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Monday, August 1, 2011

I fear you no more, Mr. Beet!

I am one very picky eater - there are certain vegetables that I do not eat. And beetroot is among them. 

It was a surprise to find myself sitting there at The Provincial's Funky Beet dinner event last Thursday, waiting to be bombarded with 5 courses interestingly incorporating the beet.

The dinner kicked off with a garden of pickled, raw & poached beetroots, with coffee, herbs and avocado. The pickled and poached beetroots were fine by me, but not so much the raw ones.

Having said that though, for a non-beetroot eater, I think I fared very well and I actually did finish everything you see on the plate. ;)

I particularly love the avocado cream and how well it goes with the beets and coffee.

Next up, was the roast beetroot Carpaccio, Mud Crab salad, cauliflower, burnt orange, and basil.

The roast beetroot aside, everything else was fantastic. The mud crab salad and burnt orange combination - I absolutely loved!

This - salt baked beetroot, smoked eel, poached rabbit saddle, apple puree and celery emulsion - was the dish I looked forward to the most.

The golden beet was good, and the smokey-ness of the eel added a good flavour to the dish. The rabbit saddle, was needless to say, my favourite bit, that went fantastically well with the apple puree. Yums!

The next course was the 24 hour slow-cooked wood-roasted goat, served with potato fondant, beetroot puree, and port jus. 

The goat was good, and was perfect with the beetroot puree, but it didn't stand out too much for me. I was instead, very VERY wow-ed by the potato. Yes... A potato, I know right.

The potato fondant (which simply means soft potato) may look simple to you, but oh man, it was NASTILY DEVINE! *slurps*

The final course was dessert: beetroot curd, goat's cheese mousse, and almond foam. For once, I didn't finish my dessert.

It was an interesting dish with amazing flavour combination but sad to say, just doesn't suit my palette, which is a shame.

The Provincial Hotel / Cafe Provincial on Urbanspoon

While I might not have been a converted beetroot-worshiper, but I can proudly say that I have very well conquered beets.

I no longer fear you, Mr. Beetroot! ;)

Chef Paul Cooper's dishes showed brilliant techniques and were very well-presented. The potato fondant... Man, I'm still thinking about it. I hope it goes on the menu sometime soon!

Once again ,thank you Chef for the wonderful dinner. :)

*********

You might also be interested to read: The Provincial Hotel Winter Games Dinner Event

8 comments :

PFx said...

I think beets as if they're potato but more versatile and sexier in colour. They make such a great base for a sauce.
Hey thanks for the inspiration of char siu btw, finally got around to making my version http://littlehungryheart.blogspot.com/2011/07/pierres-char-siu-char-siew-chinese-bbq.html

Michelle Chin said...

Lucky girl! Get to eat at provincial. :(

Anonymous said...

the cobaw ridge wines were awesome too, the lagrein has always been the underdog ever since it went on sale..

-Edward

The Bakeanista said...

PFx: I will try to think of beets as potato the next time I'm served beets and see if I can handle them better. :P Glad I managed to inspire you! Your char siew looks FAB! :D

Mich: I was! You can always join the next event. It is announced on Twitter, the website, etc.

Ed: Thanks for pointing that out for me! I completely forgot to mention the awesome wine-matching in my blog post. Opps! :P

Anonymous said...

perfect wine matching.. course 1 - 4 yes.. the dessert course was like 50/50 for me.. cause the initial reaction of the wine + dessert combo was hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! initial sweetness from the cheese + berries & spicy & a lil herby wine = ??

but when the sweetness of the goat's cheese wore off it was like.. "ah........... now i get it.."

-Edward

leaf (the indolent cook) said...

I remember seeing the advertisements for this event as I hang out in Fitzroy often. Interesting dinner - thanks for the post!

"Joe" who is constantly craving said...

i must look out for invites too from the brisbane restaurants haha.

The Bakeanista said...

Leaf: It was indeed very interesting! Come to the next one! I can't wait to see what the next dinner event will be.

Joe: This isn't a food blogger invite thing. :)

Click on 'OLDER POSTS' for more! :)