BEETROOT MY WAY

When I was a child, no one bought tinned beetroot. My mother would boil up several beetroot in a big pan, rinsing off any dirt but being careful of course not to trim the top or root too closely as it would ‘bleed’ all that lovely rich colour away into the cooking water. Of course we had grown the beetroot too, and some of the smaller, sweeter leaves might be kept to add colour and texture to a salad. We grew nasturtiums too, and sometimes she would add a finely chopped leaf to a salad as well, to give a peppery flavour.

After the beetroot was cooked, I had the job – one I still count as my kitchen favourite – of slipping off the skins from the large tender purple globes. It’s fun to do as they come off so easily, as does the stumpy root and top. And I never take the advice to wear gloves. The pinkish tinge on my fingers soon goes.

Then she would slice the beetroot thinly, place them in a bowl, and pour over some hot water, plenty of white vinegar, some sugar and a pinch of salt – and always add one or two cloves for flavour. I guess many mothers did it exactly the same way, just as they made the condensed milk mayonnaise to go with the rest of the Sunday lunch! A bowl of sliced chilled beetroot was a staple on every summer lunch table, and a terrible trap to serve yourself as it was so easy to drip the juice on the good white tablecloth.

So, now what is my spin on such a standard recipe? Just like Mum I cooked some beetroot, the other day, slipped off the skins, cut them into wedges (but they could as easily have been sliced) and packed them into a tall Vacola jar, the last one I have from my early energetic days of bottling everything in sight. Why? The jar takes up so much less room in the fridge, and there’s no need to seal it firmly. A sandwich bag slipped over the open top works fine.

Then all I did was sprinkle in a little salt and fill the jar with verjus, just enough to cover the beetroot. No need to add sugar or water, I found, as the verjus seemed to have the right proportion of sweetness, at least for my taste. I do like recipes with two ingredients.

If you have a good two-ingredient recipe, let us know, and we can put it in the next newsletter. I’ll then give you two recipes which only have ONE ingredient!