Strawberries with Orange and Beetroot
Eagle eyed readers will have noted over the years that following a Food Alphabetical column on a Wednesday, Tom Cooks! on the Friday generally uses the featured ingredient. This week, reluctantly, featured tequila. I did say in conclusion that I'd rather have a bowl of strawberries. So that settles it for this week's recipe.
Well, yes and no. Firstly I generally prefer my strawbs au naturel. While I would never pour cream on mine (too cloying for me; too allergenic for L), they go well with yoghurt or crème fraîche, especially with some lemon curd stirred in. Ice cream? Certainly, especially with a light slug of Cointreau or Grand Marnier. But Tom Cooks! demands a recipe. We've done sorbets; we've done cheesecake; we've even done strawberry soup, for heaven's sake. I turned to the Larousse Gastronomique for inspiration. Lo and behold! The weirdest sounding recipe ever, though having reread it a few times, it makes a little more sense.
You will need to have your strawberry sorbet made in advance.
If you do try today's offering, let me know how it went. I'll reproduce it more or less verbatim, but a few comments occur.
*The first section is for dried beetroot slices. These are purely for decoration. You could use tuile biscuits, or thin shortbread, or omit altogether.
**Remember this recipe is French. It specifies a jar of beetroot. I don't think we get beetroot in jars here, other than the pickled variety which, obviously, you do not use. Our non pickled stuff is generally vacuum packed. Look for smaller beets to create even sized chunks.
***I was confused by the use of the word cook. This must mean simmer ready cooked beetroot. Firstly, raw beetroot wouldn't be in a pack with juice. Secondly, raw beetroot wouldn't be cooked in 20 minutes.
****If you're a Tom Cooks! regular, segmenting oranges is old hat. If not, find a how-to video here.
***** We've done sorbet recipes before. See Strawberry Sorbet and Granita from June 2022.
Strawberries with Orange and Beetroot
Ingredients
For the beetroot slices*
1 raw beetroot, cleaned and trimmed, cut into very thin slices (with a mandoline if possible); icing sugar.
For the remainder
1.4kg strawberries, washed and hulled; jar**/vacuum pack of cooked beetroot (not pickled); slice of orange peel; juice of 1 lemon; 150ml crème fraîche; icing sugar; segments of 4 oranges (ie, peel and pith removed)****; black pepper; 500ml strawberry sorbet*****
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Make sure you have your sorbet done. Then, if using, make the dried beetroot slices.
Arrange the thinly sliced beetroot slices on a baking sheet covered with baking parchment. Sprinkle with icing sugar and cover with another piece of baking parchment. Lay another baking tray on top to weigh down the parchment. Bake it in a preheated oven at 120° C/Gas Mark ½ for 1 - 1½ hours. After 45 minutes remove the baking tray and the top sheet of baking paper. After baking set the beetroot aside in a dry place.
Put 600 g of the strawberries in a heat proof bowl. Cover with clingfilm and set over a bain Marie on a very low heat for 45 to 60 minutes. Strain to extract the juice.
Drain the jar/pack of beetroot and reserve the liquid. Cook***/simmer the beetroot in the strawberry juice over a low heat for 20 minutes. Add one piece of orange peel, the juice of one lemon and some freshly ground black pepper and marinade for three hours. Drain the beetroot, reserving the strawberry/beetroot juice, cut it into quarters and arrange on a plate. Separately, mix quarter of the reserved beetroot liquid with the strawberry/beetroot cooking liquid and chill in the refrigerator.
Whip 150ml crème fraîche until frothy (their adjective, not mine), beat in 60 g icing sugar and chill until required.
Cut the remaining strawberries in half and arrange them in 4 to 6 shallow serving bowls. Add the orange segments and cooked beetroot slices. Pour over the juice. Top each with a scoop of strawberry sorbet and a dollop of crème fraîche, side-by-side. Garnish with a slice of dried beetroot in between. Serve immediately.