Seasonal local food recipe No 116: Beetroot seed cake

This moist and incredibly more-ish cake comes from Nigel Slater’s Tender Volume 1. The mixture turns a lurid pink colour when you add the beetroot, but tones down by the time it comes out of the oven.

If you want to save time and beat the eggs up whole rather than separating them first, it seems to make no difference to the quality. The only other tip I have is: Go easy on the icing – a drizzle will do. (But then I always say that!)

I shared the cake with friends on a glorious summer’s day beside the River Fal at Quay Cottage, Trelissick next to King Harry Ferry. It didn’t last long.

Serves 8-10

Preparation / cooking: 65-70 minutes 

Ingredients
225g self-raising flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 scant tsp baking powder
½ tsp ground cinnamon
180ml sunflower oil
225g light muscovado sugar
3 eggs
150g raw beetroot
juice of half a lemon
75g sultanas or raisins
75g mixed seeds (sunflower, pumpkin, linseed)

For the icing:
8 tbsp icing sugar
lemon juice or orange blossom water
poppy seeds

Method

Set the oven at 180C/gas mark 4. Lightly butter a rectangular loaf tin (20cm x 9cm x 7cm deep, measured across the bottom) then line the bottom with baking parchment.

Sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and cinnamon. Beat the oil and sugar in a food mixer until well creamed then introduce the beaten egg yolks one by one, reserving the whites for later.

Grate the beetroot coarsely and fold into the mixture, then add the lemon juice, raisins or sultanas and the assorted seeds. Fold the flour and raising agents into the mixture while the machine is turning slowly.

Beat the egg whites till light and almost stiff. Fold gently but thoroughly into the mixture with a large metal spoon (a wooden one will knock the air out). Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 50-55 minutes, covering the top with a piece of foil after 30 minutes. Test with a skewer to see if done. The cake should be moist inside but not sticky. Leave the cake to settle for a good 20 minutes before turning out of its tin on to a wire cooling rack.

To make the icing, sieve the icing sugar and stir in enough lemon juice or orange blossom water to achieve a consistency where the icing will run over the top of the cake and dribble slowly down the sides (about three teaspoonfuls), stirring to remove any lumps. Drizzle over the cake and scatter with poppy seeds. Leave to set before eating.

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Seasonal local food recipe No 112: Beetroot with soy-citrus

A Nigel Slater salad from the Observer. It goes beautifully with Cornish smoked mackerel and is perfect made with the red chillis in Camel CSA’s veg boxes this week.

Nigel says: “Anyone who likes cooked beetroot, but isn’t fond of it pickled, may like to try this way with them. The salad has some of the crisp, acidic flavour of a good pickle, but is infinitely more mellow. I had intended this to be a side dish, but it is so good, it became the focus of a light lunch with smoked salmon and rye bread. Lovely fresh flavours and a good introduction to beetroot for the uninitiated.”

(I used cider vinegar instead of sherry vinegar.)

Serves 4 as part of a light main course

Preparation / cooking time: 60 minutes

Ingredients
raw beetroot 6 small to medium
oil vegetable, rapeseed or groundnut

For the dressing:
ginger, freshly grated 1 tsp
orange juice 125ml
lemon juice 3 tbsp
dark soy 3 tsp
small, red chilli 1
sherry vinegar 1 tbsp

Scrub the beetroot and trim its leaves, without tearing the skin, then either boil or bake till tender to the point of a knife. To bake, set the oven at 200C/gas mark 6, place the beetroots on a sheet of foil, pour over a glug of mild cooking oil then close the foil loosely over them. Bake for 40 minutes or so, depending on the size of your beets, till you can insert a skewer easily into them. To boil them, drop the beetroots into boiling, unsalted water and simmer, partially covered, for 20-30 minutes till tender.

Remove the skins from the beetroots – they should be easy to push off with your thumb. Slice the beets roughly the same thickness as a pound coin then put them in a serving dish.

Make the dressing: put the grated ginger in a mixing bowl, pour in the orange and lemon juices then add the soy sauce. Halve, seed and finely slice the red chilli, then add a little of it to the dressing with the sherry vinegar, and mix well. Check for balance – it should be sweet, sour and fruity. Add more soy or juice, or chilli as you wish. I find that barely half a small chilli is enough. Spoon the dressing over the sliced beetroot and leave for a few minutes before serving.

