17 January 2011

The Financial Times in my kitchen

As we were leaving the brand-new fancy hotel by the Danube near Karlova Ves, I grabbed the FT Weekend Edition (there were three copies left for the others). In the Life & Arts section was a column by Rowley Leigh (never heard of him, he's a chef at Le Cafe Anglais in London, a place I've never heard of either), which included a recipe for beetroot, orange and red onion salad. Beetroots, now, I've heard of those.

With some adaptation, I gave it as a lunch project to the Slovak, who usually needs very, very specific instructions when it comes to cooking (but as someone who learned to enjoy cooking only after college, I'm not really in a position to throw stones).

The result:

Beetroot, orange and spring onion salad

Ingredients
3 medium pre-cooked and pre-peeled beetroots
Ume boshi vinegar
1 large orange
2 spring onions
no mint leaves (unless you do have them)
no black olives (unless you also have them)
olive oil

Procedure
Slice the beetroots into little sticks. Place into bowl.
Slice the orange into the same size as the beetroots (without the skin, of course). Chop the spring onion thinly.
Add salt and pepper, vinegar, oil, and mix. Milan added pumpkin seeds.

Verdict
Pretty nice! A keeper, I think, colourful and refreshing. A nice change from my usual sliced beetroot+lemon juice+salt salad. I can see how it could use some mashed or chopped black olives, but the mint might be overkill. It keeps well for the next meal, too.