Beetroot
Beetroot, freshly harvested, are super-sweet, ready to eat after boiling for a much shorter time and just delicious without anything added. The balance of the sweetness and almost liquorice lingering aftertaste is amazing.
This is a two-in-one vegetable because the young leaves and the root are both edible. In the old days, beetroot was quite ordinary – cooked and served as a salad with sweet vinegar, or commercially pickled, causing everything else on the plate to turn red.
Nowadays, however, the humble beetroot has reinvented itself. It’s trendy for good reason: its health benefits are numerous (beetroot is a rich source of nutrients), and its versatility makes it ideal for use in all types of cuisine. Different varieties of beetroot now being cultivated are still finding their way into the market. Even the young leaves can be steamed or boiled – they have the taste and texture of spinach.
BEETROOT FOR BREAKFAST
- in a fresh juice with ginger and fresh apple
- in a beetroot soufflé with melting Gorgonzola
- scrambled eggs on toast with beetroot chutney
BEETROOT IN A SALAD
- cook with roasted butternut and toasted pumpkin seeds; serve with a cinnamon and balsamic reduction dressing
- cook and slice with pitted fresh cherries, raspberries, sliced baby radish and red basil; toss with walnuts and a walnut dressing
- cook and grate over a potato salad with a mustard and lemon vinaigrette
- top julienned fresh carrots with fresh julienned beetroot and thinly sliced shallots; serve with an orange and dill dressing with grated orange rind
- cook and top with rocket and an anchovy dressing
BEETROOT FOR LUNCH OR DINNER
- cook and bake in a quiche with prosciutto, Parmesan and caperberries
- cook and peel whole beetroot while still warm; serve with Boursin, toasted pine nuts and pomegranate syrup, seasoned with salt and freshly cracked black pepper
- cook or pickle as part of a beef or ostrich burger with a generous dollop of beetroot and onion chutney
- top a carpaccio of raw beetroot with lightly smoked grilled trout; serve with a horseradish dressing and warm crusty bread
- slice beetroot on a toasted baguette with ham and melting Brie; top with a beetroot pickle
- as a warm creamy soup with lightly smoked mussels
- in a risotto with star anise and shaved Parmesan
- as part of a vegetarian lasagne, using only cooked sliced beetroot and steamed beet greens with sautéed red onion and béchamel sauce; top with Gorgonzola and Parmesan
- roast and serve with seared duck breast and a ground coriander and orange sauce
PINK BAKING AND COOKING WITH BEETROOT
- add beetroot coulis to your favourite cheesecake recipe
- add grated beetroot to your rich chocolate cake to keep the cake moist and give a dark red colour
- add a little beetroot juice to icing for a pink colour
- add a little beetroot juice when melting white chocolate for drizzling over cake or any baked goods
- add beetroot juice to waffle mixture to make pink waffles
- add a little beetroot juice to cooked rice
- enhance any red or pink colour with beetroot juice instead of food colourant
BEETROOT IS BEST WITH:
PROTEIN: anchovies / bacon, prosciutto, salted pork / smoked fish, trout / venison
PRODUCE: apples / cherries / pears / raspberries / lemons / oranges / cucumber / ginger / horseradish / onions / shallots / potatoes / rocket
HERBS AND SPICES: allspice / star anise / cloves / curry / cumin / mustard seeds / chives / mint / dill / nutmeg / curry leaves / parsley / tarragon / watercress / radicchio
CONDIMENTS: mustard / vinaigrette / balsamic vinegar / sherry and red wine vinegar / walnut oil / brown sugar / balsamic reduction
DAIRY: butter / cream / crème fraîche / sour cream / Parmesan / Boursin / cheddar / ricotta
NUTS: walnuts
TIP: ABOUT THOSE BEETROOT STAINS…
Beetroot is a water-soluble dye; using hot water will react as a fixative for stronger colour. Use cold water and rub your hands with salt and lemon juice to remove stains on your skin. For stains on fabric, rub raw pear on the mark before washing in cold water. Then wash with soap.
Bilder & de Clercq's New Recipes week 16 - 2017
As the chefs of Bilder & de Clercq, we develop new recipes for them every week. We'll keep you updated with the week's newest recipes. This weeks recipes are:
Pineapple with Minted Sugar
Serves 3-4
This is the simplest recipe ever. In fact, there is no recipe to it. It's more of an assembly job and relies on your own taste. It's inspired by a recipe Jamie Oliver did many years ago.
