Friday, December 01, 2006

Beetroot for lunch

We received our second lot of beetroot in the vegetable box this week. The first time, I surrounded them -- after washing them gently -- in a pool of boiling water in a baking dish, covered the dish with foil, and put it into the oven for an hour and a half at gas mark 4/180 C. Yesterday, I simply wrapped each beetroot in foil, and baked the parcels for the same length of time. (I had in both cases tested the vegetables after an hour -- not quite done.)

The first technique worked better. (Unless it was the beetroots that were better.) The beetroots were moister, and sweeter. We ate them as a side dish, with just a sprinkling of red wine vinegar.

Nevertheless, lunch yesterday was very good. I toasted a couple of tbsp of sunflower seeds -- the deliciousness of which I had discovered in a salad made by a neighbour -- in a dry saucepan. (Pine kernels would have worked well too.) I washed and dried a bunch of watercress, and tossed it, and the seeds, in a vinaigrette made with 1 tsp red wine vinegar and 3 tsp olive oil, with salt and pepper. I arranged the watercress on two plates, put sliced beetroot (one each) on top, and sliced feta (100 g each) on top of that.

A lovely combination of nutty, peppery, salty and sweet flavours.

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