Get with the Beet !

Second helpings are always a good thing and there is no exception in the case of the deeply delicious beetroot. Normally and probably quite rightly one associates the deep earthy flavours of this particular purple bulb with the autumn, but in fact these roots are available pretty much all year: bar a brief holiday from April till June. It therefore comes as a complete delight to find what appears to be a second crop available just now, but this is really the beginning of the season that began in late June and will now continue through till next February or even March. The beets available now are smaller, sweeter and cook more easily than those larger ones available in the winter month’s, which can sometimes have a tough woody core.

There are many ways to prepare and eat beetroot but I find the best place to start no matter what recipe I am intending to follow is to roast the beets in the oven until tender and from there I can do what ever I so desire with ease. I have noticed that many cook books instruct a roasting of around 45 minutes, this in my opinion is a complete fallacy, I can’t remember ever being able to roast a beet from raw to tender in this time, an hour and a half maybe, but never much less than an hour, so bear this in mind before starting any recipe involving beetroot.

My preferred method is quite simple, produces a deep rich colour, flavour and velvety texture, let alone a delicious aroma that will fill your kitchen making you instantly and ridiculously hungry. Simply remove most of the roots and stalks from the beets, scatter a good handful or two of sea salt on the bottom of a large sheet of foil, place the washed and dried beets onto the bed of salt, wrap the foil up tightly and place on a tray in a preheated oven at 180 degrees. As I said you can expect this process to take around 90 to 120 minutes depending on the size and age of your beets. You can always test them with a skewer after an hour and see how they’re doing. When completely tender, allow them to cool and then rub off the skins with your fingers ( wear some rubber gloves if you don’t want stained fingers) and trim off the stalks and roots.

Now you have a delicious cooked beet that can be added to salads, pan-fried with carrots and balsamic vinegar, made into deep velvety soup that can be eaten hot or cold and even used to make a surprisingly good, moist cake.

I am a huge fan of the beet and find it a complete joy to cook with. I love the way it partners so well with fruit and in these two recipes I do exactly that. The soup is a delicious alternative to Borscht, the apple lightens and sweetens and this version is equally good hot or cold. The salad is simply wondrous, tangy, salty (from the olives) and sweet from both the beets and the fruit. It looks quite stunning too and is super simple to make.

Beetroot , orange and olive salad

Serves: 2

• 400g beetroot 
• 2 sweet blood or blush oranges 
• 50g black dried pitted olives 
• ½ a small red onion very finely chopped 
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar 
• 3 tbsp olive oil 
• Flat leaf parsley chopped 
• Salt & pepper 

Prepare the beetroot by washing, trimming off the long stalks and sitting them on a bed of sea salt wrapped up inside a piece of foil. Place them in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees and roast for at least 90 minutes or until completely tender when pierced with a skewer or sharp knife. Allow to cool for a while, and then remove the stalks and skins, slice into wedge shape pieces and place in a large mixing bowl.

Cut the skins from the oranges by slicing off the ends and cutting down the sides of the fruit to reveal the flesh, thus removing any pith, cut out the segments of orange from in-between the membranes and put the segments and the juice in the same bowl as the beetroot.

Add all the other ingredients: olives, onion, olive oil, red wine vinegar and chopped parsley to the bowl, mix the salad together, season with salt & pepper to taste and serve on a large platter. 

Beetroot, apple & celery soup

Serves: 4

• 1kg Beetroot (roasted)
• 500g Apples
• 1 large onion
• 1 Celery stalk
• 200ml white wine
• 1 tbsp Demerara sugar
• 1.5ltr vegetable or chicken stock
• 2tbsp olive oil
• Salt & pepper
• Crème fraiche
• Chives

Wrap the beetroot in foil and roast in the oven at 180 degrees for an hour or until tender, peel the skins off the beets and slice. Sweat the onion and celery in a large pan in a little olive oil. Peel, core and slice the apples add these to the pan and cook down for a while. Add the sugar, white wine and cook for a few minutes more until all the ingredients are combined. Pour over the stock, season and simmer gently until everything is thoroughly tender and cooked through: about 30 mins. Allow to cool for a little while and then place in a food processor and blitz into a smooth soup. Return to a pan, heat gently and then serve with a swirl of crème fraiche or sour cream and a scattering of finely chopped chives or dill if preferred. This soup is excellent served chilled.

Riverford at Number11

Last night I had my cooking hat on again over in Folkestone Kent for Riverford Organics, the veg box delivery people. We were hosted by Number11 the very cute little restaurant just off the harbour front in Folkestone and were made very welcome by Douglas and his staff. The idea of the night was to demonstrate and chat about a few seasonal dishes that are easy to achieve using the ingredients from this week’s organic veg box. Quite a few people seem to get stuck with their boxes and run out of ideas. What we wanted to do was show off some simple delicious recipes that would inspire, encourage and hopefully get customers to try something just a little bit different.

