Beetroot Sauce

Well, this is again one of those meals, that I have been planing to cook it for months, but I always ended up preparing something else, also because I had no clear idea what I actually want. It was only sure, that I want to use sunchokes, beetroot and fish, but besides knowning that I want to fry the fish, I did not know how to cook the vegetables. My first idea was a silky sunchoke sauce among caramelised beetroot, but somehow this seemed to be too "dry" for me. Yesterday, finally, I managed to make a decision: sunchoke puree, beetroot sauce and a beurre blanc in order to balance the heavy, spicy flavours of the beetroot sauce, that I flavoured with some fresh pomegrante juice as well. By the way, sunchoke, beetroot and fish has already met on the plate this year, in March when it was served among horseradish foam. Beetroot sauce is also not a new guest in my kitchen, however now it was prepared in a complete different way. As far as the fish is concernd, it was a gorgeous, huge organic Meagre or Stone Basse, that I cleaned outside and inside as well by myself. If I am not mistaking, this was the biggest fish ever that has seen my kitchen, and its taste is fantastic, I would say it even has the chance to beat the gorgeous Loup de mer.


Ingredients:
70 g beetroot
2 shallots
1 twig thyme
some caraway seeds
some fennel seeds
1-2 seeds of star anise
some black pepper corns
50 ml white wine
300 ml fish stock
2-3 kk pomegrante juice
4-5 chunks of cold butter
salt, pepper


Peel beetroot and cut in small cubes, then cook it together with the spices in the fish stock, then sieve to remove the spices. Melt some butter and sautee chopped shallots, add white wine and reduce by half. Add cooked beetroot and fish stock and cook until it is reduced by half. Puree and sieve. You can either serve the pureed beetroot with the fish, or dry it in the oven and use for example in a risotto, or when making fresh pasta or even in cakes. Bring the sauce to the boil and add pomegrante juice, season with salt and pepper. When it has the desired consistency stir in cold butter, season again if needed.