Notes from the Chef: “The beetroot is a vegetable locally grown in the Savoyard backyards that is available for the Kintessence menu in the winter season. To utilize this vegetable, the initial purpose of the dish was to retrieve the flavors of a childhood memory of a beetroot salad with smoked salmon. But here, the smoked flavor will come from the eel, way more juicy and delicate. Moreover, the eel is used in traditional French cuisine, notably by the well-known ‘Mères Lyonnaises’.”
Ingredients
- Fresh red beetroot
- Fresh yellow beetroot
- Beetroot shoots
- Salt
- Pepper
- Butter
- Pickled beetroot
- Smoked eel
- Sour shallots condiment
- Beetroot juice
- Eeel juice vinaigrette
Method
- Peel and slice the beetroot into discs.
- Slowly cook the beetroot with coarse sea salt to concentrate its flavor and sweetness.
- Once it’s cooked to a melting texture, put the discs together as a Millefeuille, alternating a slice of the soft-cooked beetroot with crunchy pickled beetroot, mellow smoked eel and sour shallots condiment.
- Slice more beetroot into thin straps and candy it in its own juice, then wrap it around the millefeuille to keep its shape.
- Just before serving the beetroots millefeuille, glaze them with a slightly acidic beetroot juice with butter whisked in.
- To finish, fry some yellow beetroot and place on top to bring in a crispy texture.
- On the side, serves a salad of beetroot shoots seasoned with an eel juice vinaigrette to reinforce the freshness of the dish.
Recipe courtesy of Jean-Rémi Caillon of 2 Michelin-starred Le Kintessence at Le K2 Palace in Courchevel.
Jean-Rémi Caillon Chef Feature
Image © Matthieu Cellard