Beautiful Roasted Beets – Spring Salad Recipe

I came across some heirloom beets a few days ago and they were stunning! I bought two types. The first looked like a standard fuchsia beet on the outside, but slicing them exposed contrasting pink and white concentric rings. Delightful! The second, were bright orange-skinned, with yellow flesh. 

I roasted both of them. Unfortunately the defined colours of the concentric rings dissolved somewhat in the roasting process, but they still tasted fabulous. According to some food writers you can avoid obliterating the lovely rings by steaming the beets as opposed to roasting.

The pink and white beets are defined by a sweet peppery flavour. The yellow-fleshed beets were sweeter again. I served them once they had cooled in a green salad, with bok choy flowers, salty sheeps feta, and an orange and poppy seed and pistachio nut dressing. A delicious combination!

I also held some of the beets back and mixed them into pasta dishes and added them to steamed greens over the following couple of days. Once roasted, the beets will keep for around a week in the fridge. Here’s the recipe, I hope you like it!  

Recipe:

(Serves 2)

Three heirloom beets chopped into wedges (whichever you can find)

50 grams sheeps feta (crumbled)

Three handfuls salad leaves, I used a mixture of baby Spring greens including beets tops

Handful of bok choy flowers (if you can find them)

Handful roughly crushed pistachio nuts

Juice of one orange

Glug of olive oil

Two tea spoons of black poppy seeds

Salt and pepper

Step One: Roast your beets by placing them in a covered baking tray filled with water (to allow themto steam and roast), at 180C. They’ll take around 25 minutes, but you’ll know they are done when you can slice through them easily with a knife. Once they are cooked, drain the water the let them cool. 

Step Two: Mix the dressing. In a small jug, squeeze the juice of your orange, add a glug of olive oil, a pinch of salt, the poppy seeds, and some ground black pepper. Shake it, or stir it and taste. It should be sweet and peppery.

Step Three: in a salad bowl place the greens, the bok choy flowers, the cooled beets, and crumbled feta and the crushed pistachios. Then pour over the dressing and mix with your hands, ensuring each leaf is coated with dressing.

 

Et voila! Serve and enjoy. And if you have any tips on cooking candy-striped beets and keeping the contrasting colours, I’d love to read them.

Three Layer Rustic Fish Pie Recipe

My acupuncturist, affectionately termed the Ol’ China Hand, despite the fact she is not old (but she is wise), recently advised me that I have slightly stagnated Qi. Don’t panic. It sounds a little odorous, but it’s not. Stagnant Qi basically means the energy isn’t flowing through my energy channels (the Meridians) as freely and easily, as it could, or indeed should.

Accordingly, the Ol’ China Hand has advised that I increase my intake of green and other colourful vegetables. It seems this is a recommendation upon which old wives (the more colourful food on your plate, the better), Chinese medicine (colourful vegetables lead to more free flowing Qi), and conventional nutritional science, all agree. Colourful vegetables are apparently like jumper leads for Qi, restarting and revving the engine.

As we picked the last of our carrots and beets around a week ago, our fridge is fall of home-grown, quite misshapen, colourful vegetables. No excuses then! Ol’ China Hand suggested beetroot juice, but as I’ll do anything to avoid cleaning the juicer, including most often, avoiding using the juicer, I’ve taken instead to adding beetroot to everything I can think of.

When Kristoph suggested I make a very herby fish pie, as comfort food to help him recover from his cold, I promised to make a pie like he had never tasted before. In my mind’s eye I’d already added beetroot, carrots and kale – comforting and healthy.

I came up with a three layered very colourful pie that works surprisingly well. The bottom layer includes the fish, kale and eggs. This is followed by a creamy vegetable sauce of carrot, beets, parsley and lemon juice. The pie is then topped with a layer of roughly mashed new potatoes, seasoned and mixed with parsley.     

