Pickled Beetroot AKA Beetroot for Salads

I have turned into a pickle fiend lately.  Don't know why, but there it is.  I pickled some chillies that I snipped off a bush outside Reception at some holiday apartments, and I finally got around to pickling some beetroot.  There was actually a beetroot shortage last Christmas, and you just could not buy them - the ones in tins and jars, I mean.  So now I am prepared!  And they are delicious!

This is a recipe from the PWMU cookbook, first published in 1904!  That is the Presbyterian Women's Missionary Union, in case you are not familiar with the acronym - 'cos I wasn't :=)  And it's such a fab cookbook.  I made half the amount so just double it if you are really keen.  They just blithely say you need a bunch of beetroot; so I figured that might be about 1 kilo, so I halved it for my recipe.

c. Sherry M.

Makes 1 x 680g./24 oz jar:

ingredients:

1/2 bunch of beetroot - around 500g./1.1 lb  see Notes

for the brine:

1-2 cm/half an inch or so of fresh ginger, grated or finely chopped

300 mL vinegar (I used white wine and apple cider vinegars)

100g./3.5 oz sugar (I used caster sugar)

1 tsp sea salt flakes

1 tsp black peppercorns

1 tsp yellow mustard seeds

1/4-1/2 tsp of mountainpepper berries (optional) and of 

coriander seeds and of allspice berries   see Notes

Method:

Chop up the beetroot and pile into your clean, sterilised jar

Place the ginger, vinegar, sugar, salt, and all the other spices into a small saucepan

Bring to the boil, turn down and simmer for 5 minutes

Let the mixture cool down a bit, strain it over a bowl, and MAKE SURE you collect the vinegar mixture

Pour the liquid over the beetroot in the jar, whack on the lid and into the fridge it goes!

Notes:

You can buy raw beetroot, boil it for an hour, cool it and peel it OR be sensible - just buy the vacuum-packed, cooked, and peeled stuff

The extra spices are my idea; they just went for salt, pepper and mustard - probs not easy to get mountainpepper berries and coriander seeds back in 1904 :=)

c. Sherry M.

And for those of you who don't come from Australia, I have to tell you about our iconic Aussie hamburger 'with the lot', as it's known here.  You add a fried egg, and a slice of pineapple, the meat pattie of course, plus fried onion, and a thick slice of beetroot!  It ain't a burger with the lot without the beetroot!

ingredients gathered

simmer your brine

chop up the beetroot and into the jar(s)

the (mostly) strained brine ready for the jar  (I do love me some mustard seeds)

and ready for the fridge

all done!

c.  Sherry M.