Red beets and yellow beets with seasoned rice vinegar

At the grocery, I found some yellow beets along with the usual red beets, and couldn't resist trying them.  This is not a Finnish dish at all, more of an experiment, but it was so delicious and simple that it really deserves its own blog page.

I boiled the beets without peeling them (separate colors in separate pots so they would keep their colors) for about half an hour.  Then I drained, peeled, and sliced them.  You have to be careful with the red beets, they turn anything they touch red.  I thought about just serving them as is, but we love putting seasoned rice vinegar on vegetables.  It is the same vinegar that is used on sushi rice, and it is wonderful.  My Mom even buys it by the case when she can.  It is a great salad topper, and a delicious wayPublish Post to make quick pickle salad from fresh cucumbers and onions.

It would be just as good with only red beets, but these were so colorful together.  I just sprinkled the vinegar on with a little salt and pepper, so simple and delicious!

Winter squash salad, Kurpitsasalaatti

Our next cooking project is called winter squash salad, but may more accurately be described as a relish.  It reminds me of Japanese pickles, but not salty.

I looked at recipes from the Finnish Cookbook, and Helsingin Sanomat, among others.  All seem to agree that the spices include whole cloves, but some add whole nutmeg, whole chunks of ginger, and one even added cinnamon sticks.  I decided to use the whole cloves that I had in the cabinet, along with a chunk of candied ginger (there is already so much sugar in the recipe that it didn't matter that the ginger was candied.)

First we peeled and removed the seeds from a butternut squash. After dicing, the small squash yielded about 2.5 cups.

We put the squash cubes in a pot with 1 cup sugar, 1 cup white vinegar and 1 cup water.  (250 dl of each).  To this we added three cloves, a chunk of ginger (candied was all I had), and since I didn't have a piece of nutmeg, I sprinkled in a little ground nutmeg.

 This simmered for about half an hour, the squash shouldn't get too soft or it will fall apart.  The kids complained about the vinegar smell!  

When the squash was a little soft, I poured it into a container to keep and removed the whole spices.  This will go really well with meat and potato dishes, but we will save it for later in the refrigerator.  The kids tasted it, and approved.  My daughter said, "I really didn't think I would like it, but it is good."