Passport & Plate - The colours of spring in vegetables
France | Thursday, March 13, 2014 | 5 photos
Ingredients
The basket of beautiful organic vegetables you need to cook beetroot sauce with grape shape leek pearls:
2-4 Fresh leeks, almost of the same size and with a large diameter;
One medium red beetroot;
Spring onions;
Salt, fresh green pepper, sugar, bay leaves, vinaigre vin rouge (red wine vinegar) and olive oil.
How to prepare this recipeFirst, trim off the base, and cut away the uppermost part of the leaves of the leeks and wash them in cold water. In a large pot, add the leeks and cover with water. Season with salt, fresh green pepper, one-two bay leaves, a few drops of olive oil and sweeten your senses with the touch of a sugar teaspoon. Place the pot over small heat. Bring them to boil, and then simmer about 15 minutes until slightly tender. Turn off the heat and allow leeks to cool at room temperature. Thinly slice the leeks in equal pieces for a crunchy garnish on the beetroot sauce we are ready to prepare.
Clean, peel and cut the beetroot into smaller chunks then add them to a food processor. Process it to a very smooth consistency. In the reddish juice you have obtained add a pinch of salt, pepper and for a real trick add some red wine vinegar and stir in the mixture. Test seasoning and add more salt/pepper if necessary. Remember, cold sauce will need more seasoning.
Get ready now to garnish the dish! Pour on the plate a thin layer of the beetroot sauce and place the leek pearls in a grape shape. Grind over some green pepper. As a finishing touch, cut the spring onion and place it in cold water with ice, until it becomes curly and so create a grape stem and place it on the plate as shown in the picture.
Bon appétit!
The story behind this recipeOne blink, one moment of passion. The wind was gently cosseting my cheeks, rays of sun bathing my skin and my scarlet fingertips colouring my lips with the red juice of grapes. Endless summers and autumns spent in the grains of the country sides, tasting the pure soil’s seeds. In the winters I remembered the cuisine masterpieces cooked by my parents over the summer and in springs I wished for the summer to come faster. There was even more pressure on my shoulders, as I could not stand to eat the cooked vegetables in my soups, but only if they were used fresh in salads. One day my aunt (chef in one of the top restaurants in my country at that time) came by from a trip, and she faced a challenge of convincing a seven years old girl to Love, not like, eating organic cooked vegetables. I was her personal assistant in the kitchen that day, having no idea which is the dish we are working at. I sat down on a chair covering my mouth with my hair gathered in a pony tail, as soon as I saw leek being boiled in perfumed water. Surprised by the idea of eating cold cooked vegetables, as if it was a fresh salad, triggered my curiosity and at first I started to take a peek, and then to help finishing the dish. Vivid colours of sparkling red, rosy and green, smooth smells and the fantastic final image of this dish made the trick. I loving grapes, I couldn’t wait to make my own, out of leek pearls sunken in tasty cold beetroot sauce. What a better way of making children eager to eat dishes they assume are not as good as sweets? Let them play with the beauties of all: healthy, colourful, sweet and bitter vegetables and get so the best dishes in the world!
