Emmms' Kitchen has been taken over by the Love of the Beet. My love of the beet is a long-term, well documented affair that has the potential to rent a chasm between my dearheart and I wider than the Grand Canyon, larger than the myth of Loch Ness, more hazardous than the mouth of a Great White. My love of beetroot is equal to that of his hatred for the tuber.
Beetroot, Parsnip and Carrot Soup with Coriander
This recipe came about purely because I’d gone kind of beet happy one day at Fresh and Wild. I’d just moved into my flat and the Stoke Newington branch is just around the corner, a sheer luxury as I’d always had to trek down to Camden before. As a result, I went a bit crazy in celebration. Beetroot is typically available all year round, a root vegetable, it keeps very well under the right conditions. At their peak in late September, beets are huge! Larger than a pint of milk, and sweet and earthy; but when I put this together it was late in the season so they were all dinky and small, just large enough to make an open fist around them. There was a huge basket of them nestled under an array of peppers and I just couldn’t resist. When steamed, beets are great for salads and stir-fries, but if you find you have too many, soup is a great way of making sure you use them all up. I got rooty with it and threw in some parsnip, and a bit of carrot to boot. These winter root vegetables can be almost cloyingly saccharine, especially when mixed together; a bit of coriander counteracts the sweetness nicely by adding a rich bitterness.
ingredients
6 small beetroot if preparing late season, 2 large beetroot if preparing at peak
4 small parsnips
2 small carrots
1 medium red onion (my personal preference, though white onions are just as nice)
2 cloves of garlic
a handful of fresh coriander
some olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
method
This recipe is best prepared all at once, while it takes about an hour to cook through properly, I had everything in the pot in about fifteen minutes after I got home from work. As I had just moved into a new flat, I had to improvise a lot with cooking utensils. A sieve became my steamer, a potato masher became my blender. I didn’t have any vegetable stock either so I simply used the water in which I cooked the beets as my base for the soup.
Set a large saucepan on the stove, about a third full of water, on high heat on the stove. While it’s starting to boil, wash the veg, top and tailing them as close to the end as possible to get full use out of each item. As beets take longer to tenderize than carrots and parsnips, I suggest starting with them. Roughly chop the beets into small pieces, as they’ll cook faster, throwing them into the water as you go. Roughly chop the parsnip and carrots. Place your steamer on top of the saucepan you’ve filled with beetroot and place the parsnip and carrot into that. By steaming the parsnips and carrots over the beets you can ensure any juice that drips away falls right into the water, which will become your soup base. Chop the garlic finely. You can steam it along with the parsnips and carrots, or sauté along with the onion, though bear in mind fried garlic runs the risk of burning which both causes it to become bitter and lose nutritional value.
While the veg are cooking, take a small frying pan and pour enough olive oil into the centre that is about the width of a fifty pence piece. Let it heat up while you peel and chop the onion into smallish pieces. As before, throw the onion into the pan as you go. When they’ve become nearly translucent, though not brown, turn off the heat and, taking care not to burn your fingers in the steam, remove your steamer and feed the onion in with your beets. Run a thin knife through one of the pieces of carrot (they take longer to cook than parsnip), if it slides off without too much effort, it’s ready to be added to the beet. If it’s still too hard, try another piece. If that one has the same texture then leave the lot to steam a bit longer (maybe five minutes), but if your second piece slides from the knife then empty your steamer into the saucepan.
There should be about half the amount of water as when you started in your beet pan, which is exactly what you want. Too much water and you may find the soup is without flavour.
Reduce the heat and let it simmer for five minutes, then remove the pot from the ring. Chop up some coriander fairly finely and add to the mix. Blend/mash the veg together until thick. If you’re using a masher it will turn out pretty lumpy, perfect for a cold winter night. Return the pot to the stovetop and let simmer on low heat until the kitchen smells parsnipy (30-45 minutes), or until you’re hungry. Add some more coriander if you like about ten minutes before serving.
Serve up hot with a thick slab of bread.
This soup gets better with age, so pour any leftovers into an airtight container and leave in the fridge until tomorrow. All the same, if you're not freezing it, you really ought to eat it within three days of preparation. Otherwise you'll have one horrific mother of skank in your fridge.
