Winter Wonderland
In the northern hemisphere, the solstice or shortest day of the year was known as Saint Lucy’s Day. She is the protectress of vision and the bringer of light, who reassures us in winter’s darkness. It’s certainly light but also colour that we so often crave in deepest, darkest winter. And this can still be found in some of this season’s best offerings: the deep magenta of beetroot, carrots and pumpkins the colour of autumn leaves, the crisp green of quickly sautéed green cabbage, the deep purple of slowly braised red cabbage. All add interest, taste and texture to the dullest of winter palates.
My husband recalls his mother serving cooked beets with a white sauce poured over them at the last minute. Daring at the best of times. Jane Grigson refers to beetroot as being “far too bossy a vegetable” due to its ability to stain anything it comes into contact with. A friend recently told me he had a good tip regarding beets, which was to always peel them AFTER cooking, a lesson we all learn after peeling and roasting assorted root vegetables together. Although there’s nothing wrong with the resulting dish of uniformly pink parsnips, kumara and potato, some men find it too feminine a hue to eat with their meat.
Flavourwise, beetroot and white cheese (sour cream, goats’ cheese, feta, labna [yoghurt cheese]…) have an affinity for each other, but such dishes are best assembled at the last minute, although all parts of the dish can be prepared beforehand and ready to go. For those of you who love salads, these come into their own with roasted winter vegetables. Roasting brings out the natural sugars of fruits and vegetables, and the combinations used to make beautiful salads right now are as exciting as any midsummer ensemble. Add the extra crunch of nuts to this delicious salad—either walnuts or hazelnuts lightly toasted and coarsely chopped would be perfect.
Roast beetroot salad with orange and goats cheese
Prepare the beets by washing and removing any leaves, cutting them off about 4cm from the base. Avoid any further cutting or trimming as piercing the skin will result in bleeding during cooking, and loss of flavour and goodness.Place the beets in a small roasting dish, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and cover with foil. Cook at 190°C for about one hour or more (they often take longer than you might imagine), remove and cool.
700g small beetroot, cooked as above.
200g creamy goats cheese (Meadowcroft is perfect), crumbled
3 oranges, peeled and cut into segments
1 bag of assorted winter salad greens (watercress, spinach, etc)
Dressing
2 tablespoons of orange juice
Dash of Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper
5 tablespoons of olive oil
Whisk all ingredients together. This salad is best served while the beets are still warm, so as soon as you can handle them, peel (their skins will just slip off) and cut into quarters. Dress the salad greens with the dressing and place in a large bowl. Scatter with the beets, the toasted nuts and lastly the crumbled cheese. Serve immediately with crusty bread.
Now for the pièce de résistance. There isn’t a beetroot-hater in the world that would (1) suspect that this cake contained beetroot, and (2) be able to stop eating it even once they do know. Amazing, moist, healthy? And gluten free! Recipe adapted from Neil Perry.
The beetroot revelation chocolate cake
400g dark chocolate
6 eggs, separated
150g caster sugar
200gm beetroot, very finely grated
100ml cream
75 gm ground almonds
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Butter and line a waterproof 20cm-square cake tin. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over hot water. Set aside. Whisk the egg yolks and two-thirds of the sugar together until light and creamy. Fold in the chocolate and the beetroot.Whisk the egg whites to soft peaks and add the remaining sugar. Continue to whisk until thick and glossy. Now fold the whites and the cream through the chocolate mixture, along with the ground almonds. Spoon into the prepared tin and place into a roasting dish, adding boiling water to come halfway up the sides. Bake for 45 minutes and reduce the heat to 150°C. Continue cooking for another 25 minutes. Test for doneness. Remove and allow the cake to cool before turning out. Dust the cake with cocoa and serve with softly whipped cream. Sit back and watch the converts.
Assorted coloured beets all roasted, peeled and sliced look amazing together. The sliced interior of many heirloom varieties displays a pattern of ever-decreasing circles, and if simply scattered with some sizzling crumbles of crispy bacon and a little mild blue cheese you have another salad fit to be sprinkled with a handful of toasted nuts and eaten immediately.
Now for a little green cabbage. This poor vegetable is too often regarded as fit solely for coleslaw, and yet it screams out for a more respect. What happened to cabbages and kings! Do the cabbage a favour, finely slice it and heat a large frying pan with a little oil and a knob of butter. When it’s sizzling, add some chopped bacon and cook until it becomes crispy. Now add a finely chopped onion and lower the heat. Cook slowly until the onion is soft and golden around the edges. Next add your cabbage, sprinkle with salt and pepper, raise the heat and shake it all around. Once it has just wilted add your preferences: some toasted crumbled chestnuts, fennel or caraway seeds, sautéed apple, toasted pine nuts, etc. Gordon Ramsey adds presoaked and sliced shitake mushrooms, a dash of soy and fish sauce and a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds, which is delicious with an Asian-style meal.
Fiona Feasey