Ingredients
1 pineapple
about 50 g sugar
small bunch mint
1 lime (optional)
Method
Peel the pineapple, cut into quarters and remove the hard centre core. Slice each quarter lengthways into thin slices. Place on a serving platter.
Place the sugar and mint in a small food processor and blend until the mint has broken up and the sugar has turned green. This can also be done in a pestle and mortar.
Scatter the minted sugar over the pineapple and serve. If you wish, you can add a squeeze of lime juice over the pineapple.
We, the Amsterdam Flavours chefs, hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do. If you have any questions on how to prepare it or just want to send us your feedback, you can reach us here Contact Amsterdam Flavours
Brandt & Levie sausages
Jiri, Geert and Samuel are the young master sausage makers that make up Brandt & Levie.
The three friends, with a passion for good food, travelled to Italy to learn how to make sausages. They brought their expertise back and are now sharing their knowledge and their delicious sausages with others here in Holland.
They create incredible fresh and dried sausages, available in many good stores and restaurants across Amsterdam.
Their dried sausages and ham make the perfect charcuterie platters to serve with drinks or at the beginning of a meal.
We have to warn you though - their sausages, both fresh and dried and coppa are dangerously delicious and should be supplied with an addiction warning. They are that good! But I'm sure many of you know that already.
For more information please visit Brandt & Levie
Brandt & Levie sausages are also available at Bilder & De Clercq
Bilder & de Clercq's new recipes week 31
As you may know by now, we are the chefs behind Amsterdam hotspot, Bilder & de Clercq. Every week we develop 3 new recipes for the stores and we'll be keeping you updated with the week's newest recipes. This weeks new recipes are:
Restaurant De Kas
De Kas firmly believes that food tastes best when it is prepared using the freshest ingredients, grown and harvested with respect for nature.
De Kas has its own greenhouses and garden near the restaurant, where they grow Mediterranean vegetables, herbs and edible flowers. They also have a large field about 10 kilometres from Amsterdam in the Beemster region, where they grow seasonal vegetables outdoors. The founder and owner of De Kas, Gert Jan Hageman, is in charge of the nursery. He can be found there every day, working the soil, planting, weeding and harvesting the finest herbs and vegetables for the kitchen.
De Kas’ chefs and wait staff regularly lend him a helping hand. Harvesting in the field takes place at sunrise everyday so that the restaurant’s guests can enjoy the freshest possible ingredients. From May to October, our guests are welcome to tour the nursery and garden in Amsterdam or attend a workshop in the field in the Beemster led by the green brigade. Because they are unable to grow everything they need them selves, they supplement the harvest with fresh ingredients purchased from environmentally farmers in the vicinity of Amsterdam.
History
In 2001, top chef Gert Jan Hageman, who had earned a Michelin star in Dutch haute cuisine, found a new direction for his own career and a new purpose for the old greenhouse that belonged to Amsterdam's Municipal Nursery, which dated from 1926, and was due to be demolished. With a lot of luck and help from the municipality and his family and friends, Hageman succeeded in converting the unique 8-metre high glass building into a restaurant and nursery.
Situated in Frankendael Park, between the Rembrandt Tower and the nineteenth century facades of Watergraafsmeer, De Kas is an oasis of calm for the fifty-thousand guests who dine there each year; either in the breathtaking dining room designed by Piet Boon, or - if weather permits - outside in the herb garden.
For more information please visit restaurantdekas, or call +31 20 4624562.
STACH
Stach knows what's tasty. Amsterdam urban people work hard, have busy social lives, want to live consciously and healthy and want to enjoy life. For these busy urban people, Stach invented the STACH concept: Daily fresh take-away meals, salads and soups, fresh bread, and tasty products to celebrate life. Our products are selected from local kitchens and suppliers. STACH's prepared fresh foods save precious time from our customers. STACH will think about what is good for you, so you can spend your time on other important things as friends, work, sports or family. And sharing some food together is, of course, the best!
For more information please visit STACH-food.
Bilder & de Clercq's new recipes week 29
As you may know by now, we are the chefs behind Amsterdam hotspot, Bilder & de Clercq. Every week we develop 3 new recipes for the stores and we'll be keeping you updated with the week's newest recipes. This weeks new recipes are:
