Beetroot upside down pie 

(with new potatoes and salad)

When I was a kid the only time I ever had beetroot was out of a jar and did I miss out or what.

This is an upside down pie, essentially a filling with a puff pastry top which is then inverted and cooked a second time. Okay you could be posh and call it a kind of tarte tartin

The pie filling is simple, beetroots, onions, shallots, a dash of balsamic, chilli, a pinch of sugar,salt and pepper

Beets go really well with onions and shallots, they are both really sweet.
Beet go really well with chilli, they also go really well with horseradish and you get a great pink colour with them as well.

The onions and shallots are cooked until soft  with a little olive oil and the fresh cooked beetroot and other ingredients added.

They are then put in a lined tin and a pastry top put on a good egg glaze and into the oven.

Once baked is not enough, this pie is twice baked, so after coming out the oven it is turned over and left for the afternoon, (at room temperature with a net umbrella) come preparing dinner time, I put goats cheese on it and bake in the oven till golden.  I sliced a whole chevre blanc onto it, but you could crumble on or use less.

Pastry is not home made, puff pastry just seems too much hard work.  There is not that much pastry in it so calories be damned.

This incarnation has been slightly different, I cooked the onions at a lower slow heat with a lid on and they are more soft and a bit more juicy than on other times. I didn;t add any herbs, typically I would add sage and thyme, I backed off on the chilli a bit and whilst hot it was not over powering.

Normally when I get it out of the oven I turn it out right away, for some reason this time I didn't and you guessed it I got a bit of a soggy bottom, so for the second bake I put it on a rack so the hot air could get to it and it crisped up fine. The day was saved!

One of the best things about this dish is that the other half will make a gorgeous lunch.

Where to go from here:

Pastry, how about a Charlotte? bread an butter crust.

Cheese, perhaps put some cheese on the side instead of on top blue cheese would go well.

Fillings:
Artichoke and gruyere?
Celariac and parsnip?
Apple and cheddar?

...  and the left over pastry didn't go to waste.