Recipes
Slow-roasted Beetroot with Labneh
This is the dish I could not stop thinking about during dinner at Otto in Berlin, after I left the restaurant, and as I returned to my kitchen in London. Chef Vadim Otto Ursus’s beetroot, sloe berry, labneh and brown butter is not easy to describe because it is unlike any other dish I have had, beet or otherwise. I attempted to make it using his recipe which I found here.
Otto’s June 2023 menu and the the beetroot dish
The recipe below has been adapted to suit my own cooking practicalities (I use the oven a lot). For chef Otto’s original recipe please see here.
I could not find any purveyors of sloe berry juice, but research indicates that it is possible to head up the road to Hampstead Heath and pick my own during the right season. Most people would pick sloe berries to add to gin (indeed there was a very popular book published 30 years ago called Sloe Gin and Beeswax which showed you how to make this) but if I were to find any, it would go into making this beetroot dish.
Since sloes are in the same family as plums and cherries, I opted to use tart cherry juice as that was what I could find. I would imagine pure cranberry juice would also make a good substitute.
The dish took two days to make but most of the time it looks after itself: roasting, soaking, dehydrating and then briefly boiled before serving. As it can be prepared ahead of time, it is a perfect addition to the vegetable platters from the other Otto i.e. Ottolenghi, whose dishes I cook every weekend when I have friends and family around the dinner table.
For the Beetroot:
1 kg medium-sized fresh beetroot
2 teaspoons fine sea salt
600 g tart cherry juice
250 g labneh
OR
strain 500 g full-fat sheep / cow yoghurt to make your own labneh
4 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
2 – 4 tablespoons olive oil
a few leaves of Belgian endive, for serving
How to Make:
DAY 1
Top and tail the beetroot, then give them a quick rinse under water if the skin is muddy. Dry with a paper towel then wrap each beet in some foil. Bake in the oven at 200°C / 180°C fan for 50 minutes.
Switch off the oven but leave the beetroot cooking in the residual heat for another 30 minutes. By this time they will be just right, yielding but not too soft.
When the cooked beetroot has cooled a little, remove the skin. When I was about to proceed, Niece Number 2 showed me her super efficient and neat way of doing this: cup the beet, still in its foil, in the palms of both hands. Simply twist the foil, which will act like a ‘scrubber’ to scrape the skin off the beet. The skin literally rubs off in one go and the whole process takes a few seconds.
Cut each beetroot into 6 wedges and place in a large non-reactive bowl, e.g. a glass or ceramic bowl. Mix the cherry juice with 2 teaspoons of fine sea salt and pour over the beet.
Cover the bowl with a lid and let it sit overnight at room temperature. It was by now 10pm and I went to watch some K-Drama.
Day 1 stages: baking the beetroot and soaking overnight in the cherry juice
DAY 2
In the morning, preheat the oven to 70°C/ 55°C fan. Line 1-2 baking trays with baking paper.
Using a pair of tongs, remove the beetroot from the juice and place evenly on the baking tray. Reserve the juice for later.
Dry the beetroot in the oven for around 6 – 7 hours. This was my second attempt and I felt a bit more confident. Both timings seemed OK but I would not stray outside these limits.
The beetroot can be used immediately or kept for later.
Just before serving, place the beetroot into a pot with the reserved juice and pomegranate molasses. (For one portion, use six wedges of beetroot, 80 g reserved juice and 2 teaspoons pomegranate molasses).
Bring everything to a boil to reduce the juice a little. Remove the pot from the heat.
To serve, arrange the beet and juice in the middle of a deep plate. Place a few pieces of the endive on one side, and a dollop of labneh on the other side. Drizzle over with the olive oil (1 – 2 teaspoons if making individual portions) and serve immediately.
Day 2: the beetroot before and after dehydrating in the oven for 6 hours
Plating up: my second attempt (top) and first attempt (bottom)
I was very glad that my only companion at the restaurant was Mr Gochugaru, who after 34 years of marriage knows that I am usually not one to lick the last drop off a plate. I know he is not like that either. However we found ourselves taking turns to scrape, with our spoons, what we could of the remaining juice. Happily I don’t have worry about this in my own kitchen. This afternoon, after trying out the second batch with Junior 3, I simply added more yogurt to the remaining juice and ate it like a sort of savoury yoghurt treat.
