At any time of year, this lavish mash recipe is sure to impress. It’s easy to prepare when you use packaged baby beets, typically found shrink-wrapped in the produce department. This recipe is courtesy Love Beets. Find more beet recipes at LoveBeets.com.

The recipe serves two: prep time 5 minutes, cooking time 20 minutes.

RECIPE: MASHED BEETS & POTATOES

Ingredients

Purple passion: mashed beets and potatoes. Photo courtesy LoveBeets.com.

Preparation

1. PEEL the potatoes and cut each into 8 pieces. Put them into a large pan of salted water and bring to boiling. Simmer for 10 minutes until the potatoes are fork-tender. While the potatoes cook…

2. CHOP the beets into quarters.

3. DRAIN the potatoes and add the quartered beets and crème fraîche to the pan. Mash everything together well until you have a smooth pink mash. Season to taste.

THE HISTORY OF BEETS

Beets, Beta vulgaris are a root vegetable: leaves grow above ground, and the edible root is below. In America, the shortened form, beet, is used instead of the longer beetroot.

Beets evolved from wild sea beet, which grew in places as wide-ranging as Britain and India. It was first cultivated in the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East—although only the leaves were eaten. (Even today, beet greens are delicious. Don’t throw them away: Sauté them in olive oil with some minced garlic.)

Roman recipes included cooking beets with honey and wine. Apicius, the renowned Roman gourmet, included a beet broth recipe in his cookbook as well as beet salad with a dressing of mustard, oil and vinegar. All are still fine recipes today.

The original beet roots were long and thin like carrots. The rounded root shape of today was developed in the 16th century; by the 18th century it was widely cultivated in central and eastern Europe. Many of today’s classic beet dishes originated in this region, including borscht.

In 19th century England, beets’ dramatic color were often used to brighten up salads and soups. The high sugar content made it a popular ingredient in cakes and puddings (and in the U.S., led to the creation of red velvet cake).

Today there are many varieties of beets sizes large and small, including candy-striped (with red and white concentric circles), orange, white and yellow. Look for these specialty beets in farmers markets.
 
BEET TIPS

You can use cooked beets in any recipe that requires raw beets. Just reduce the cooking time accordingly.

Alas, beet juice does stain. If you aren’t a very neat cook or eater, wear dark clothing! But beet juice is a water-soluble dye, so try one of these methods to clean up stains:

But the oil does more than look pretty. It adds a rich dimension of flavor to the soup and creates a more complex aroma. It’s an easy and inexpensive way to go from everyday to gourmet.

OIL DRIZZLE FOR SOUPS

In our book, a drizzle of flavored olive oil elevates a bowl of soup to top tier restaurant level. A tablespoon or less—depending on the size of the bowl—does the trick.

Cucumber yogurt soup with a kick of chili oil, a garnish of thin-sliced baby radishes, fennel and diced orange. Photo courtesy The Chocolate Lab | San Francisco .

In a lighter soup you can contrast colored oils: a swirl of one with some contrasting droplets of another.

With a darker soup, you can use a cream-based product—crème fraîche, infused heavy cream, sour cream, yogurt.
 
HOW TO DRIZZLE

You may have natural technique, or you may have to practice to get a nice swirl. Place the oil on a teaspoon and drizzle from the tip. If you want to practice, drizzle inexpensive oil on a plate.

Another technique is to use a squeeze bottle or medicine dropper to create a circle of droplets, or a random pattern. In the top photo above, both swirls and droplets are used.

You can combine both techniques and use a different oil, or balsamic vinegar, for the droplets.

Heavy cream works just fine, but crème fraîche, sour cream and yogurt are too thick to drizzle; they need to be thinned. You can do this with water, milk or cream.

While sour cream and yogurt contribute natural tang, you can add flavor to them, or to crème fraîche or heavy cream. Lemon zest, flavored salt and pepper are some options. You can infuse heavy cream with herbs: crush the herbs and let them sit in the cream for an hour or longer. Strain and discard the herbs.

 
RECIPE: LEMON CRÈME FRAÎCHE

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. BLEND the crème fraîche, lemon zest, lemon juice and salt and pepper.

2. THIN as needed with water to a drizzle consistency.
 
Soup’s on! And today, February 4th, is National Homemade Soup Day. Check out our favorite soup recipes.

