Beets with Bitter Lettuces and Dashi Butter

Dutch cuisine has a pretty terrible reputation. At restaurant RIJKS*, top chef Joris Bijdendijk shows that you can make fantastic dishes with Dutch ingredients. And that is exactly what he does in his book, too. It contains old family recipes, as well as recipes for dishes that Joris serves at RIJKS.

This dish of charcoal-roasted beets with bitter lettuces and dashi butter is irresistible. Roasting the beets gives them a very intense, full flavour. Combined with creamy dashi butter, it makes this dish to die for.

Method

Wrap the beets in aluminium foil and roast them for about 1 hour in the glowing charcoal of the barbecue. No barbecue available? Roast the beets for 2 hours in a fan oven at 170 °C. Then peel the beets and cut them into equal wedges.

Dashi butter
For the dashi butter, combine all the liquid ingredients in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and whisk in the cold butter, a knob at a time, until an emulsion forms.

Plating
Place two wedges of roasted beet on each plate. Dress the lettuce with the dressing (how to make a classic vinaigrette) and place two leaves of each lettuce variety on each plate. Divide the raw baby beet and crosnes between the plates and pour over the dashi butter. Radishes can be used instead of crosnes, and beautiful Dutch butterhead lettuce instead of Castelfranco.

Bijdendijk. A Cuisine for the Low Countries.
Joris Bijdendijk
€ 39,95
Nijgh & van Ditmar