' BEETROOT & GOATS CHEESE SALAD .'

Goats cheese & Beetroot roulade , Goats cheese panna cotta Whole pickled & Sliced fresh baby beets , Beetroot & goats milk emulsion, Pea greens , French tarragon , Water hyssop flowers & Cypress black salt.

                     Just the one post this week, a little slack I know but I guess one is better than none. I've been a bit busy finishing the chook palace in the back corner of the yard, stage one of what I call 'protein corner'. We purchased our girls today and they've settled in quite well. Anyway this light little dish I've presented here is a variation of a beetroot and goats cheese salad. The goats cheese I chose for this came from 'South Cape Fine Foods' and having aged a little longer, is creamy and a little earthy in flavour. More so than the tangy taste of a younger cheese made from goats milk. And its these characteristics which allow the cheese to pair so well with the earthy, sweet tones of the root vegetable beetroot. Each of the two ingredients have three applications and intertwine flavours of tartness and sweet along with textural contrasts of fresh, crunchy, creamy and soft.                            
                    This salad began with the preparation of the roulade of which I first placed into a saucepan some milk, cubed goats cheese and agar agar at 1%. This was brought to the simmer whisking to dissolve the agar and also melt the cheese through the milk. Once simmering I removed the pot from the stove and using a funnel I poured the panna cotta mix into plastic cylinders and placed into the fridge to set. Next I heated some beetroot juice in a saucepan with 1% agar  and brought to the simmer whisking to dissolve the agar powder. This was then removed from the stove and poured onto a flat tray and spread to about 2mm thick this was then allowed to set at room temp. I then un-moulded the goats cheese, with one cylinder I left as is for the goats cheese panna cotta slicing it into bite size pieces. For the thicker cylinder I trimmed up the ends, measured the length and cut the corresponding sized rectangle out of the beetroot gelee. Placing the goats cheese roll at one end of the gelee, I rolled cheese in the beetroot film. I then sliced some of the the complete rolled roulade of varying sizes and some really thin slices were cut to make the faux radish. With some whole baby beets I peeled them placing a few into some water, rice wine vinegar, sugar and salt bringing them to the boil and reducing to a simmer until soft and tender. With the remainder of the fresh beet I simply thinly sliced and presented as is. To make the emulsion dressing I placed goats milk, honey, sherry vinegar, beetroot juice and a little seasoning into a tall tumbler along with some granulated soy lecithin and blended using a stick blender to form a foam, this was then refrigerated until serving time so the bubbles hold their structure, hence don't make this prep till last. To plate I garnished the dish with some pea greens, petite french tarragon, water hyssop flowers and a sprinkling of Cypress black sea salt. Next time I think I will have the addition of some fresh beetroot leaves and some tiny thinly sliced red onion rings.