Results tagged “beetroot”

This twist on the traditional Spanish tomato and bread soup was inspired by a delicious beetroot version I had at La Taberna del Pindal in Arenas de Cabrales in Asturias, Spain.  The trick is to roast half the beetroot to bring out its lush sweetness, and grate the other half raw to keep its vibrant colour and fresh taste. Combined with the usual tomatoes, peppers and onions it makes a fantastic purple gazpacho, which is even better the day after it’s made, when the sweet, sour, earthy and bright flavours really seem to sing together.  So, if possible, start this recipe one or two days ahead. I used sourdough rye bread as it’s what I had, and it seemed right with beetroot, in a northern European sort of way.

‘Kemia’ - various salads, often made with cooked vegetables - are served at the start of a Moroccan meal, a bit like tapas in Spain or meze in Turkey.  They are always beautifully presented, to stimulate the appetite, and subtly spiced with classic Moroccan flavours such as mint, parsley, pepper, cumin, cinnamon and citrus.  The beauty for the cook is that you can prepare them all in advance and serve them at room temperature.
 
Of course, if you prefer you can roast the beetroots rather than boil them:  Place them, whole and unpeeled, in a roasting tin with a splash of olive oil and water.  Sprinkle with salt, cover tightly with foil and roast in a hot oven until tender throughout.  I feel this method works better with summer beetroot, and those at the start of the winter season.  These days boiling seems preferable.

This would probably never happen in Morocco, but I like to serve this salad over a bed of full-fat plain yoghurt.  The flavours go so well together, and the beetroot juices bleed into the yoghurt creating bright pink streaks and swirls.  

One day recently at culinary school we were given the chance to develop some recipes of our choice.   I worked on this one, trying to recreate a similar dish I had had at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant Postrio in San Francisco.  (Apart from this dish, the restaurant’s food was sadly otherwise very disappointing - an array of overly ‘creative’ and entirely unsuccessful attempts to revive faded glory.) 

I will admit this recipe is a real faff, but the result is both beautiful and delicious.  All the flavours go so well together.  If you can’t be bothered to make the panna cotta, just place some lovely fresh goat’s cheese in the centre of the plate instead.  If you can't find baby beetroots you can use large ones, just cook them longer and cut them into appropriately sized pieces.  And of course regular oranges will suffice in place of blood oranges.