Beetroot Soup

The beetroot I got was more red than purple. So, when I serve this soup, my husband said it looks like its for dracula :D If you love beetroot you'll love this soup. It's simple (once you get the beef stock ready) to make and great to warm the tummy during this winter weather.


Beetroot Soup
source : Poh's kitchen

Ingredients

50g butter

1 large brown onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, chopped

500g beetroot, peeled and diced into 1cm cubes

2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced thinly

1 ½ litres beef stock* (pre-made)

3 tbs plain flour

180ml (¾ cup) passata / tomato puree or tinned crushed tomatoes

300g desiree potatoes, peeled and sliced thinly

3 tbs balsamic vinegar

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp table salt OR to taste (double if using sea salt flakes)

¼ tsp freshly cracked white or black pepper

250ml (1 cup) sour cream or crème fraiche

4 tbs chopped flat leaf parsley

Beef Stock

2 kg beef bones

2 carrots

2 medium brown onions, with skins roughly chopped

3 litres water

2 sticks celery, with tops and roughly chopped

1 bouquet garni (2 sprigs parsley, 2 sprigs thyme and 1 bay leaf)

10 - 12 black peppercorns

Method

1. Heat butter in a large non stick saucepan on medium heat. Sauté onion and garlic until soft but not coloured. Add beetroot and carrot and sauté until tender, then pour in beef stock. While this is heating up on the stove, whisk plain flour into three tablespoons of the tomato puree. Whisk with the remaining tomato puree and combine with rest of soup mixture. Cover and bring to the boil. Add the potatoes, balsamic and sugar. Simmer until potatoes are tender and then add the salt and pepper. Blend in a blender or with a stick blender until silky smooth. Serve with a generous dollop of sour cream or crème fraiche, sprinkle of parsley and pirozhki.

Beef Stock
1. Preheat over to 200ºC and bake bones in a roasting dish for half an hour. Add the carrots and onions and bake for another 20 minutes. Transfer the contents of the roasting dish into a large stock pot and pile in the remaining ingredients. Bring to boil, then lower to a simmer, for four hours, skimming the frothy impurities off the top as you go along. Strain the stock through a fine sieve to remove then discard all the solids. Cool and refrigerate so all the fat solidifies and is easily removed and discarded.

Pearl Barley Risotto

Hungarian style Pearl Barley Risotto 
serves 4 pax
 
Ingredients
150gm pearl barley
150gm smoked sausage
oil, if needed
1 Onion, finely chopped
ground smoked paprika, to taste
ground cumin, to taste
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tsp tomato puree
2 fresh tomatoes, peeled sliced or chopped finely
splash of white wine
1 hungarian pepper , sliced
1 carrot, chopped
1 bay leaf
300gm chicken stock
salt & pepper, to taste
sugar, to adjust the acidity if needed
parley, finely chopped, to sprinkle
 
Method
1) Heat sauce pan with little oil, and fry smoked sausage to render out some fat. Remove smoked sausage from sauce pan and set aside
2) Use this fat (remove excess if desire) to sauté onion until translucent. Put in the pearl barley and cook it for a bit. Remove sauce pan from heat and sprinkle to taste ground smoked paprika, ground cumin & chopped garic. Stir it and add a little bit of the chicken stock before putting back sauce pan to the heat. Let it boil.
3) Next add in chopped tomatoes,  tomato puree and splash of white wine. Cook off the alchohol.
4) Then pour in the rest of the chicken stock, followed by carrot, Hungarian pepper & bay leaf. Cook for 25 mins. but stir on and off to avoid sticking.
5) After 25 mins. stir in the parsley and smoked paprika, check for seasoning, remove from heat. It is ready to serve