On the menu we had wild garlic risotto, purple sprouting broccoli with hollandaise, fennel and orange salad and to finish off rhubarb, orange & ginger pavlova. All delicious and individually very easy dishes to cook, I just had to produce enough of each for the 38 people present.

I started off with the risotto, which as you know takes a deal of attention and a fair bit of stirring and in turn about 20 minutes of chat to accompany the procedure. You never think of that when you plan these things. Always focusing on the logistics of cooking the dish in front of a live audience but not really considering the amount of chat involved. Thanks to a lively and spontaneous crowd though the banter warmed up alongside the risotto and we soon had a good open discussion going on. This continued through the next few courses and by the end of what turned out to be nearly three hours of cooking and talking I retired somewhat dry in the throat to the confines of the kitchen to do the washing up.

Thanks again to all involved Caroline at Riverford Home Delivery Ashford and all the crew at Number11 Folkestone.
Event photos by Chrissy Asteraki-Speer

Wild Garlic Risotto

Serves: 4

• 250g Arborio rice 
• 750ml Vegetable stock 
• 3tbsp olive oil 
• 1 white onion finely chopped 
• 1 garlic clove crushed 
• 1 handful of wild garlic leaves 
• 1 lemon juiced 
• 1 glass of white dry wine 
• 30g butter 
• Salt & pepper

Heat the oil in a heavy based pan and gently fry the onion for a few minutes. Add the crushed garlic clove stir in for a minute or two and then pour in some more olive oil and add the rice. Cook the rice for a few minutes until the rice absorbs some of the oil and starts to puff a little. If you are using wine this is the time to add it to the pan and heat until absorbed into the rice. Now start adding the stock, just cover the rice and stir whilst it is absorbed and then repeat. Keep cooking until the rice is nearly done but still a bit ‘husky’ and now add the garlic leaves and the lemon juice, season with salt & pepper and keep cooking adding more stock as required until the rice is al dente. Remove from the heat, stir in the butter cover and let it sit for five minutes, then serve on warmed plates.

Fennel & orange salad

Serves 6

• 2 Fennel Bulbs 
• 3 Oranges 
• 1 Garlic clove 
• Lemon Juice (1 lemon) 
• 3 tbsp Olive oil 
• 1 handful of Black olives (stoned) 
• Flat leaf parsley 
• Salt & Pepper 

Finely shred the Fennel, using a mandolin if you have one and place in a bowl, squeeze over a little lemon juice to keep it from colouring. Cut the skin and pith from the oranges and slice out the segments into another bowl and squeeze the juice from the remaining part of the orange and save. Mix the orange segments, olives and parsley into the fennel, sprinkle liberally with the dressing adjust the seasoning if needed.

To make the dressing: Whisk the olive oil, crushed garlic, remaining lemon juice and some seasoning into the orange juice. 

Purple sprouting broccoli & hollandaise recipe click here

Rhubarb orange & ginger pavlova

Serves: 6

• 4 egg whites 
• 275g caster sugar 
• 1 tsp vanilla extract 
• 1 tsp cornflour 
• 1 tsp white wine vinegar 
• 250ml double cream 
• Zest of an orange 
• 6 sticks of rhubarb 
• 2 pieces of preserved stem ginger 

Preheat oven to 180 degrees

Whisk the egg whites into stiff peaks and then slowly whisk in 225g of the caster sugar. When all the sugar is incorporated whisk for another 2 minutes until you have a stiff shiny mixture. Now add the cornflour and continue whisking, the vinegar and vanilla extract, whisk for a short while more until all the ingredients are well mixed together.

Place a sheet of greaseproof paper on a baking sheet and run the sheet and paper under a cold-water tap to thoroughly soak it. Drain off the excess water. Now spoon the meringue onto the sheet of greaseproof making a pile about 6cm high and 25cm in diameter. Place in the oven and immediately turn down to 100 degrees (80 for fan) and cook the pavlova for an hour and a half. Remove from the oven and leave to cool and peel off the greaseproof paper. If you can make this a couple of hours before you need it or even the day before then all the better. The more the meringue dries out the crisper it becomes on the outside but still remains gooey in the middle.

Chop the rhubarb into 5cm lengths and cook in a sauté pan with 50g sugar and the finely grated or julienne orange zest, check for sweetness and add more sugar if needed but don’t over sweeten as rhubarb is best remaining a little tart. Cook for about ten minutes or until the rhubarb is just tender to a knife. Allow to cool

Now whisk up your cream until stiff, spread over the meringue base generously and spoon over the rhubarb and allow some of the juices to drizzle over the edge. Chop the ginger into small little chucks and scatter liberally over the top. Some toasted almond flakes make a nice finish too.