the food processor, but it was too late to get it out, and I ended up hand chopping everything. Ugh.

But, I'm getting this all out of order.

Last night's meal was a warm and satisfying root vegetable ragout. I just learned from wikipedia that "ragout" is a french word for main dish stew. Though the word is related to the Italian ragu, the concept is different. An Italian ragu is a sauce for pasta.

This particular ragout has a gorgeous color and flavor. It contains beets, parsnips (which I've never cooked with before) carrots, and red cabbage, so the color is a super dark purple. You take the finished ragout and put it in a baking dish and cover it with a savory pancake type mixture, and bake it for half and hour.

This dish took me 2 hours to make, plus cooking the rice. I'm sure it doesn't take Deborah that long since she knows which equipment to use! It also turns out this was a recipe for 6, which I failed to notice when starting the dish, so we have lots of it left. Good thing it's YUMMY!

It is supposed to be made with wild rice, but following the principle of using up what I have, I used a wild and brown rice mix for this recipe. You start by whipping up a pancake batter (poor George - we just had pancakes for breakfast), to which you add some green onions, tarragon and parsley and the rice. You let that rest while you make the ragout. The pancake batter used 3 egg yolks, a cup of milk, 3 T. oil, 3/4 cup flour, 2 t. baking powder, and some salt.

The ragout starts with an onion in olive oil (doesn't every dish?), along with some more tarragon and a couple bay leaves. You then add grated beet, parsnip, and carrot, and a bunch of sliced purple cabbage. The recipe called for one large beet, but I put in four small ones because I didn't want leftover beets to cook later. Once that all gets soft, you add in 1 chopped apple, 1 T. tomato paste and some vinegar. You might have to add water along the way to keep the vegetables moist.

I was much better at tasting along the way with this dish and adding salt and pepper when needed. While the ragout is finishing up, you whip the egg whites until stiff. Thank god I bought a hand mixer a few weeks ago. This time I had the right tool. If I'd had to whip the eggs by hand, I would have been crying on the floor. You fold that into the pancake batter.

Just before you put the veggies in the oiled baking dish, you stir in a half cup chopped, toasted walnuts and about 5 ounces goat cheese. Once in the dish, top with the pancake batter, and bake the whole thing at 375 degrees for 25 minutes or so. She says to use a 9 x 12 inch dish, but I used a medium and a small baking dish. I thought it was going to be a big mess because I filled the pans right up to the top. I thought they would puff up and ooze all over my oven, but instead, they turned this beautiful golden brown and behaved perfectly. I had some extra pancake batter, so I cooked that in a separate dish. I don't know what I'm going to use it for, though.

When it was done, I served it with some yogurt because I was out of sour cream. The yogurt provided a great contrast and compliment to the beets. This meal should have had a spinach salad to go with it. The recommended wine was a reisling, which I never think to buy. It was fantastic with the beets. The slight sweetness was absolutely perfect with the tang and sweetness of the root vegetables.

The smaller of the two baking dishes was perfect for 2 people. That means we have 4 servings left over. Anybody want to come over for dinner?

Things I'd do differently next time:

• Grate vegetables with the food processor
• Make this dish when I already had leftover rice
• Try making it with wild rice
• Toast the nuts at the beginning (when will I learn this?)
• Maybe add some caraway seeds. I kept thinking it needed them as I was eating it.
• Make a spinach salad to go with it - probably with goat cheese and nuts.
• Invite people over or take it to a potluck.

Things I did well that I'm feeling good about:

• Tasting as I cook
• Starting with a sparkling clean and tidy kitchen. I was able to clean up my cooking mess while the dish was baking. I even put on nice music and lit candles. Very relaxing and rewarding.

Approximate cost to make this dish:

3 eggs - $1.00

1 cup milk - $.40

2 green onions - $.20

2 c. cooked rice - $.50 (?)

1 big red onion - 1.00

4 cups red cabbage - $1.00

1 large parsnip - $1.80

1 granny smith apple - $.40

4 small beets - $3.50 (it only called for one large beet)

parsley - $.20

tarragon - $1.00

goat cheese - $3.00

1/2 c. walnuts - $.50 (?)

3/4 c. flour, olive oil, baking powder, bay leaves, tomato paste, vinegar - negligible

TOTAL without wine - $14.50 for 6 servings, or $2.42 per serving