More beetroot recipe ideas from Camel CSA

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Carrot washing goes on as polytunnel goes up

It’s been a productive end to the week on Camel CSA’s site at St Kew Highway in north Cornwall.

While the new polytunnel framework was being painstakingly put together, the volunteer picking and packing team were harvesting our own homegrown carrots, sweetcorn and beetroot from the veg plot.

As the freshly-dug carrots are so muddy they all need to be washed before they can be weighed and placed in the veg boxes. This Friday the job fell to Penny and Anne, who tackled it with characteristic goodwill and enthusiasm.

The eagerly-awaited polytunnel will house all the winter salad crops we’ve been sowing – corn salad and rocket, as well as two varieties of both mustard and mizuna. It’s the first of three big polytunnel constructions that our expert growers Jeremy and Mark N are overseeing at the far end of our two-acre site over the next 18 months.

Also on our shopping list are a small seeding tunnel, cold frames, a borehole, water tank, pump, irrigation, rabbit fencing, tractor, plough, cultivator, rotovator, storage sheds and other vital horticultural equipment.

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Seasonal local food recipe No 65: Beetroot and goat’s cheese salad

As seen on last night’s edition of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage Every Day series. Lightly toasted walnuts would be a good alternative to the redcurrants.

Serves 4 as a starter, 2 as a main course

Ingredients
about 400g small beetroot
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
a large sprig of thyme (optional)
2 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
3-4 handfuls of seasonal salad leaves
175–200g crumbly goat’s cheese
50-100g redcurrants
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the dressing:
1 tbsp cider vinegar or lemon juice
3 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
pinch sea salt
pinch freshly ground black pepper
pinch caster sugar

Method
Scrub the beetroot well, but leave them whole, then place on a large piece of foil. Scatter with the garlic, the leaves from the thyme, if you’re using it, and some salt and pepper, then trickle over the oil. Scrunch up the foil to make a baggy but tightly sealed parcel, place it on a baking tray and put it in an oven preheated to 200°C/Gas Mark 6.

Roast until tender – about an hour, though it could take longer. The beetroot are cooked when a knife slips easily into the flesh. Leave to cool, then top and tail them and remove the skin. Cut into wedges and place in a large bowl.

Whisk together all the dressing ingredients. Arrange the salad leaves on serving plates and trickle on a little of the dressing. Roughly crumble the cheese over the beetroot, add the remaining dressing and toss together loosely with your hands. Arrange on top of the leaves, scatter over the redcurrants and serve.

Other beetroot recipe ideas from Camel CSA

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Seasonal recipe No 60: Beetroot with fresh mint

Thanks to Henrietta Danvers for this recipe, a salad that can be served as an appetiser or as part of a selection of salads, or as an accompaniment to grilled or roasted pork or lamb.

Serves 4
Preparation: 60 minutes cooking, 10 minutes preparation, 1 hour chilling

Ingredients
4-6 cooked beetroot
1-2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 bunch fresh mint, leaves stripped and thinly shredded
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and black pepper

Method
Slice the beetroot and cut into dice, put in a bowl and add the balsamic vinegar, olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper. Combine. Add half the thinly shredded fresh mint to the salad and chill in the fridge for an hour. Serve garnished with the remaining shredded mint leaves.

More ideas for eating beetroot from our Camel CSA members

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Seasonal recipe No 50: Double beetroot and apple salad

This quick and refreshing salad is ideal for people who don’t like the after-taste of raw onion. It comes from a useful little book called Seasonal Salads by Paddy Byrne and David Scott, founders of  the renowned Everyman Bistro in Liverpool. ”Raw beetroot and cooked beetroot have very different flavours and texture and this salad cleverly makes use of both,” they say.

Serves 4

Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking: 40-45 minutes

Ingredients
1 large cooked beetroot (or several small ones) peeled and grated
1 large raw beetroot (or several small ones) peeled and grated
1 large eating apple, cored and cut into thin matchsticks
juice of half a lemon
5ml (1 tsp) grated lemon peel
25ml vegetable oil
salt and black pepper to taste

Method
Reserve a little of both types of beetroot and mix the remainder with the apple.  Add the lemon juice, oil and salt and pepper to taste and toss the salad. Mix the lemon peel with the reserved beetroot and use it to garnish the salad.

