My first time trying beets was fairly recent; last year, to be exact, during my first year of university. The residence dining hall had a pretty generous salad bar, and among one of the many choices offered were beets. Obviously, they were of the jarred or tinned variety, but I wasn't picky. I tried it and it was okay, although I don't recall getting beets again (they're heavy little buggers, and the residence charges you by weight!). This year, I tried fresh beets. It's the root vegetable time of year, so I split a bag of beets with N. I didn't really know how to cook them, so I found a recipe for orange-glazed beets, and went to work. I chopped them into quarters and boiled them. The water turned a deep blood red shade, whose intensity was unexpected. And I think I slightly overfilled the pot, because beet juice water kept splashing out onto the stove, so by the end of the 30 minute boiling period, it looked like a massacre had occured on the stovetop. Nevertheless, I then glazed them in an orange-honey glaze, and dug in.
These beets were definitely a lot better than the ones I had last year. I think I slightly undercooked them, because the skins did not "slip off," as they were supposed to. So I happily noshed down on the skins too. You can't really taste the skin, and a little extra fibre never hurt anybody. If I didn't make this myself, i would not have even known there was a glaze, because the flavour did not come through at all. But then again, that may be because I cooked way too many beets. The beets tasted equally good cold, the next day, and the day after, and the day after that...
