Roasted Red and Golden Beetroot Salad

It's coming, it's coming the new Ottolenghi is coming! Just got off The Guardian website and "Jerusalem" is on its way...can't bleeding well wait. You know when it comes to cookbooks I have a bit of a condition. Not only do I obsess about buying them, I also obsess about cooking every recipe in every cookbook and then making unending notes about their outcome. There are a number of writers that I revere -- Nigel Slater, Alice Waters, Delia Smith, Mark Bittman, Julia Childs, Jocelyn and (sometimes Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson -- but Yotam Ottolenghi is in a league of his own. If there is one cookbook writer I insist you try it's Yotam Ottolenghi -- he is a genius and his two earlier books ("Ottolenghi The Cookbook" and "Plenty") are masterpieces. So when Kate, my sister, emailed me earlier this week saying that not only was there a new Ottolenghi cookbook coming out but that it was quite possibly even more brilliant than the other two, I danced a tiny jig and felt I had to post a couple of earlier Ottolenghi recipes in anticipation of the arrival of "Jerusalem". Kate says the book is a homage to both Israeli and Palestinian flavours as Ottolenghi himself is from Israel and his partner, Sami Tamimi -- is from Palestine. When the books arrives I will be posting the hits, but in the meantime try this baby and don't be fooled by its simplicity. Don't worry if you don't have the golden beets -- to be honest I think they are just for sex appeal.

Name: Roasted Red and Golden Beet Salad.

Book: Ottolenghi, Ottolenghi -- The Cookbook (Ebury Press, London, 2008).

Date(s) cooked: 19th October, 2009; 19th November, 2009; 22nd September, 2009; 14th December, 2009; 17th December, 2009; 10th July, 2010; 9th August, 2009;

Comments:

"Did HIV/AIDS peer educator training today with Tony. Made with Edith's beets and our rocket. Absolutely frickin' divine and very pretty. 'Lissa loved."

"Again for Dora, Matthew and Nina."

"Again for Dora, J-Noodle, Debbie and Laurence Nodder."

"Again with golden beets from the farmers' market".

"For Deb, Wid and J-Noodle."

"Again for Stephen Hatfield with lamb chops."

"With beets and greens from the garden."

Recipe:

500g/1 lb golden beets

500g/1 lb red beets

80g/3 oz sunflower seeds

90ml/3rd cup maple syrup

4 tbsp sherry vinegar

4 tbsp olive oil

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

20g/0.75 oz chervil leaves, plus more to garnish

60g/2 0x baby chard leaves, baby spinach or rocket

coarse sea salt and black pepper

Pre heat the oven too 200 C/. Wash the beet well and wrap them in foil individually. Bake in the oven for anything from 40 to 90 minutes, depending on their size (baby beets might take even less). Check each one, as cooking times vary a lot: the beet should be tender when pierced with a sharp knife.

Spread the sunflower seeds out in an ovenproof dish and toast in the oven alongside the beets for 8 minutes -- just until lightly coloured.

Once the beet are ready, unwrap them and peel with a small knife while still warm. Cut each into halves, quarters or 2-3 cm dice. Mix the beet with the rest of the ingredients in a bowl. Toss well and then taste: there should be a clear sweetness balanced by enough salt. Adjust the seasoning if necessary, plate, sprinkle with more chervil and serve.