{"id":94,"date":"2008-09-25T22:56:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-25T22:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/greginnd.com\/gregcooks\/?p=94"},"modified":"2008-09-25T22:56:00","modified_gmt":"2008-09-25T22:56:00","slug":"divine-dining-redux-1-roasted-beet-salad-with-basil-oil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/greginnd.com\/gregcooks\/2008\/09\/divine-dining-redux-1-roasted-beet-salad-with-basil-oil\/","title":{"rendered":"Divine Dining Redux #1 &#8211; Roasted Beet Salad with Basil Oil"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_kufElHa-EkM\/SNwXddHYOII\/AAAAAAAAA5c\/4kEo7Jbhq78\/s1600-h\/IMG_5743.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;\" src=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_kufElHa-EkM\/SNwXddHYOII\/AAAAAAAAA5c\/4kEo7Jbhq78\/s400\/IMG_5743.jpg\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5250097060406376578\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/gregcooks.blogspot.com\/2008\/09\/divine-dining.html\">As promised<\/a> I will be posting details of the dishes I prepared for a five course dinner last weekend. So, let&#8217;s start with the first course, shall we? Inspired by a classic caprese salad I created a roasted beet salad with fresh ch\u00e8vre, balsamic vinegar and basil oil. I was dying to use some of the plethora of beets I have maturing in my garden right now. This turned out better than I anticipated.<\/p>\n<p>The beet preparation could not be simpler. I love roasted beets and they are so easy to do. I just take them from the garden, trim the roots and stalks, and tightly wrap them individually in foil. No need to skin them. They were placed on a sheet and roasted in a 425 \u00b0F oven for about an hour. Once cooled the skins will slip right off. I used three kinds of beets. One is a yellow beet called &#8216;Touchstone Gold&#8217;. I also have a &#8216;Chiogga&#8217; beet which has red and white stripes inside. These two beets are tasy and the colors hardly bleed. Unlike the purple beet, &#8216;Red Ace&#8217;, which will stain anything it touches. Personally I like the sweetness of the yellow beets the best but the purple ones have the most classic beet flavor. On top of the beets was placed some fresh goat cheese. A bit of balsamic vinegar was poured in the middle and the plate was garnished basil oil.<\/p>\n<p>Basil oil is so easy to make. I took about a half cup of tightly packed basil leaves and 1 cup of good olive oil in a food processer and processed it briefly to chop up the basil. This was placed in a pan and heated for about 5 minute to infuse the oil with the flavor. Careful not to cook it. I heated it until the traces of water started sizzling and bubbling.<\/p>\n<p><a onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_kufElHa-EkM\/SNwXdgn5S7I\/AAAAAAAAA5k\/422meZU1lf8\/s1600-h\/IMG_5728.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_kufElHa-EkM\/SNwXdgn5S7I\/AAAAAAAAA5k\/422meZU1lf8\/s400\/IMG_5728.jpg\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5250097061348068274\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>The oil was poured through a strainer and cooled. The result is a deep green colored oil with tons of basil flavor.<\/p>\n<p><a onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_kufElHa-EkM\/SNwXd1lvKDI\/AAAAAAAAA5s\/4qpZMtepSgY\/s1600-h\/IMG_5730.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;\" src=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_kufElHa-EkM\/SNwXd1lvKDI\/AAAAAAAAA5s\/4qpZMtepSgY\/s400\/IMG_5730.jpg\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5250097066976159794\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>Next up &#8211; linguini carbonara. Stay tuned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As promised I will be posting details of the dishes I prepared for a five course dinner last weekend. So, let&#8217;s start with the first course, shall we? Inspired by a classic caprese salad I created a roasted beet salad with fresh ch\u00e8vre, balsamic vinegar and basil oil. I was dying to use some of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[171,160,168,289],"class_list":{"0":"post-94","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-appetizer","7":"tag-basil-oil","8":"tag-beets","9":"tag-divine-dining","10":"tag-salad","11":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/greginnd.com\/gregcooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/greginnd.com\/gregcooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/greginnd.com\/gregcooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/greginnd.com\/gregcooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/greginnd.com\/gregcooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/greginnd.com\/gregcooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/greginnd.com\/gregcooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/greginnd.com\/gregcooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/greginnd.com\/gregcooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}