Wednesday 14 February 2018

Beetroot Hummus with Griddled Chicken






As I inched my way through dark the days of the start of a new year, gradually then fairly rapidly losing to the monotony of dry January, dragging myself out on some very short and very slow post-Christmas laps of the park, and generally being miserable. I decided to put a bit of colour in my life (and my pee) with some beetroot.

Now beetroot is something people tell me is great, so I buy it. Then unceremoniously throw it away 2 weeks later. This Zhuzhuary however, on day 13 of my beetroot's normal journey to the bin I made the jump and came up with something I think is quite special.

Now I had this Beetroot hummus with a butterflied chicken breast, however it can be used in so many ways (dips, sandwiches, kebabs etc) and will keep in the fridge for about 5 days after making.


Ingredients
4 Beetroot
 (Uncooked - although if buying precooked get the non pickled versions)
Thyme
2 Lemon
1 Clove Garlic
1 Tin of Chickpeas
Teaspoon of Cumin
Bunch of fresh corriander
150mls Olive Oil




  1. If you have raw beetroot preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
  2. Take your beetroot whole (no need to peel) and place on a sheet of tin foil with half a lemon, a drizzle of olive oil the thyme and some salt and pepper.
  3. Wrap them up in the foil and stick in the oven for about 1hour (if a knife goes into them with a small amount of resistance they're done.
  4. When cooked place them in a bowl of cold water and peel or scrape them with a knife or peeler.
  5. Get out a food processor (hand blender will work but may just take a bit longer and be a little messier). 
  6. Add all the chickpeas (+half the water from the tin), beetroot, garlic cumin and olive oil as well as a decent lick of salt and pepper and blend until hummus like texture.
  7. Taste and season with as much lemon juice as you want (I used a whole lemon with a bit of zest (if using zest ensure unwaxed you are using unwaxeds lemon)).
  8. This is then ready to eat.
  9. To make the chicken I butterflied a chicken breast* sprinkled with some dried cumin and paprika and cooked on a hot George Foreman grill (other pieces of 90's cooking machinery are available).
Serve with some nice full fat Greek yogurt and a drizzle of olive oil and some lemon juice.


*Some butchery tips and kitchen knife lessons will be coming soon. 




A Thirstyman



This is a humdinger of a Hungry Man recipe and it poses a number of questions for the Thirsty Man. What wine to pair with beetroot that can also stand up to lemon, and yoghurt, and thyme. And chicken?!

In cases like this, it’s important to let the big ingredients have their moment in the spotlight, so don’t try and fight the beetroot with a punchy floral wine, or the yoghurt with an oaked chardonnay. Here, simplicity and elegance is key. My thoughts turn to a couple of white wines, all of which display a little of what winos call ‘minerality’. 

Minerality is a non-fruity, non-spicy, non-herbal note in wine that tastes and or smells like wet rocks, or gravel in the rain. I know, not the most appealing thought when tucking into dinner, is it?! Wine language travels so poorly that what the word is really trying to express is a wine which displays elements of the terroirs or soil the vines are grown in, and for this I have chosen two very different wines which should help to cleanse and refresh the palate after each mouthful of A Hungry Man’s exceptional dish:

Dragon Langhe Bianco, Luigi Baudana 2016

Piedmont is my favourite wine region in the world and I love the red wines made with its nebbiolo grapes. A couple of years ago I thought I’d try a Piedmont white alongside a red and this is what I came up with. This wine has a mix of good, clean acidity and a hint of citrus with a very light floral bouquet. Don’t serve this wine ice cold or else you’ll only taste the citrus notes – instead, serve it is tad closer to room temperature than your normal bottle of Blue Nun and it should help elevate the beetroot, thyme and yoghurt in the dish, without getting into a street fight with it. At £10.50 from the wine society, it’s a no-brainer.

Rustenberg Chardonnay 2015

When the Decanter World Wine awards come out each year, I love skipping to the back of the edition and finding out which supermarket Davids have slain the world of wine’s Goliaths. Lidl, M&S and Waitrose, as well as all the others, always win a clutch of awards and so I like to buy them and try them for myself. This Rustenburg Chardonnay 2015 won a silver medal and is a fantastic offering, perfect for A Hungry Man’s butterfly chicken with beets. It has a lovely refreshing nose of lemon and a hint of butter with white fruit, a hint of oak, and some lovely refreshing minerality on the palate. The light oak and structure to the wine will stand up well to the chicken and thyme. This isn’t strictly the clean, fresh & mineral wine I was aiming for when I first started writing this article, but I think it’d stand up really well to the food and its only £13.99 – a bargain!


Happy drinking!