Variation
Those people who don’t care for the taste of raw beetroot could try it with just par-boiled beetroot.  Cook raw beetroot in plenty of water until the outer skin will just rub off. Now drain them and cool under running water until they are quite cold. The centres remain bright red and crisp while the outer areas are softer and a darker ruby red. Grate the beetroot and continue as directed in the recipe.

Try these other beetroot dishes from Camel CSA’s recommended recipes.

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Come and get stuck into our veg plot

Make the most of this lovely spring weather.  Come and share in the push to get our vegetables in the ground.  There’s lots to do.

We need plenty of people at our volunteer growing session this Sunday 11 April to prepare some more beds and spread compost.  There’s also celery and broad beans to plant out as well as beetroot and parsnip seeds to sow.

Please join us between 10am and 1pm on Sunday.  You’ll find us on the plot behind St Kew Harvest Farm Shop.  If you can, bring tools – hoes, spades, forks, trowels, rakes, wheelbarrows. 

Help us to get veg growing again

It’s time to get growing again

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Help us to get veg growing again

The next volunteer growing session is on Sunday 11 April.  We’ve decided to give everyone a rest this Easter Sunday.

We do need all the help we can get to plant veg at this time of year so please consider coming along for a couple of hours next Sunday between 10am and 12 noon.  

You’ll be made very welcome.  We can guarantee you unlimited fresh air, plenty of exercise and some friendly company… PLUS you’ll come away feeling you’ve achieved something worthwhile.

Expert grower Mark Norman says:

“A small gang of us created a new growing bed, spread compost, and sowed lettuce and beetroot Detroit last week.  But we really could have done with some extra assistance. 

On Sunday 11 April there’ll be broad beans and celery to plant out, and more beetroot plus parsnip to sow.  Also compost to spread and additional growing beds to prepare.  Please bring tools – hoes, spades, forks, trowels, rakes, wheelbarrows…”

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It’s (s)no(w) problem!

Congratulations to our intrepid picking and packing team who braved the wintry conditions to prepare Camel CSA’s first vegetable boxes of 2010.

Only the onions in the boxes came from Camel CSA’s own share of the harvest.  Our dwindling crops of parsnips, carrots, Jerusalem artichokes and last of the beetroot are well and truly frozen into the ground.

We’re grateful to local supplier Richard Hore of Rest Harrow Farm, Trebetherick for providing such a variety of green vegetables – leeks, curly kale and savoy cabbage as well as carrots.  And to our expert grower Jeremy Brown who collected the potatoes from Burlerrow Farm in icebound St Mabyn.

We put together a total of 23 boxes for our members to pick up. Fortunately our site is next to the A39 “Atlantic Highway” which has been kept relatively clear from ice and snow.

Local food

The fact that we could provide fresh vegetables this week goes to show how important it is to be able to source food locally. 

Supply chains across the country may be interrupted by the big freeze, but we’ve been able to keep our veg box scheme going – with just a little help from our friends in north Cornwall.

As Making Local Food Work said this week in its response to the Government’s widely-reported new national food strategy: “Communities must be engaged in the future of food.”

Many thanks to picking & packing supremo Trish, who fetched the veg from Trebetherick, and to the team – Cathy, Charlotte, Mike H, Mike S, Penny and Robert.

And enjoy our heartwarming seasonal soup! Recipe No 26 – Leek soup with parmesan

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Seasonal recipe No 10 – Baked beetroot with balsamic vinegar

Trish, who is Camel CSA’s veg box packing supremo, recommends this delicious way of cooking beetroot from Jamie Oliver’s Return of the Naked Chef.

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: about 1 hour

Serves 4

Ingredients
455g fresh raw beetroots, scrubbed
10 cloves of garlic, unpeeled and squashed
1 handful fresh marjoram or sweet oregano, leaves picked
salt, freshly ground black pepper
10 tbsp balsamic vinegar
6 tbsp olive oil

Method
Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas 6. Tear off a strip of kitchen foil big enough to hold the beets in a parcel. If the beets are large, cut in half to speed up their cooking time; if small, use them whole. Place them in the middle of the foil with the garlic and marjoram, season generously with salt and pepper and then fold the sides of the foil into the middle. Before you seal the parcel, add the vinegar and olive oil. Scrunch or fold the foil together to seal at the top. Place in the preheated oven and cook for around 1 hour, until tender. Serve in the bag at the table.

Click here to browse all the recipes that Camel CSA members have recommended so far.

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