Red wine vinegar pickled beets with coriander and orange

Ingredients

0 of 10 out on the counter

• 6 beets (2 inches across), boiled whole, peeled and cut in wedges (about 600 g cooked)
• 6 cups water, for boiling the beets
• 1¼ cups red wine vinegar
• 1¼ cups water, for the brine
• 2 tsp sugar
• ¾ tsp salt
• 1 tsp coriander seed
• 2 tsp orange zest, in thin strips
• ½ tsp black pepper
• ½ tsp garlic powder

All set! Everything is out. Time to bake.

Method

1. 1Scrub the beets and trim the tops to 1 inch; leave the root tails on so they do not bleed. Put them in a pot with 6 cups of water. Bring to a boil, then lower to a steady simmer, lid on.
2. 2Simmer 30 to 50 minutes. At 5,300 ft water boils near 203 °F, so the beets take about a quarter longer than the 20 to 40 minutes a sea-level pot needs. They are done when a knife slides into the biggest beet with no push.
3. 3While they cook, stir the vinegar, 1¼ cups of water, sugar, salt, coriander seed, orange zest, pepper and garlic powder in a bowl or a large measuring cup for 2 minutes, until the sugar and salt have dissolved. The brine is not heated.
4. 4Lift the beets out and let them cool until you can hold them, about 15 minutes. Rub off the skins under cool running water, cut off the tops and tails, and cut each beet into 8 wedges.
5. 5Pack the wedges into a 2-quart glass jar or two 1-quart jars and pour the brine over them. Press the beets down until the brine covers them. The brine will look dark red.
6. 6Put the lid on and refrigerate once the beets are no warmer than room temperature; do not leave the jar out more than 2 hours (1 hour above 90 °F). Wait at least 1 day before eating so the brine reaches the middle of each wedge.
7. 7Serves 6: one beet's wedges (about ⅔ cup) with a spoonful of brine. Keep the jar in the fridge up to 3 weeks (our kitchen practice; we hold no published source for it yet), the beets under the brine. This is a refrigerator pickle: do not can it, and do not keep it on the shelf, because the brine is not tested for canning.