Date, Banana and Tahini Bundt
I have just finished watching the latest series of Masterchef UK and am in full admiration of the competitors and their ambition. Most would like to own and run at least one restaurant, and to achieve Michelin star status. Me? I am happy to get to the end of the day with something decent on the table.
This is why I love baking. It is so, so simple to bring together a few ingredient and have something to show for it an hour later. Recently I have been baking my cakes in Bundt pans and re-working a few older recipes. I am trying out spelt flour in my cake baking for a change, instead of using regular wheat flour. In line with the doctor’s advice, I have also reduced the sugar by 20%.
Today’s cake includes dates, banana and tahini. The original recipe (made in a square tin) is here, which has notes on which type of tahini to use. Make sure you stick a long metal spoon into the tahini before first using, to scrape up the solid paste which has settled at the bottom of the jar. Stir this solid paste into the more liquid paste on top.
For today’s cake I used a Lebanese tahini
Simple but naturally sweet additions of crushed bananas and chopped dates lessen the need for too much sugar in the cake
I used a 6 Cup Anniversary Bundt Pan and prepared it with butter, sesame seeds and flour, to prevent the cake from sticking
For the Cake:
2 large eggs
80 g light or dark brown soft sugar
100 g sunflower oil
175 g wholegrain or white spelt flour (I used a 125 g wholegrain/ 50 g white mixture)
1½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
Pinch of salt
150 g pitted Medjool dates, cut into small pieces
200 g ripe bananas, broken into pieces and lightly crushed
50 g tahini (preferably Middle Eastern tahini)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
10 g each softened butter and plain flour to line the Bundt pan
2 – 3 teaspoons untoasted white sesame seeds
You will need a 6 Cup Anniversary Bundt Pan. The cake can also be made in a 2 pound / 900 g loaf tin or a 20 x 20 cm square tin.
How to Make:
Preheat the oven to 170°C/ 150°C fan.
Brush the softened butter evenly over the entire inside of the pan, taking care to fill every corner. Sprinkle over the sesame seeds, which will stick to the butter.
Sift over the flour, moving the pan around to coat evenly. Remove the excess flour by turning the pan upside down and giving it a tap (do this over a sink). Set the pan aside.
Sift the flours, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt together into a large bowl. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar until thick and creamy. Whisk in the oil slowly.
Add the flour mixture and, using a silicon spatula, gently fold into the whisked egg mixture.
Add in the dates, banana, tahini and vanilla extract. Gently fold everything together until well mixed.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan.
Level the surface and tap the pan on a folded dishcloth to settle any bubbles.
Bake in the oven for 50 minutes or until the cake bounces back when touched. A metal skewer inserted in the centre should come out clean.
Leave the cake to cool slightly in the tin before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
The cake will slice into eight thin and eight thicker pieces – perfect for a sharing with friends, and perfect for picnics.
Millers of spelt flour in the UK: Doves Farm and Shipton Mill. I use their flours regularly and highly recommend them.
Date, Carrot and Coconut Bundt
To be honest I am not sure how to photograph another Bundt, as all cakes made in the same Bundt pan will end up looking like each other. I was about to skip this post but then I brought this cake to a church meeting where it was very well received: one person asked for the recipe and another asked for a cake baking lesson. So I decided to include it here. There is only the one photo as I left the cake for the host and her family to finish later.
This cake is very fast to make, and the most important thing to stress is that you should weigh out and prepare all the ingredients before starting. I used a 6 Cup Anniversary Bundt Pan but the cake can also be made in a 2 pound / 900 g loaf tin, which was how I made it originally at the start of the pandemic. I have lowered the sugar and raised the fibre content in this update. The carrots were grated in my Thermomix Cutter.
For the Cake:
3 large eggs
125 g golden caster sugar or light brown soft sugar
115 g sunflower oil
100 g spelt or wholemeal flour
50 g plain white flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
Pinch of fine sea salt
100 g Medjool dates, cut into small pieces
50 g desiccated coconut
265 g carrots, finely grated
grated zest of one orange (optional)
10 g each softened butter and plain flour to line the Bundt pan
How to Make:
Preheat the oven to 170°C/ 150°C fan.