I have yet to try Beetroot Cake. Like Chocolate Zucchini Bread, this would something over which Matthew would look at me in horror and disgust and possibly walk out never to be seen again. My love for Matthew clearly seems to win out over this, but my desperate curiosity makes it a fantastic bargaining tool should the need to threaten ever arise.
ingredients
250g plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
150ml vegetable oil
300g caster sugar
3 eggs separated
100g chopped mixed nuts
pinch of salt
150g raw beetroot (grated)
150g raw carrots (grated)
method
Line a 20cm cake tin with parchment. Preheat oven to 180° C/GM 4. Mix the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt; beat in oil and sugar. Beat in egg yolks, beetroot, carrots and nuts. Whisk egg whites until stiff, fold in using a metal spoon. NOTE: If you don't eat eggs -- and many of us do not --
you can usually just omit their inclusion rather than find a
substitute, there's enough moisture-full ingredients in this recipe to leave them out in this case; HOWEVER, a 1/4 cup of applesauce per egg would probably
suffice if you're nervous. Spoon into the prepared tin, bake for 1 hour until springy to the touch. Leave cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn onto a cooling tray.
From Woodlands Organic Farm, but found at EarthShare.
One of my favourites, also from EarthShare, is Balsamic Roasted Beetroot with Garlic and Thyme. I cooked it up while playing Renaissance Woman Genius at the Thanksgiving Compromise party Matthew and I hosted in October.
2lb raw beetroot
6 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
3 tbsp lemon juice
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 sprigs thyme
Salt & pepper
6 tbsp water
method
Preheat oven to 220 degrees Celsius/425 degrees Fahrenheit trim and scrub the beetroot; cut into halves or quarters if large; place in roasting tin. 2. Mix oil, vinegar, lemon, garlic, salt and pepper; pour over the beetroot; mix well; tuck in sprigs of thyme. 3. Roast for 40 mins; remove from oven; mix well; sprinkle with water; return to oven until tender.
This last one I used to make a lot during my undergrad: Roasted Beetroot Ravioli. I only really stopped once I moved to London as I couldn't find the Chinese dumpling rounds; and then continued not making it because Matthew won't eat it and we have limited storage space due to the TINY BRITISH FREEZERS. I swear, two bags of frozen sweet corn and that's your limit. It drives me nuts. It will continue to drive me nuts until the day I die. In any case, I nicked it off a restaurant I used to work in, in Toronto. It's the yummiest thing ever and really need only be served with a sprinkling of olive oil and a sprig or two of coriander.
ingredients
16 Chinese dumpling rounds, 4" diametre
3 medium-large beetroot
1 small sweet potatoes or 2 medium carrots
1 large yellow onion
2 garlic cloves
olive oil
wedge of butter or vegetable margerine
pinch of salt
bit of pepper
several stalks of coriander
fewer stalks of parsley
method
Position a rack just below centre in your oven and set the knob to preheat at 180 degrees Celsius. While it's heating up, wash the veg and herbs, top and tailing the beets and carrots as close to the end as possible. Finely chop the herbs. Now put them all aside on your chopping board. Take out a largish roasting pan and pour in three fifty-pence piece size dollops of olive oil; add a wedge of butter (or vegetable marg), just larger than a tablespoon; and place the pan in the oven to heat. You may now return to your vegetables. Coarsely chop the beets and carrots into bite-sized pieces. By this point the oil and butter should be hot enough to add the chopped beets and carrots. (See? Method to Madness!) Shuffle them around a bit to make sure it's all evenly coated, sprinkle half the amount of herbs over top and some salt and pepper; if you think it looks a little dry leave it roasting for fifteen minutes and then sprinkle some olive oil over the top. Leave to roast for 40 minutes, turning occasionally.
While the rooty veg is in the oven, lightly, but thoroughly, grease a baking sheet. Lay out your Chinese dumpling so that there's about an inch between each one. As we're looking at this chronologically, I'd do this at the 15 minute mark -- that is, 15 minutes before the vegetables are ready to come out of the oven. This gives you enough time to dice the onion, finely chop the garlic, and lightly sautee them together in a frying pan before the time is called on your roasting roots.
If you can run a knife through the largest piece in the roasting pan, the vegetables are done.
Once everything has cooled for about ten minutes, stick the lot in a blender and fire away! Personally I go for a little on the lumpy side, but if you like a runny puree, it's your call.
With a teaspoon scoop enough of the beet mixture onto one half of a dumpling round, leaving about a centimetre free around the edge, creating a 'lip'. Lightly brush a small amount of olive oil on the lip. Lift up the opposite edge and fold it over so the two sides are touching. Press firmly with your thumb all the way around the open edge to secure the half-moon shut. Repeat until all 16 are complete.
Place in the fridge for at least an hour before cooking. I always used to freeze them overnight before I cooked them, but they taste marvellous fresh!
Beet Ravioli cooks up the same way any other ravioli or tortellini does: boiled in salted, oiled water for 10-12 minutes.
Serve with a drizzle of olive oil, or a light tomato sauce.
God I'm starving now.. Right. Food.
emmms
Hello
Looks good! Very useful, good stuff. Good resources here. Thanks much!
G'night
Posted by: rjekolod | July 12, 2007 at 06:26 AM