According to Kristoph this is the best fish pie I’ve made. It does look quite startling – the middle layer is a deep fuchsia colour thanks to the beets, but don’t be put off. It’s rich, rustic, jam-packed full of flavour, and certain to help your Qi flow more freely.

Here’s the recipe:

Recipe  

500grams new potatoes, roughly chopped. If they are organic don’t bother peeling. If not, peel them.

Two large handfuls of chopped kale

Two large handfuls of chopped parsley  

250grams undyed haddock, boned, skinned and chopped

250grams smoked salmon, chopped

3 free-range eggs

Juice of two lemons

1 medium brown onion, finely chopped

1 medium carrot, grated

1 medium beetroot, grated

200mL double cream

200grams mature Cheddar, grated

2 tea spoons of wholegrain mustard

Olive oil

Salt and pepper to season

Step One: Preheat the oven to 210C

Step Two: Add the potatoes to boiling water, and boil until soft, then drain them, mash them roughly (there’s no need to make them smooth, the rough edges provide a lovely texture). Mix in one handful of parsley, season and set aside.  

Step Three: Hard boil the eggs (you can drop them in with the potatoes – they’ll take around 8 minutes). Once done cool under cold running water, peel and then break them up. Set aside

Step Four: Steam the kale and set aside.

Step Five: In a medium pan heat a dash of olive oil and fry off the onion. Once it’s softened add the carrots and beetroot. Add the cream and bring to the boil, then remove from heat. Gently stir in the cheese, lemon juice, wholegrain mustard, and the remaining handful of parsley.  

 

Step Six: Construct your pie, layer by layer. Line the pie dish with the haddock, followed by the smoked salmon, then the kale and the broken up eggs. Next pour over the fuchsia sauce. Then add a layer of roughly mashed potatoes. Cook in the over for 25-30minutes. You know it’s done when the tops of the potatoes are golden and crispy.   

Et voila, enjoy! 

BTW it's UK National Fish Pie week from 4-11 March, so here's wishing you happy fish pie week! 

Apple and Ginger Chutney

Home grown seems to be catching on in our neighbourhood, with our household fast becoming the place to deliver any overflow. A couple of days ago my friend Jen brought over a bag of cooking apples. They weren’t from her tree, she’s got pears, but from a photographer named John, whom Jen was working with on a shoot.

I gratefully accepted the fruit and got to thinking about making a robust and tangy apple chutney. In our house, on nights we don’t cook, or eat out, we often enjoy a Ploughman’s. Our version includes a chunk of mature cheddar, some home grown lettuce, tomatoes and beetroot, and perhaps some hummus and whole wheat pitta bread. If we have any in the house, we’ll add chutney. We serve it on one big board, as opposed to individual plates, and dive in.

For an extra kick, I infused the apples and onions with freshly grated ginger. The spicy, peppery, slightly sweet, but pungent taste plays well against the apples. Instead of using sugar, as called for in most chutney recipes, I sweetened this one with a local apple juice.

Recipe
5 cooking apples (preferably from a friend, or a friend of a friend), peeled and chopped into small cubes
2 brown onions, peeled and roughly chopped
2 table spoons fresh chopped ginger
1 lemon
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup apple juice
4 cloves
2 sterilized jars

Sautee the onions and ginger for a few minutes. In a bowl, squeeze the lemon over the apple cubes. Then add the apple to the onions and ginger. Stir occasionally on a medium heat, until the apples soften. Then add the apple cider vinegar and the apple juice. Drop in the cloves.

Simmer until the liquid has significantly reduced. This will likely take around 25mins. Check the chutney is at the correct consistency by dragging a wooden spoon through the mixture. If it runs back together, the chutney requires more reduction, if not, it’s done.

Remove from heat and cool. Once cooled, remove the cloves, and place the mixture in the jars and seal.

Try and leave for two weeks before consuming. And remember, chutney's and preserves make excellent homemade gifts. Given this recipe makes two jars - go on, share the love!

I’m always on the lookout for new ideas and recipes. Do you have a favourite chutney recipe? If so, I’d love to read it.