Brush the softened butter evenly over the entire inside of the pan, taking care to fill every corner. Sift over the flour, moving the pan around to coat evenly. Remove the excess flour by turning the pan upside down and giving it a tap (do this over a sink).
Sift the flours, baking powder and salt together into a large bowl. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar until thick and creamy. Whisk in the oil slowly.
Add the flour mixture and, using a silicon spatula, gently fold into the whisked egg mixture.
Add in the dates, coconut and carrots. Grate in the zest of an orange if using. Gently fold everything together until well mixed.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan.
Level the surface and tap the pan on a folded dishcloth to settle any bubbles.
Bake in the oven for 45 – 50 minutes or until the cake bounces back when touched. A metal skewer inserted in the centre should come out clean.
Leave the cake to cool slightly in the tin before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
The cake will slice into eight thin and eight thicker pieces – perfect for a sharing with friends, and perfect for picnics.
Carrot Cake Number Three
It has been an eventful weekend, and you can read about the coronation of King Charles III everywhere, and possibly forevermore. Our family has so enjoyed the extra day’s holiday, which we spent mostly doing more Spring cleaning.
Taking inspiration from Britain’s monarchy and its attempts to refresh its image, I have been refreshing my cake recipes by making them in Bundt pans. I used to write ‘bundt’ in previous posts but since reading that ‘Bundt’ is a trademarked word, I am using Bundt from now on.
I need to admit that I have quite a number of Bundt pans. The one I have been using a lot recently is the 6 Cup Anniversary Bundt Pan (gold edition). This is because its volume roughly equates to the volume of the 2 pound loaf tins I always baked cakes in. Like a loaf cake, the appeal of this Bundt pan is that its formed lines are a good guide for cutting even slices. At one stage when I was bulk baking for church and community events, I had six loaf tins. These Bundt pans are so crazy expensive here in the UK (but worth it) that I only have one of each type of pan. For now.
It is easy to slice from this cake following the lines of its shape…the dilemma is whether to eat a thin slice or a thicker slice
When reviewing the carrot cake recipe on which this Bundt is based, I realised that I don’t often keep wholemeal self-raising flour. Today I used a combination of spelt and plain white flours, with baking powder as the raising agent. I used sultanas instead of raisins, and one other thought I had was that the grated zest of an orange would be a nice addition to the batter.
Everything should be weighed and prepared beforehand. The carrots were grated in a few seconds using my Thermomix Cutter (grate fine). For fine grating, I have found that large carrots grate better than small carrots, which tend to come out more watery. You can of course grate the carrots by hand or in a food processor.
For the Cake:
3 large eggs
125 g golden caster sugar or light brown soft sugar
115 g sunflower oil
100 g spelt or wholemeal flour
50 g plain white flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of fine sea salt
75 g sultanas
75 g desiccated coconut
265 g finely grated carrots
10 g each softened butter and plain flour to line the Bundt pan
How to Make:
Preheat the oven to 170°C/ 150°C fan.
Brush the softened butter evenly over the entire inside of the pan, taking care to fill every corner. Sift over the flour, moving the pan around to coat evenly. Remove the excess flour by turning the pan upside down and giving it a tap (do this over a sink).
Sift the flours, baking powder, cinnamon and salt together into a large bowl. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar until thick and creamy. Whisk in the oil slowly.
Add the flour mixture and, using a silicon spatula, gently fold into the whisked egg mixture.
Add in the raisins, coconut and carrots. Gently fold everything together until well mixed.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan.
Level the surface and tap the pan on a folded dishcloth to settle any bubbles. You can see in the photo above the little holes that form in the cake if you forget to do this.
Bake in the oven for 45 – 50 minutes or until the cake bounces back when touched. A metal skewer inserted in the centre should come out clean.
Leave the cake to cool slightly in the tin before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
The cake will slice into eight thin and eight thicker pieces – perfect for a sharing with friends, and perfect for picnics.
