Rosehip and Beet Stalks with Oregano

After I made this I went online to see if there was a recipe that matched and I found a lot of things, like one for rosehip puree soup, and something else about beet marinara, but nowhere did I find anything with rosehips and beet stalks as the combination, though I'm sure in some beet stalk countries they've maybe tried it.

The thing is, I could see why someone might get partway through, and taste the broth and toss it, thinking, these things do NOT pair well or match right. I almost tossed it out.

I thought, "maybe I shouldn't have used these astringent stalks with the acidic rosehips..." because the broth was awful.

However, my end result was very good, and you really couldn't judge until then, but wait about 3 hours and blend.

I used my first portion over spaghetti and the next morning I ate it as soup and it keeps well.

I had some impression, the night I was making it, of a very old woman, eating this and holding a grilled cheese sandwich in her other hand, and she was trembling. It was after I blogged about it. I suddenly "saw" this old woman with her hand shaking, and instead of eating a puffed pastry with it, with cheese and ham or something, it was a grilled cheese and maybe meat sandwich, maybe as a breakfast thing, I don't know. I don't know why I had this impression. Later I thought about my Granny but at the time, I had thought maybe it was some other old woman. Her hands shook like someone with palsy, but I think it was just something related to either nerves or older age maybe.

Anyway, here is my recipe approximation:

1. olive oil in pan, enough to coat surface
2. hint of cayenne/red pepper residue but only a hint, a faint draft (i didn't add it in at all, there was a faint hint still there from the night before when I sauteed portabella mushrooms with onion and garlic and left behind a faint slick of the olive oil, to use for my next cooking (it was just overnight)
3. chopped onion (1/8th of large white onion)
4. sautee onion in olive oil
5. add 8-10 whole small black peppercorns
6. after a minute or two, add 8 oz. water
7. add handful of beet stalks, washed (one large handful...maybe ? 1 cup if it's adding up? I don't know--I just grabbed them and cut them crosswise in the pan when they didn't fit
8. add large pinch of fresh crumbled leaf oregano. also, before this, I added about 1/2-1 tsp. white sugar, whatever the amount is in an "NJoy" brand sugar packet
9. simmer a few minutes, then I thought to add rose hips. add about 1/8 cup of whole rose hips.
10. add 1 small sliver of fresh garlic, chopped,and small pinch salt
11. then after 1/2 hour or more, the rosehips were softened and I took them out to cut on the side and scrape out seeds and hairs with my fingers. Then I added them back to the pan and added about an 1/16th c. of seedless rose hips to add a little to the whole ones (I believe I prefer whole, it's just more work)
12. i simmered and added water as needed, to keep it all covered, for about 2 hours and then tasted the broth and disgusting! but i didn't toss it out. i decided to keep it going and then see at the end, but thought, 'this does not! taste good!"
13. from start to finish--about 2 1/2-3 full hours simmer, blend and it's this great velvety puree. total suprise, and from strange broth to beautiful.

That was it.

It was so, extremely delicate that I thought of all these things to add and how it could be used, but I didn't want to upset the balance so I never added any other seasoning. It was very subtle. Hearty and full, but the seasoning was very subtle. I think you could make a big batch and use it for different things and add to it. I liked it so much the way it was that I didn't touch it.

It wasn't sweet enough to be sweet. It wasn't salty but had a hint of flavor. It wasn't peppery. It wasn't pungent. It wasn't astringent or acidic. It wasn't spicy at all but an extremely faint undertone of the red pepper but like I said, it was barely a residue. It was so well balanced actually.

I guess I was proud of it because I later looked things up and couldn't find one single replication of what I had just made, at least not in recipe form, and it made good use of ingredients, was wholesome, and tasted divine

I came up with it just because I thought, "I need to do something with these beet stalks before they're bad"

But I'm excited about rose hips now. I want to try them in cooking in different ways.

resin. I think that's the word I wanted, not residue, but a very faint resin.