Amuse bouche – Page 17 – Myfrenchkitchen

Few people like beetroot. I was one of them, until I started playing around with beetroot….roasting them, making a creamy soup, combining them with different flavours, of which mint and apple and pear are my favourite.

I made them into a terrine here, combined with mint and red onion and served with a minty lemon zest yogurt…which my judging panel all seemed to enjoy. I hope you do too.

Beetroot terrine

4 large beetroots, cooked and skin peeled off
1 small red onion
a handful of mint leaves
5 gelatin leaves
45 ml white wine vinegar
45 ml white balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon of honey
45 ml water
salt and pepper
Yogurt sauce: a cup of natural yogurt
chopped mint leaves
lemon juice
zest of a lemon

Line a terrine pot with baking paper.
Chop the onion and mint leaves finely.
Cut the beetroot into small cubes or thin rounds. Layer some beetroot at the bottom of the terrine. Follow with a layer of chopped onion and then a generous layer of chopped mint. Repeat and finish with a layer of beetroot.
Mix the vinegars, the water, teaspoon of honey and salt and pepper in a small bowl and heat together, until the honey is dissolved.
Soften the gelatin leaves in a bowl with cold water, completely covered. Once soft, squeeze the excess water from the leaves and add to the warm vinegar/water sauce. Stir until completely dissolved. Season with salt and pepper.
Pour the warm, runny gelatin over the terrine until covered. Press slightly down, cover and refrigerate until set, at least 6 hours, but preferably overnight or longer for a better flavour.
Mix all the ingredients for the yogurt sauce and leave to infuse.
Serve a fairly thick slice of terrine with some drizzled sauce, alongside a green salad for an interesting starter and decorate with some mint leaves and fresh pepper.

Serves 6 people

This is an entry for WTSIM…, hosted this month by Joanna at The passionate cook.

I love topinambour, for their quirky shapes as well as their earthy smell and somewhat different, slightly sweet taste. Delicious are they in a cocotte or pureed as a side dish and just as wonderful are they as a soup. Unlike a chunky vegetable soup or earthy legume soup, we rarely have only a creamy soup for dinner. I don’t find it substantial enough, unless you eat a huge bowl or two, which makes it too rich. So I’ll normally serve this soup as a starter and then follow up with something like maybe a warm salad or chicken filet with a tomato sauce.

See also Zlamushcka’s version of a topinambour soup.

Velouté de topinambours(Jerusalem artichokes)

About 400 g topinambours
3 shallots
1 large sweet potato
750 ml organic vegetable stock(or chicken stock)
1 bouquet garni(parsley stems, thyme, bay leaves & lemon peel wrapped and tied in the green part of a leek)
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
cream to add to taste(milk for a lighter version)
a drop or two of freshly squeezed lemon juice

Peel the topinambours and the sweet potato and cut into slices.
Peel, chop the shallots and sauté in some olive oil until translucent.
Add the sliced the stweet potato, topinambours, the stock, the bouquet garni and let it simmer for at least 30 minutes or longer. The topinambours needs to be well cooked and very tender.
Take off the heat, remove the bouquet garni and mix until smooth and velvety, adding milk or cream to your preferred consistency.
Heat up gently, add some lemon juice and salt and papper to taste.
Serve in warmed bowls and finish off with a drizzle of fruity extra virgin olive oil and a a turn of the pepper mill.
Serve warm with toasted bread triangles or a grainy baguette.

Serves 4 – 6

This is an entry for WHB nr 111, hosted by Kalyn at Kalyn’s kitchen. For more info on weekend herb blogging read here.