There are ways this can be turned on its head. One way is to get some fresh air by taking a walk on your lunch break, going long walks at the weekend and making lots of comforting food. It especially helps if you try some innovative and new seasonal recipes. As we progress through the latter part of winter '18 and '19, come and join me as I make some new recipes and lots of comforting food and drink.
During the weekend of Bonfire Night. I was celebrating an important four year professional anniversary and reflecting two trips to the pub and one epic session of pool during the working week.
On the menu that afternoon were variously homemade Parkin, Calzone (which featured on a recent blog entry), Sweet Potato and Butternut Squash Gratin and a Beetroot and Chestnut Soup, which is the feature of today's blog.
The Beetroot and the Chestnut are two foodstuffs that are found in most greengrocers and supermarkets at this time of year. I sourced mine from a local greengrocer that was bought out last year and has lots of exciting potential. It never fails to deliver fresh, quality ingredients that run rings round the two supermarkets close by.
The ingredients of the soup are:
Three Beetroot, topped, tailed and peeled.
The stems and leaves of the Beetroot.
Ten Ounces of fresh Root Ginger, peeled and sliced very thinly.
A tablespoon of Celery Salt.
A pint of Pale Ale.
A quarter of a pint of water.
Olive Oil.
I jumped back to 1989 for the music with Eric Clapton's "Journeyman" album. My esteemed colleague, who is a partner in the firm at which I work, once described the album as still sounding brilliant after all these years. She is, as with her judgment in many professional matters, absolutely spot on in her assessment. Pick tracks include the liability denying "Before you Accuse Me" , "Running on Faith" and gritty covers of "Hard Times" by Ray Charles and "Hound Dog" by Lieber and Stoller.
A link to allow you to listen this record is at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZX7OAdrD-_KgbN5L-GjAzzQnPzJwdpAk
There's a fair bit of cooking time involved in this recipe. The main reason for this is that it takes a good while to cook the Beetroot to ensure it's soft enough to be blended.
The first step is to slash each Chestnut across the middle with a knife to create a hole in it. Then cook the Chestnuts on a baking tray in the oven on Gas Mark 7.
While the Chestnuts are cooking, cut the Beetroot into large cubes and fry in a saucepan in Olive Oil with the stems and leaves and the Root Ginger Pieces over a lowish heat.
After the Chestnuts are ready, rinse them in water to cool them down. Then using either a nutcracker or if, like me you don't have one, use some clean pliers to crack the nuts and remove the skin. Add the flesh of the Chestnuts to the pan with the Beetroot and Ginger.
Once the Chestnuts have been added put in the Celery Salt and stir it in. There is an esteemed french food critic who has praised the virtues of mixing Celery with Chestnuts and that led me to conclude that the Celery Salt would work well in this dish.
After that add the Pale Ale. Lots of pale ales can be used, I plumped for Greene King Pale Ale but any pale ale will do the trick. Then simmer the ingredients on the hob for around thirty minutes. After that add the water and simmer steadily for another hour.
Then place the contents on one side to cool down before adding them into a blender and blending them on the "Puree" setting for about ten seconds at most.
You can then warm the soup through in the sauce pan and serve it in bowls. The taste of this soup was slightly bitter and burned but in a warm way that made me want more. I think because the fresh chestnuts made it rich. Definitely the best Beetroot Soup Recipe I've come across.
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| Purple Peril- a bright and vibrant soup that is rich and nutritious |
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