Beetroot Nuggets with Orange Dipping Sauce

On Sunday I made carrot and beetroot cake again and it reminded me how much I love beetroot, so I decided to get creative last night with some of the leftover beets.

I also made this sesame loaf, basically it's a standard white bread made with sesame oil and topped with sesame seeds.

I took a slice of the bread and used a blender to make it into crumbs which I toasted in the oven at 150degC with a few more sesame seeds for good measure. Then I dug out the rest of the ingredients for making the nuggets.

I peeled and chopped the beetroot into quarters and put it on to boil whilst I set about designing a dipping sauce.

I had in mind a sort of sweet and sour type thing, but a bit fruitier than the usual Chinese takeaway style ones. I figured orange would be the way forward, with a bit of ginger thrown in for some kick.

After much faffing about the final list of ingredients to make my sauce was:
The juice (including bits) of 2 Oranges
1tsp Orange Zest
1 tsp grated Ginger
3 tsp Mirin (optional)
1 tbsp Black Rice Vinegar
2 tsp Caster Sugar
and I did add a dash of lemon juice but in hindsight I think it made the sauce a little too sharp and could probably be cut out.

I put it on to reduce next to the beetroot which by now was about ready to go, as in I could easily stab through it with a fork.

I drained the beets and let them rest until cool enough to handle. Then I rolled them in plain flour seasoned with salt and pepper, dipped them in beaten egg and rolled them around in the toasted breadcrumbs so they were evenly coated. I baked them at 190degC until the breadcrumbs had turned crisp and golden brown.

My sauce reduced down to a syrupy consistency and turned out great! I was actually pretty impressed. The beetroot nuggets came out well too - tender and full of beetroot flavour but with a good savoury note from the sesame and a nice crunch from the breadcrumbs.

Together they both came through in equal amounts and complimented each other well.

It was a fun experiment for me, I haven't gotten creative like that for a while. I'm glad I did though as that could turn out to be a great veggie starter one day if I ever need one.

Tapenade

I've been quite slack lately. It's not that I haven't been cooking, it's just that I've been a little pre-occupied with job interviews and much needed family time. I use the blog as a sort of on-line scrap book I guess and there’s been a couple of things that I really should have put up.

Anyway enough rambling, tapenade! Quick, simple and very tasty.

Ingredients
100g of good quality Black Olives
50g of Capers
6 Anchovy fillets (I bought ones preserved in olive oil and used the oil)
100ml Olive Oil
3 cloves of Garlic
Black Pepper

Even though I'm a massive kitchen geardo I don't possess a food processor so I made do with a hand blender. If I didn't have that I'd have chopped the olives painstakingly by hand separately and then used a pestle and mortar for everything else. My result was a very smooth tapenade, which wasn't a bad thing, but I'd like to make it again a bit coarser next time I think.

So I roughly chopped the olives and added them, the capers, anchovies and crushed the garlic into a beaker and hand blended until smooth and blended. Then I added the olive oil bit by bit, blending between and seasoned to taste with the pepper.

Supermarket stuff really doesn't touch this, there’s simply not enough garlic or pepper. This was just right, surprisingly it didn't overpower the olives at all and the capers really shone through as well.

I now have a pot in the fridge for toast or crackers as a snack. Although this would be amazing served up on some fish.