Here’s an idea for a zinging cocktail: cool, earthy beetroot soup, spiked with gin and served in smoking-cold shot glasses.
This recipe makes 36 shots of 60 ml each, or two litres of soup (which will serve 8 people as a starter).
You’ll need:
- 6 large or 12 small beetroots
For the stock:
- 1 celery stick, chopped
- 3 stalks parsley
- A large carrot, peeled and chopped
- 1 onion, peeled and quartered
- 1 clove
- 1 bay leaf
- 6 peppercorns
- 2,5 ml caraway seeds
- 5 ml salt
- 1,2 litres water
To serve:
- White pepper
- 5 ml Tabasco sauce
- 300 ml gin or more, to taste
- small spring onions, trimmed
Heat the oven to 180° C. Trim the leafy tops off the beetroot, leaving 5 cm of the stalks intact. Wrap in a double layer of foil and bake for two hours, or until completely tender when pierced with a sharp knife.
Trim the beetroot of stalks and roots, slip off their skins and set all these trimmings to one side. Quarter the beetroot and place in a liquidiser. Blitz until you have a fine purée (if the mixture is too thick for the blades to turn, add a little water). Pour into a large bowl and refrigerate.
Stock: Put the reserved beetroot trimmings into a saucepan and add the remaining stock ingredients. Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for an hour, topping up with water every now and then if necessary and skimming off any foam.
Strain the stock through a colander onto the chilled beetroot purée. Add the Tabasco sauce and season with white pepper and a little more salt to taste. Stir well.
Pass the soup through a fine sieve. Place in the fridge again and chill for two to three hours. An hour before serving, put the gin in the freezer. Remove the soup from the fridge and stir in the cold gin. Put the soup into a jug with a sharp pouring nozzle and fill each glass almost to the brim. Add a spring onion to each glass. Serve immediately.
