Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Beetroot Easter Eggs (aka pickled red beet eggs)


Click here to view the photo on Flickr

This recipe started off as a copy of Alanna's perfect hard-boiled ruby eggs*. However, as I couldn't figure out how to get hold of beetroot juice, I decided to use finely grated boiled beetroot instead (yep, vacuum-packed ready-made stuff). And just before gently nestling the eggs in the beetroot mush, I decided to add a bit of caraway seeds and a clove of garlic as well. And a little dill. And just a tiny pinch of salt...

The resulting ruby eggs are utterly pretty, especially with this well-travelled Easter chick (whom you all surely remember from this photo taken in Edinburgh a year ago) keeping an eye on them. And the beet-caraway-garlic combination yields just enough flavour to the eggs to make them special and interesting.

Beetroot-dyed Easter Eggs
(Peedimunad)



8-10 freshly boiled eggs**, peeled

500 g beetroot, boiled and finely grated (keep the juice!)
2-3 garlic cloves, finely crushed
2 tsp of caraway seeds, slightly crushed
1 tsp salt
a generous squeeze or two of lemon juice
dill, finely chopped

Mix all ingredients and put in a small bowl or plastic box with a lid. Push the peeled eggs gently in the beetroot mush, so they'd be covered. Put the lid on and place the bowl/box into the fridge for about 12 hours (or up to 24 hours. The eggs above were subjected to the 12-hour treatment).
Remove the eggs from the beetroot***, wipe clean with a moist kitchen paper. Cut in half lenghtwise and serve on a bed of chopped dill.

* See here for yet another pickled red beet eggs recipe.

** Experiments inspired by Harold McGee's McGee on Food and Cooking: An Encyclopedia of Kitchen Science, History and Culture that took place in our kitchen on an early Saturday morning (while the owner of this blog was still fast asleep) revealed the best eggs to be the ones cooked in a barely simmering 80-85C water for 10 minutes :-)

*** Oh - and the leftover seasoned grated beetroot? Serve this in a small bowl as a salad, maybe with a tablespoonful or two of added mayonnaise stirred in..

Other beetroot dishes @ Nami-nami:
Beetroot & Blue Cheese Risotto (January 2007)
Beetroot & Garlic Salad (December 2005)
Beetroot & Goat's Cheese Sandwich (February 2006)
Beetroot Salad Full of Vitamins (March 2007)
Beetroot Tzatziki (April 2006)
Filo Tartlets with Beetroot & Cheese (August 2006)
Savoury Muffins with Beetroot and Blue Cheese (October 2006)

22 comments:

Thredahlia said...

Roosasid mune tegi Evelin ka ja juba siis tundus selline mõnusalt veider ja huvitav :) Ei taha päris ahvipärdikuks ka hakata - ju siis pean oma munad järgmisel korral siniseks või roheliseks ehmatama :D Aga idee on tõeliselt lahe!

K and S said...

these are so pretty in color! I think they must taste good as well.

Ilva said...

Beautiful photos Pille! And then we have the eggs themselves...

Anonymous said...

I love what you are doing with all these eggs for easter Pille! :) And I am really inspired to try something with beetroot soon!

Alanna Kellogg said...

That little chicken sure looks surprised!! I love the idea of the eggs nestled in mashed beetroot! I forget, are you the Beet Queen? and I'm the Carrot Queen? Or is it the reverse. Or maybe we'll just be co-Queens ... ;-)

Anonymous said...

Pille, they look beautiful!

Anonymous said...

Pille... the photos are too good....

Anonymous said...

What a great idea, Pille - not only beautiful but tasty too! I'll have to keep these in mind for next Easter...

Brilynn said...

Those are so pretty, like flowers!

Evelin said...

tore neid jälle näha:) lühema marineerimisaja juures on jah see pluss, et munad kenasti alles kolmevärvilised.
peedimahl on muide täiesti saadaval: vist 250 ml plastist pudelites, tavaliselt asuvad köögiviljade juures .
ehk ei pea järgmise aastani ootama, et neid jälle teha:D

Anonymous said...

Photography is improving, great stuff. You need to get into wines now x

Cerebrum said...

So cute!:-) And tasty, too, I would believe!

Mallika said...

You have kept your promise about the eggs!!

These look gorgeous. And very simple. Shame I only saw it after Easter!! Oh well, for another time then...

Anonymous said...

Pille, the photo is so beautiful! I love the pinkish red colour on the eggs and the hen look so cute!

Did it add a pickle-like soury taste to the eggs? Looks amazing.

Linda said...

how beautiful. i love this!!!!

Anonymous said...

your yolks are so much yellower than ours were. You have happy chickens in Estonia it seems! Happy (belated) Easter!

Anonymous said...

Oh, wow! Beautiful! Very beautiful.

Paz

Valentina said...

Pille, these are gorgeous.

Kerstin Klein said...

I´ll make these tomorrow

cookiecrumb said...

They're stunning. I can't believe how deeply the red color penetrated into the eggwhites in such a brief time.
And I love the idea that you got a marbled look. I'll have to experiment (more). :D

Pille said...

Thredahlia- mmm, siniseks või roheliseks? Panen fantaasia tööle:-)

K&S - they did!

Ilva - K. has a much better camera than I do, so when he's shooting, the results are better, too. Plus we were at home during the day, so had plenty of natural light.

Joey - do give beetroot a go - there's plenty of recipes on this blog to inspire you:-)

Alanna - I should have included a picture of the 'outside', too - nestling the beets in grated beetroot gives them a slightly marbled look, as opposed to the uniform purple you get when using beetroot juice. And you're definitely the reigning vegetable queen, whereas I'm just a humble beetroot princess:-)

Dagmar - thank you!

Anon. - thanks!

Melissa - no need to wait until next Easter, for sure?

Brilynn - they're pretty, aren't they?

Evelin - õigus, nüüd meenuvad endalegi need plastpudelid peedimahlaga!!! Kusjuures eelmisel nädalavahetusel ei tulnud selle pealegi:-) Ma tahtsin tõesti kolmevärvilisi mune - need üdini lillaks tõmbunud tundusid liiga, noh, lillad. Mul selline kergem variant siin:-)

Roxy - it's not that my photography is improving, it's the synergy we've got at home. I (usually) cook, style and plate, then K. takes the picture (I'm deciding which angle to shoot etc), we choose the favourite, and then crop n edit it, if necessary. Oh, and his camera is much better, too. Sadly it's not at home most of the time, but at his office..
PS We're working on the wine:-)

Zarah Maria - they were indeed!

Mallika - I did:-) And you can definitely make beetroot eggs outwith Easter period, too!

Mae - as I didn't use any vinegar, there was no pickled taste to the beets. Just a subtle beetroot-caraway-dill flavour to your otherwise 'regular' egg flavour.

Linda - thanks!

Ann - I did use free range chicken eggs, which are yellower. Not as yellow as the eggs my boyfriend brings from countryside every now and then! These are deeeeeep yellow!

Paz - thank you, thank you!

Valentina - how nice of you to say that:-)

Ksklein - great! Let me know what you thought of them!

CookieCrumb - it was pretty quick. Actually, even after 6 hours the eggs are distinctly red, just with a wider are of white around the yolk.

cookiecrumb said...

Congratulations on your award-winning photo!