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Beetroot


martyng
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It seems the only beetroot we can get here in France is betterave cuit - can anyone tell us (or at least the OH) where you can get good old ordinary uncooked beetroot straight from the ground.

No luck at our local market or at places like Grand Frais. And I know I could grow our own - have now planted a few young plants, but why not on the food stalls?

(By the way, the OH wants to make the beetroot cake as per Nigel Slater!)
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Can't say I've ever taken any notice of places to buy beetroot, cuit or not.  But, I did notice the beetroot cake!

Can you or your OH please come back here and tell us about the cake after it has been made and eaten, PLEASE?

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I know I have bought it in the past. I think it would only be in the shops when it was in season. No idea when that is though as I am not a gardener. I'm sure that it was at my local market and in supermarkets.

A woman I used to know in France would grate raw beetroot to put with salad, so I know she had some too. I found the raw stuff rather tasteless. She had no idea you could or maybe even should cook it.

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Simple ansqwer is that now is not the season for beetroot.

 

Seeds will be being sown now for first crops in June - and from then on, our markets have them.  Certainly our markets import very little, so whereas in the UK fresh beetroot might be imported from say Spain for sale now, in our bit of France you'd be lucky to find vegetables or fruit importd from the Auvergne!

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Thanks for all the replies - makes sense if you think about it that it will only be at the market when in season! Silly me. Will wait for our few plants to grow.

Sweet - will report back on the beetroot cake as and when it is made, and eaten!
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[quote user="martyng"]No luck at our local marketā€¦[/quote]

I am surprised at that.  The tiny market that I visit on Thursdays had two stalls selling them this morning  -  both raw and cooked.  Suffice it to say that the uncooked ones had not overwintered well, and were singularly flabby and unnattractive.

Even if you buy fresh ones in season, you will find that the French cannot resist topping and tailing them, which renders them virtually useless for boiling.

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They are one of the easiest veg. to grow, either from seed or small plants from the garden shop. They don't seem to suffer any ailments.

And you can leave them in the ground until you want to use them.

Last year I even planted some thinnings and they became big beetroots [:)]

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Pat's right in that they are incredibly easy to grow.

In fact, OH normally plants a couple of rows of them just as markers so that he knows where the plants are that will come up later.

I quite like them just boiled but not dressed in vinegar as I don't like sour-tasting things.

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[quote user="sweet 17"]

In fact, I quite like them just boiled but not dressed in vinegar as I don't like sour-tasting things.

[/quote]

Sweet, use a spoon full of Dijon mustard, a spoon full of red wine vinegar and 4 or 5 spoons of good oil salt/pepper and add chives or shallots. Beetroots (betteraves cuites as this is a feminine word) should be eaten with an oily vinaigrette rather than a strong one which contains more vinegar (such as green salads or tomatoes).

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I have made beetroot cake from fresh raw beetroot and also from the longlife cooked in plastic beetroot (with no flavoring on) both work as well but you need to cut back on the milk/water in your cake mix as the cooked beetroot is already wet. Beetroot cake can be made in the same way as carrot cake for those who want to try it . we have also tried parsnip and that works very well too.  
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I've almost finished harvesting the beets I planted from seeds in November here in Southern California and they were very easy; however, I am confused about the word beetroot? My plants bear one beet on the bottom in the soil and they have a beautiful geen foliage on top which is also edible. The beet itself is a round ruby colored vegetable that is somewhat sweet. It is delicious pickled or just grilled and served in a salad with a balsamic reduction.
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As the original poster I am very grateful for all the comments. I have found some young plants and planted them up. And now having said there were none at our local market - this Thursday guess what - a new stall (bio admittedly) with some raw beetroot! But as Gengulphus has said in an earlier post, these were very squashy (flabby) and the OH said they would be hopeless to grate for the planned beetroot cake.
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So which of these identical photos is the cake with the chocolate in?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/recipes/6222618/Nigel-Slater-recipe-an-extremely-moist-chocolate-beetroot-cake-with-creme-fraiche-and-poppy-seeds.html

http://www.nigelslater.com/TenderRecipes_view.asp?nTenderRecipe_ID={475D44B5-A47D-4614-A029-1B785117254B}&nTenderRecipeCat_ID={68400CF6-3BF5-4562-ACA7-634D379C3F32}&sSrc=
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Both the links are for Nigel slater cakes( I don't know why my links are never live on this forum), one recipe has chocolate in it and the other doesn't , yet the picture for both cakes is exactly the same!

I have pulled up the last of my beetroot, not sure which version Mrs G will try yet.
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[quote user="ericd"][quote user="sweet 17"]

In fact, I quite like them just boiled but not dressed in vinegar as I don't like sour-tasting things.

[/quote]

Sweet, use a spoon full of Dijon mustard, a spoon full of red wine vinegar and 4 or 5 spoons of good oil salt/pepper and add chives or shallots. Beetroots (betteraves cuites as this is a feminine word) should be eaten with an oily vinaigrette rather than a strong one which contains more vinegar (such as green salads or tomatoes).

[/quote]

 

This is the vinaigrette recipe I always use. I would also say that if the beetroot is still hot from cooking I slice or cube it and I would put this dressing onto it then. I do the same with lentilles too, when they are still hot, only I mix some finely chopped onion into the dressing before mixing with the lentilles. Not the same flavour as put on when cold. Needless to say a good french friend taught me that.

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Yes, I dress everything warm:  potatoes, pasta, rice.

If I have cold rice that I then want to make some sort of rice salad from, I sprinkle the rice with water and stick it in the microwave for a minute or so to warm it up before putting on the dressing.

For potatoes and pasta, I put the amount I need aside and make sure I add dressing before they get cold.

This was a tip I had from the Sainted Delia years ago; well, not a tip from her personally, but from something she said or wrote.

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The beetroot cake with chocolate was alright. Mrs G was going to make the other version today also but the choclate cake filled two tins.

It was quite a heavy cake but couldn't taste the beetroot. It reminded us in taste and texture to the old heinz chocolate tinned sponge pudding.
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Gardener, do you mean that the cake was heavy in weight but was light in texture?

Or do you mean that it tasted stodgy like pudding?

You may answer me honestly.  I promise that if it's the latter, I won't tell Mrs G [:D]

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Like I thought that that Raymond Blanc cake the other week was. HOWEVER, it was great big cake and I announced to friends that I made a Raymond Blanc special cake and said I was giving them half, so gave it to them.

Funny how people are with things, I didn't like it, not the taste or texture and it was not light IMO, but the magic of Michelin stars being associated with it and it was considered lovely.

I can understand why the choco beetroot cake would be a lot of bother, beetroot is messy to work with and stains terribly too.
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  • 3 weeks later...
Last night I made a beetroot and goats cheese tart, from a Hugh F-W recipe. It was really delicious and even OH enjoyed it, and he's usually sniffy about things for his main course that haven't had legs or fins! I used beetroot I had in the fridge from a vacuum pack. My own beetroot is only just putting tiny shoots through the ground at the moment.
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