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It may be surprising, but I’ve only just recently discovered beetroot (red beets) and I’ve been on a bit of a beetroot kick, hence this recipe. It makes an excellent dish for sharing on Valentine’s day and is ideal as part of a shared meal for Christmas, New Year and Easter too. Smoked salmon slices are stuffed with goat’s cheese and lemon mousse and served on a beetroot carpaccio. For lower-stress dining you can prepare the dish the day before and store in the refrigerator over-night.
Prep time 75 minutes/Cook time 10 minutes/Serves 4 (plus chilling time).
Ingredients:
½ sheet leaf gelatine
50ml (1/5 cup) double cream
125g (1/4 lb) soft goats’ cheese
1 lemon
300g (2/3 lb) raw beetroot, peeled
100ml (2/5 cup) white wine vinegar
2 sprigs tarragon
40g (1 ½ oz) caster sugar
100g (3 ½ oz) smoked wild salmon
2 radishes, very thinly sliced
extra-virgin olive oil, to drizzle
Method:
Soak the gelatine in cold water for 5 minutes until softened, then lift from the water and squeeze out the excess. Bring the cream to the boil in a small pan. Remove from the heat and stir in the gelatine until melted. Set aside to cool slightly.
Mash the goats’ cheese in a small bowl, add the cream mixture, the finely grated zest of about ¼ of the lemon, season with freshly ground black pepper and beat together until smooth. Transfer the mixture to the refrigerator and chill for 1 hour or until it has firmed up. Spoon onto a sheet of clingfilm (plastic wrap), then use the clingfilm to wrap it up and form into a neat, rolled log shape, about 25cm (10 in) long. Chill in the fridge for at least another hour to set.
Remove strips of zest from the remainder of the lemon using a vegetable peeler, then trim these into 5cm (2 in) long matchsticks. Blanch in boiling water for 5 minutes then drain and put in a small bowl or ramekin.
Slice the beetroot very thinly (a mandolin is ideal for this). Set the beetroot slices out on a board or tray and use a 3cm (1 in) cutter (a metal piping nozzle works well too) to stamp out as many discs of beetroot as possible – be prepared for this to be quite time consuming, and wear disposable gloves to avoid staining your hands. Transfer these to a bowl.
Mix together the vinegar, tarragon and sugar together in a small pan and bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Spoon 2 tbsp over the lemon zest and pour the rest over the beetroot. Leave both to pickle for about 15 minutes, then drain. Store in the fridge, covered, until ready to plate up.
Lay the smoked salmon out on a sheet of clingfilm to form a rectangle 25cm x 14cm [10 x 6 in], arranging the salmon so that one of the long edges is neat and straight. Unwrap the goats’ cheese mousse and place it along the less neat edge, then roll up the salmon around the mousse, using the clingfilm to help you. Trim off the ends to neaten, then cut into 8 x 3cm (3 x 1 in) long sections.
To plate up, arrange the pickled beetroot in a neat circle (about 8cm in diameter) in the centre of each plate (use a cook’s ring as a guide if you wish). Sit two pieces of salmon-wrapped mousse on each plate, one horizontally, one upright. Scatter with a few slices of radish and some of the pickled lemon zest.
Drizzle with a little olive oil just before serving.
