Purple salad (Purple Rain)

Method

1 Preheat oven to 200°C 2 Wash the beetroots. 3 Roast the beetroots for 30 minutes to 1 hour until they shrink, resembling a small dried fruit. Let them cool. 4 While they cool, put blackcurrants and blackberries into a pot. Add vinegar, honey, and umeboshi. Bring the mixture to a simmer so the juices are released from the berries and everything is blended. You don’t need to cook this down to a jam; just slightly stew the mixture together. 5 Remove the mixture from the heat and drop in 1–2 stems of lavender. Lavender is super fragrant, so be careful—it can easily overwhelm the whole dish. 6 Peel the beetroots. (You might need a small peeling knife to remove the skin.) Wear plastic gloves so your hands don’t get stained. If the beets are small like kumquats or a golf ball, leave them whole. If they are larger, cut them into smaller pieces. 7 Remove the lavender from the sauce and add the beetroots. Stir the beetroots until they are completely marinated in the jam. If the liquid is a bit thin, you can cook them together a little more. 8 Clean and completely dry the salad leaves, breaking them into smaller pieces. Pick off a few leaves of basil. 9 To serve, heat up the beets in the sauce, add a large spoonful of butter, and stir carefully. Taste for acidity; it should lead with the berry flavour, with a subtle note of lavender. Season with a little soy sauce, lemon juice, and a pinch of piment d’Espelette to finish. You might need to add a little more vinegar to strike the right balance. 10 Spoon the beets in their berry sauce onto a plate and dress with red leaves, more basil, and a few fresh blackcurrants.