The Nordics and the Baltic · Volume 25, Rye, Manor and the Fast Night Table
Külmsupp / Aukstā zupa / Šaltibarščiai
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
Illustration
- Time
- Hands on 20 minutes · Waiting 20 minutes
Shared across all three countries under three names, cold beetroot and cultured milk.
As tradition built it
Serves 3 to 4. About 20 minutes, plus 15 to 20 minutes resting in the fridge.
Ingredients
- 500 g beetroot, cooked or raw, cut small
- 200 g cucumber, cut small
- 30 g spring onion or chives, chopped
- 20 g dill, chopped
- 1 litre kefir, buttermilk or soured milk, well chilled
- 1 pinch salt
- 3 hard-boiled egg
- a splash vinegar or lemon, a splash, if the beetroot isn't already pickled
- to serve hot boiled potato, to serve
Method
- Cut the beetroot (cooked or raw), cucumber, spring onion or chives and dill small.
- Dress with well-chilled kefir, buttermilk or soured milk, and salt to taste.
- Stir the hard-boiled egg through, or serve it alongside.
- Add a splash of vinegar or lemon if the beetroot isn't already pickled.
- Rest briefly in the fridge before serving.
- Serve with hot boiled potato on the side, the contrast of hot starch against cold, sharp soup being the point of the dish.
What a modern chef changes
An agar-clarified beetroot consommé with confit new potato
Rung 2
Method
- Clarify the beetroot into a translucent, deep magenta consommé using an agar clarification, rather than serving it opaque and grated.
- Whisk the clarified liquid together with the highest-fat, most actively live kefir available, judged by nose rather than a fixed rest time.
- Blend smooth and pass through a chinois.
- Cook a small new potato sous vide in duck fat at 85°C until tender, and serve it separately as the hot element for sharper contrast.
- Finish with a dill oil rather than chopped dill, for colour and aroma without the vegetal bulk.