One of our favorite chocolatiers, year in and year out, is John & Kira’s. Using Valrhona couverture, the exquisite flavor, beautiful design and a touch of whimsey make us want box after box.

We love the Chocolate Bees and Lovebugs (chocolate ladybugs). Our favorite product, perhaps because there’s nothing like it elsewhere, are the Chocolate Covered Figs, filled with a whiskey-accented chocolate ganache.

But for Valentine’s Day, the Wildflowers & Hearts box seem spot-on. Order yours at JohnandKiras.com. A nine-piece box is $29.

Red Chocolate Hearts are dusted with a golden sheen and filled with cinnamon-accented pistachio ganache. Wildflowers are 66% cacao chocolate ganache.

A nine-piece gift box is $29.00.

The holiday named for the Christian saint Valentine had its beginnings as the raucous annual Roman festival of Lupercalia, held on February 15th. Men stripped naked and spanked maidens with whips with the goal of increasing their fertility. It was a wildly popular event.

In the fifth century C.E.—at least 150 years after Emperor Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire—church leaders sought to convert popular pagan festivals into Christian festivals. (Christmas is another example of this.)

Conveniently, there was a legend about St. Valentine to which Lupercalia could be pegged. According to the story, in the third century C.E. the Roman Emperor Claudius II, seeking to bolster his army, forbade young men to marry. The priest Valentine helped lovers by performing marriages in secret. For his defiance, Valentine was executed in on February 14, 270.

The first Valentine note on record was a couplet penned in the 15th-century by Charles, Duke of Orléans to his wife. The earliest surviving Valentine notes in English were written in 1477.

But it wasn’t until the 19th century that cards became popular. Handwritten cards gave way to mass-produced greetings. By the mid-20th century, tokens of affection extended to other gifts, including flowers and chocolates.

The first heart-shaped box of chocolates in North America was produced by Ganong Bros in Canada (founded 1873). The boxes were originally used during the Christmas season but subsequently remained for Valentine’s Day (source: Wikipedia).

Today, we know enough about chocolate to care about what’s in the box. Hold the cardboard heart; send us John & Kira’s.
  

Goat cheese logs: plain, green and
pink-themed. Photo courtesy Vermont
Creamery.

You can take a plain log of goat cheese and decorate it for any special occasion. We’ve included suggestions for Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Halloween and Christmas below. But you don’t need an official holiday—just friends and family who’d appreciate the treat.

You can serve the log on a cheese board, slice it to top salads, serve for brunch with toast and bagels, top brown rice or other whole grains, etc., etc., etc.

When selecting the goat cheese, look for logs that are firmer than the rest. Very creamy logs are hard to roll.

Decide on your custom herb-spice mix, and choose a “base” herb or spice for rolling the entire log, plus an “accent” (or accents) to sprinkle on. The herbs and spices mentioned below are only suggestions. Browse the spice racks, dried fruit and vegetable mixes, nuts, seeds, etc. to see what inspires you.

For example, you might want a touch of chili flakes, but don’t want to enrobe the entire log in them.

Minced fresh herbs provide better green color (and fresher flavor) than dried herbs.

Ingredients (Select A Custom Mix)

 
Plus:

 
Preparation

1. FREEZE goat cheese logs for 20 minutes prior to rolling (longer if needed), to firm them up.

2. ASSEMBLE herbs and spices. Line a cutting board or baking pan with wax paper.

3. ROLL the log in the “base” herb or spice. Sprinkle with the accents. Then roll a piece of wax paper around the log, gently pressing the herbs and spices into the log.

4. REFRIGERATE until ready to use.

We were inspired by these ice cream pops from La Chocolate in Melbourne, Australia to make our own. You can also dip frozen bananas.

We were unable to find uncoated ice cream bars, and were just as happy to use uncoated frozen yogurt bars. However, you can just as easily purchase chocolate-coated ice cream bars and re-dip them—ideally in a different “color” of chocolate for a double-dip effect.

RECIPE: CHOCOLATE-COVERED ICE CREAM
POPS

Ingredients

Preparation

1. KEEP ice cream in the coldest part of the freezer until ready to use. When ready to begin, line a baking sheet with wax paper.

2. MELT chocolate and oil in the microwave or over a double boiler, stirring thoroughly to combine. Let cool to room temperature; dip the bars and place on wax paper.

3. QUICKLY sprinkle on the decorations and return bars to the freezer to set. Wrap each in plastic wrap until ready to serve.