My next cake refresh would be the Date, Carrot and Coconut Cake, as I need to get through a box of Medjool dates. Originally planned for Sticky Toffee Pudding, a sharp warning from the doctor to reduce my sugar intake has resulted in the said dates (and sad dates) being literally left on the shelf. However, I hope to make a gluten-free version of the STP when we visit my in-laws next weekend. They can enjoy it, and I will just have a spoonful after dinner.
Coronation Chicken Salad
From the Old Testament of the Bible, in Judges chapter 21 verse 25:
In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
Why do we have kings and queens? What purpose do they serve in a modern world? When we read accounts of royalty in history, we understand that one of the king’s role was to protect his kingdom where there were no geographically defined borders. This was mainly done by raising and leading an army to defend land and people. Ultimately if need be, a king had to to sacrifice his life in order to save those who serve him.
That’s the kind of king I should like if I were to swear allegiance.
In the Bible, one of the functions of the king was to lead God’s people in God’s moral and spiritual ways. There were good kings and there were bad kings. Sometimes things went well and sometimes things did not go so well. Then there was a period when there was no king, and without a leader directing the people as to God’s way, everyone was a law unto himself.
It is not difficult to imagine what life was like at this time. All we need to do is to read the daily news to see God’s original commandments still being broken: murder, adultery, theft, false witness, envy. The Bible makes it clear that all this stems from putting ourselves first instead of seeking God’s will and direction.
This is not a political essay, and my background is in Law and not in Theology. But I often think about how difficult it is to be a leader when you do not have any moral compass or grounding. So my prayer every morning is that God helps me make good and wise decisions when I am faced with a dilemma or predicament.
In my world, baking cakes or cooking do not often cause dilemmas or predicaments. However, I could not make progress on what to cook this Coronation Weekend. No one in the family wanted to eat Coronation Chicken. None of us were born when the late Queen Elizabeth had her coronation. In my recollection, this is a salad made up of cooked chicken, raisins, curried mayonnaise and topped with toasted flaked almonds. I think we ate it at our own wedding (and I think my dad enjoyed it very much).
I like all things chicken so decided to make my own version of Coronation Chicken. This is a large raw salad topped with a small amount of chicken bound in a light dressing and chopped toasted nuts. It does not resemble the original, but then King Charles does not resemble his beloved mother in many ways. I hope his reign will be memorable, as much as I hope my chicken salad will be too.
Some of the salad and dressing ingredients
For the Salad:
Use any amount of torn salad leaves, shredded or sliced crunchy vegetables, apple, grapes and fresh herbs. Below are suggestions. Wash and dry the vegetables and fruits and make a salad as you normally do.
Salad leaves could be little gem, rocket, iceberg lettuce, butter lettuce.
Crunchy vegetables could be small radishes, celery, sweet peppers, cucumber, red cabbage, green cabbage, carrots.
Fruits could be apples and grapes. Nothing sour (see note at the end of the post). Maybe some pear but only if it is crunchy, like Nashi pear.
Herbs could be rocket, flat-leaf parley, mint.
Nuts could be pecans, cashews, walnuts. For something extra I would use smoked and salted almonds.
For the Chicken:
This is the important part that brings the dish together and gives it the Coronation element. I used 120 g of cooked and cubed chicken breast for two people, but please use more if you need to provide a more substantial salad.
For 120 g of cooked and cubed chicken breast, the dressing is 1 tablespoon mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon mango chutney, 1 teaspoon olive oil, 1 teaspoon lime juice, 1 teaspoon wholegrain or Dijon mustard, few turns of freshly ground pepper and grated zest of 1 lime.
Assembling the Salad: start with the salad leaves, add the shredded crunchy vegetables, top with the dressed chicken and chopped nuts
I had a little chuckle to myself when thinking up this recipe. I thought that I should like this salad to be like the ideal monarch. That is to say, not bitter (this is why I avoided chicory, radicchio) and not sour (hence only a little lime juice and no sour fruits). A little feistiness (rocket, radish), mainly home-grown (our local carrots, red or green cabbage, apple, celery, mint, parsley), with some global influences (grapes from South Africa, French mustard, Spanish olive oil, Japanese mayonnaise). A little nuttiness is totally ok. Overall I wanted something fresh and easy going, not heavy or overbearing.
