Beet Salad & Corn Relish Recipes

Well, I finished Pro Chef 1 with flying colors and hoping to do Pro Chef 2 in January. Here are a couple of easy recipes from class that you might find helpful for your Thanksgiving celebrations.

Beet & Fennel Salad:
- 1 bunch of fresh beets, cleaned and pulled from the stems. Placing on a baking sheet and roast whole at 350 degrees for one hour. Allow to cool, peel, cut in half and slice thin wedges.
- While beets are roasting, make creamy chive dressing. Use a 50/50 ratio of mayo to milk (ie. 1/2
mayo plus 1/2 cup milk = 1 cup of dressing). Add minced chives and a bit of ground black pepper to taste. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
- 1 head of fennel with greens tops removed. Slice very thin (shave on mandolin if you have one). Lay on bottom of salad plate and top with beet wedges. Drizzle dressing over the top.
- Sprinkle generously with crumbled goat cheese and Craisins and garnish with more minced chives.

Plate each serving individually, it is a really beautiful presentation and great "Christmas colors" to get you in the spirit. The sweetness of the beets match nicely with the mild licorice taste of the fennel. And goat cheese makes anything even more tasty! This is easy to put together but looks really impressive on the plate.

Roasted Corn Relish:
- Pre-heat oven to 350. Do a small dice on a whole red onion, toss in olive oil and spread on a lined baking sheet. Place in oven to roast, about 45 minutes. You want to get good color on the onion with some all the way to black. Once done set aside and let cool.
- While onion is roasting, bring 3/4 stick of unsalted butter to room temperature. Combine with a tsp each of cumin, coriander, paprika, and chili powder, and 1/2 tsp of cayenne. Pre-heat your grill to high heat. Take about 3/4 of the butter (set aside the remainder you will use it later!) and rub it onto two ears of fresh corn (husk and silk removed). Slather the compound butter on pretty thick, it is easiest to use your hands for this. Grill the corn until you get good grill marks all the way around. Be careful! The butter will cause this to flare up so watch it and turn often.
- De-seed and do a small dice on one large Roma tomato, set aside with onion.
- Once corn has cooled enough to handle, stand upright on a flat serving bowl or cutting board and use a sharp knife to remove the kernels. Once the kernels have all been removed run the back of the knife done the corn cob again to release the sweet corn juice.
- In serving bowl combine onion and tomato with the corn and juice. Add the remaining compound butter, a Tbsp of sherry or white wine vinegar and salt and pepper to taste.

This is a great side dish or works well on a crostini as an appetizer, too. You can make this ahead of time and refrigerate but you will need to let it come back to room temperature and stir well since the butter will set again. Taste again to see if more vinegar or seasoning is needed. Another easy recipe that looks and tastes very impressive!

So, if you need some new ideas for the holiday table I recommend you give these recipes a try! Let me know if you do and what you think. Enjoy!

Keywords: Savory Chef Pro Chef Class, Recipes, Rainey Talbot