November recipe: barlotto
Barlotto. Photo: Jemima Roberts
You could be forgiven for thinking I’m blushing. I may well have taken on a curious pink glow. Looking back over recent and summer journal entries, I notice a distinctly ‘scarlet’ theme. Here’s a taster of a few of them:
‘Lunch of sourdough ‘buoy’ bread (looks like a big, knobbly inflatable ring), grated beetroot and Alham Wood buffalo milk ‘tiny little cheese’ – love the name. Added some fresh coriander too – the only fresh herb to hand. A welcome burst of green against the velveteen red. So tasty we both ate it too quickly.’
‘M brings a tray of tea up to bed. We drift off into our own tea-sipping morning thoughts. A little while later he asks after my mine. Blushing, I confess I was thinking about beetroot, concocting a recipe in my head. ‘Ah’ he says, “I thought we were eating rather a lot of it.” No complaints, he assures me.’
‘Up at 6am to finish decorating birthday cake. Picnic today. Sandwiches several inches high. Oven- caramelised garlic pinch-popped from their skins and spread onto the bread with a drizzle of olive oil, big lumps of soft, crumbly, starch-white goats cheese thumbed into the waxy holes, then loaded up with mixed peppery salad leaves from the market and yesterday’s roasted beets. So good I want to eat lunch before breakfast.’
‘One pot wonder dinner in the casserole dish. Borscht. Deep, crimson. A recipe where every ingredient really earns its place. Apples are the key. Oh and the beets too! So good. So red – deep, plush ‘pile’ – almost vampiric…’
So this week, it’s all-singing, all-dancing praise for the ruby jewel of the vegetable kingdom: beetroot.
Barlotto (serves 4)
This is an anglicised riff on the Italian risotto: an autumnal alternative which seduces with its deep red, velveteen hues. I am loathe to say ‘wholesome’ as it will put you off but trust me, this is very good, with the bonus of being nutritious too. The beetroot ‘bleeds’ its colour, part of the allure of this dish – like a treasure chest heaped high with a tangle of sparkling necklaces threaded with glossy, pink barley pearls.
1 cup of barley soaked overnight/for a day in 3 cups of water
1 tsp veg stock – Marigold or equivalent
2-3 medium sized beetroot
6-7 shallots
A scant teaspoon of caraway seeds – optional, more or less according to taste
A generous handful of walnuts – more if you like nuts as much as I do
Goats’ cheese – the soft, starchy, ‘tangy’ variety. You can buy little ‘hillocks’ of organic goats cheese, usually in 90g or thereabouts weights. This is what I used.
A good drizzle of walnut oil
A glug or twoof rapeseed oil – for cooking. Use any alternative good quality oil if you don’t have rapeseed. I have started using rapeseed as it is a UK crop.
A tiny pinch of salt
Finely chop shallots. Splash some rapeseed oil into a heavy based pan and sauté shallots on a low heat with the lid on. Add a tiny pinch of salt to help things along. Meanwhile wash beetroot; top, tail and ‘de-fuzz’. Chop into small chunks.
When the shallots have softened, add the chopped beetroot and the caraway seeds. Transfer the soaked barley and water to the beetroot pot. Bring to the boil. Reduce to lowest heat setting.
Borrow half a cupful of the hot water and mix it with the teaspoon of vegetable stock. Add to the pot. Stir contents gently with a wooden spoon. Replace lid but check and give a gentle stir regularly. It should take about 40 minutes to cook, but taste as you go and judge accordingly. The barley is cooked when it is chewy but also creamy and not as ‘dry’ as you would ordinarily cook a grain. Add more water if necessary and keep stirring regularly. It doesn’t matter if you upset the starches of the grain – you want the end result to be creamy.
Once the barley-beet mix is cooked, crumble the goats cheese in your hands and stir it in. You’re aiming for a mixture of melted and still intact – it is nice to discover little tangy lumps of goats cheese in mouthfuls of the ‘barlotto’.
When ready to serve, roughly chop the walnuts and stir into the barley mix. Retain a few to sprinkle on top for decoration. Pour over a drizzle of walnut oil just before the plates hit the table. I served this with a pile of steamed beetroot tops too – a good resourceful way of using the whole vegetable.