Tasty wee beets

It does take a little forethought and preparation to make the tastiest beetroot ever, and maybe a little more thought on what you’re going to use them for, as they are utterly transformed by the end. I haven’t really taken another serious look at them since making beetroot “tartare” but had an itch to scratch and quite a few good looking beetroot wanting to be used. There was no clear outcome with what to do with the finished product, just a desire to make it.

The beetroot are placed in a casserole dish with some aromatics, cinnamon, fennel, coriander seeds and a few cloves, dish is covered and placed in a moderate oven for an hour or so, until the beets are cooked through. Remove from the oven and let cool until you can handle the beetroot without burning yourself. Turn the oven down to 50/60ºC. Peel the beets and place on a lined tray, return to the now cool oven and leave to dehydrate for about 12 hours.


The beetroot will of shrivelled up and concentrated its flavour, it’ll be a bit dry and sticky on the outside. Place the beetroot in a bag and place in the fridge, the moisture should equalise through out the beetroot.


I puréed one of the beets with sour cream, seasoned it well and added a little acid to brighten it up. The sauce made a great addition to a tortilla with mashed garlicky peas, pickled kohlrabi, tomato salsa and some spicy grilled skirt steak.

Pork Skin Puffs

Less than successful in my last attempt at a puffed snack, I was determined to get the next attempt right, I had a plan, well a couple, chicken puffs and prawn puffs, but then I saw a big packet of pork skin sitting in the butchery shelf, and I knew the next puff goodness would be, Chicharrón. Puffed pork skin, made by first boiling the ever loving crap out of the skin in salty water, chill it, scrape off all the fat, the better job of scraping the better the puff, then dehydrating the skin, and finally deep frying.


Boiling the skin is the easier step in the process, just bring a pot of heavily salted water to the boil, add the skin and boil for about an hour. The boiling process gelatinises the collagen in the skin.


Allow the pot to cool down before attempting to handle the skin, when it’s finally at a temperature that’s not going to give you 3rd degree burns, careful lay the skin on a sheet pan, and place in the fridge overnight.


Slice, and scrape off all of the fat from the skin, it’s a bit of a messy process, but the better job you do of removing all the fat the better puff you’ll get.

Slice the the skin into bite size pieces, remember that they shrink a little when dehydrating and will triple in size when puffed. Place a rack on an oven tray and line with some baking paper, and then lay the pork skin on it, leaving room for air to circulate.

Preheat the oven to 50ºC, place the tray in the oven and leave for a couple of hours, then turn off the oven, keep the door shut and leave it alone for another 10 hours. This will need adjusting depending on ambient temperature and humidity, in the end it should almost resemble plastic. You may have to deep fry a couple of test pieces to check if they are dehydrated enough.


Finally, deep frying, heat up oil to about 190ºC, and carefully place the skin in the hot oil and cook until puffed and golden. If they don’t puff too much and have a chewy center, you will need to dehydrate for longer, if they drop to the bottom, don’t puff and burn, I’m sorry but you’re screwed, they’re over dehydrated.

Puff

I have been meaning to turn my hands to puffed snacks for a very long time, a good few years, but it always seems to slip my mind, but no more, I finally had a packet of tapioca flour, which I had picked up when buying supplies for kim-chi, I had oil for deep frying, and I could jury rig a steamer big enough for my purpose.

The process of making a puffed snack is pretty simple sounding, a little less so in practice I found. Basically, you mix together tapioca flour and a liquid (flavour), then roll it thin, steam it so the starch gels, dehydrate it, finally deep fry it and it should puff up.

I had a few problems, but they all stemmed from the fact that liquid + tapioca = Non-Newtonian fluid, so rolling out the dough, or in fact handling it at all, was problematic to say the least, I could form it into a shape to start rolling out, but as soon as pressure was released it behaves like a liquid, try to roll it thin and it’s hard as a rock, so more work needs to be done to solve the rolling out problem. Not being able to roll it it evenly and thinly enough, led to uneven dehydrating and some of the puffs, when deep fried, had a chewy centre.

Somewhat disheartened by the difficulties, and less than stellar flavour, I am still resolved to figure this one out, and have fun experimenting with flavours, different starches possibly too. Perhaps, my next puff should be Chicharrón, nothing beats puffed up, crispy pork skin.


Roasting pan, with steamer and dough.


Steaming for 15 minutes.


Ready to go in an 80°C oven.


Couple of hours later, dehydrated and brittle.

Pumpkin flour

One decent sized pumpkin, roasted in the oven whole until soft. I had cut a hole in the top and scooped the seeds out prior to cooking. I then puréed it and passed it through a sieve, and then spread over a lined tray.

It was then placed in to an oven at 50 degrees Celsius, with the door held ajar with a spoon. it stayed in there for about 8 hours, near the end I tore up the 'leather' and placed it on a rack, and back in the oven until completely dry.


It was then blitzed in a blender (it still needs a bit more grinding). I'm not 100% sure what I'm going to do with this, I'm thinking pasta or gnocchi.