root vegetable – Goboroot.com

Caramelized Onion and Beet Soup

I don’t know where you live in the world, but as a West Coast resident, for me soup is by far the most essential culinary staple. I turn anything in my garden into soup, especially when I have bits of this and that on hand. Recently, I’ve found lonely beets stored in the root cellar (in my case, a container filled with peat moss) that already sprouted from the top. These are very reliable when we urban gardeners don’t have much else to turn to during garden transition times. I transform my beets into fresh juice in the morning and hearty soup later in the day. My mizuna is too tiny, radishes are too skinny, peas were dug up by birds—over time I have come to the realization that when everything is just starting to grow, it is good to have stored food.

Caramelized Onion and Beet Soup

I strongly recommend that you wear dark clothing, or at least wear an apron to prevent your clothes from being stained with all that brightly coloured juice! For the topping, I happened to have basil sprouts handy in my kitchen but if you can’t find them, almost any other type of sprout works. I prefer basil because it provides a special flavour punch when you first sip this soup, which is also topped with delicious almonds and sour cream.

Serves 4

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 tablespoon butter

1 large onion, sliced thinly

2 heaped cups beets, peeled and cut in chunks

4 cups chicken stock

2 cups water

1/3 cup parmesan cheese, grated

Salt and pepper

Topping

Sour cream

Sliced almonds, lightly toasted

Basil sprouts (or any sprouts available)

Place the oil and butter in a large, heavy bottomed pot over medium high heat.

Sauté the onion, constantly turning until it caramelizes and gives off a sweet aroma.

Add the beets and sauté until well coated with oil, for about 5 minutes.

Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to medium low, cover with a lid and cook until beets are tender. Skim off the foam that appears on the surface occasionally.

Let the soup cool a little bit and then transfer to a blender and proceed until pureed. Place the soup back in the pot and add the Parmesan cheese. This is also the time to adjust the consistency of the soup by adding more water if you like. Bring to a simmer and adjust with salt and pepper.

Serve hot and top with the sour cream, toasted almonds and basil sprouts.

Goboroot Turns 1 Year Old!

It’s kind of late for “Happy New Year” but I wish all of you fantastic readers out there a great year with lots of love, peace, great health and of course, good food!

Since we came back from our trip to Japan almost a week ago, things have finally started to settle down. Although I’m still lingering over the vibrant memories that we created with our friends and family during the trip, I am refreshed and very much looking forward to another exciting year to come.

I meant to upload some photos during the trip in Japan, but then there was so much happening in the city, so many materials to see and so much scenery to observe. So I decided to live in the moment, completely abandoning the idea of posting news, totally cutting myself off from emails and online activities and soaking up the culture that I had truly missed. This act really helped me a great deal to feel rejuvenated and renewed. No computers, no Internet. I even enjoyed using pay phones everywhere we went; however, it was very hard to spot them! I appreciated the simple things in such a technologically advanced country.

As I was wondering what I would post for goboroot’s 1-year anniversary, I received an email in the nick of time from one of my readers asking if I had a recipe for gobo “French fries” in my archives. He was on a business trip to Japan last week and seemed to have enjoyed lots of gobo in many different dishes. What better way to celebrate the website’s anniversary than to share this delicious recipe! I quickly went into my kitchen and used the last batch of gobos I had saved from last year, turning them into these mouthwatering snacks. Oh, it was a worthy usage of my precious gobos!

So thank you for the great inspiration, Mike. Comments like this from readers have always kept me inspired to update my blog and have encouraged me to pursue my journey. So a big THANK YOU to everyone who supported me along the way!

I will post some photos from the Japan trip with some news very soon. So stay tuned!

Deep Fried Gobo

Serves 4

1 lb gobo, preferably organic

Sea salt

All purpose flour

Cornstarch

Vegetable oil

Wash gobo root thoroughly to remove the dirt. Using the back of a knife, remove coarse hair and skin. You can leave some skin on, as it is said by Japanese culinary experts that the skin contains more nutrients.

Cut into ¼ to ½ inch strips and soak in cold water for 10 minutes. Continue to change water until it becomes clean.

Fill a large pot with water and cook the gobo on high heat until tender (but it should still have a bite to it), for about 10 minutes. Drain well and pat dry.

Heat the vegetable oil in a deep frying pan to 180C. Combine the salt, flour and starch in a large bowl. Add the gobo, coat well with flour mixture and then remove excess flour.

Deep fry until the gobo turns a golden colour. Sprinkle salt over top if you like. Serve hot.

Caramelized Sweet and Salty Gobo

If you have any leftovers, try this recipe, as we frequently devoured them with a big bowl of rice for breakfast while in Japan. Thanks to my auntie, who enthusiastically introduced this dish to us along with mentaiko (spicy raw Pollock eggs) and nori in the morning.

Leftover deep fried gobos

1 tablespoon brown sugar (I used Okinawa black sugar and loved the rich flavour)

2 tablespoons soy sauce

Roasted white sesame seeds

In a medium pan, heat the sugar and soy sauce over medium heat until bubbling. Add the gobos and stir continuously to mix until the texture of the sauce is sticky. Sprinkle sesame seeds over top. Serve hot or at room temperature with some rice.

Beet & Chocolate Muffins

Whether or not you are a beet lover, if you are looking for the way to someone’s heart, try these red muffins. They are fun to make, and even better the naturally intense colour of these muffins makes them an attractive as well as nutritious treat!

The idea of perfecting this recipe came after I gently nagged a local chocolatier, my farmer’s market friend, demanding that he create beet flavoured chocolate to accompany their unique kale, tomato and other vegetable flavours. He explained that any additional flavouring added to chocolate making has to be strong and distinctive enough to overcome the taste of chocolate.

Since it didn’t seem like the chocolatier was inclined to try this experiment, I decided to create my own concoction. Since beet has an earthy, subtle taste, after a couple of trials with grape seed oil and/or brown sugar and/or whole wheat, I have settled on a mixture of butter, cane sugar and white flour that gingerly brings out the earthy flavour of the beet. A chocolate piece is then inserted inside the muffins, and the slightly roasted coconut flakes placed over top helps create the perfect match in your watering mouth. The dream team of my imagination finally came true!

Beet & Chocolate Muffins

Makes 8 muffins

1 cup cooked beets (about 3 large beets), cooled and finely shredded

100g butter, room temperature

140g cane sugar (fine texture)

2 eggs, room temperature, slightly beaten

200g unbleached white flour

¼ teaspoon salt

3 teaspoons baking powder

2 tablespoons milk, room temperature

8 pieces of dark chocolate

Shredded coconut flakes

Preheat the oven to 350F. Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder.

Cream the butter in a large bowl and add the sugar in a couple of instalments. Continue to stir until pale and fluffy.

Add the eggs 1 at a time and continue to stir until combined. Add the beets and mix well.

Add half the amount of flour mixture and stir until mixed, then add the rest and gently fold with a spatula in a circular motion. Do not stir too much.

Divide the batter into prepared muffin cups in a tin. Insert one piece of chocolate inside each muffin. Sprinkle with coconut flakes on top. Bake until done, about 25 minutes.

Transfer the muffins to a rack and let cool.