Whole baked beetroot

Candied walnuts

Radish

Pickled fennel shavings

Rocket

Dolcelatte or Roquefort

Cherry tomatoes quartered

Parsley and basil oil

Leek ash

Wrap the beetroots in foil drizzle with the bit of honey and salt and pepper, wrap in foil and put in the oven at 180. At the same time clean and half-length wise cut a piece of leak. Separate their leaves and place on a baking tray, no oil,  straight in the oven.

Then make the parsley and basil oil.  Take a handful of each herb in equal quantities and blitz in a mixer with a cup of vegetable oil. Drain through a muslin cloth, or sieve and let  hang over a bowl, preferably overnight, but you can also do this in just an hour or two in the kitchen.

Then turn your attention to pickling the fennel. Bring a small saucepan of a third water, a third sugar and a third of cider vinegar to a simmer. Get a mandolin and slice the fennel thinly from top to core, producing lovely leaves, perhaps a millimeter thick or less. Take the pickling liquor off the heat, pour into a bowl and place the fennel slices directly in. Stir and leave for 30 minutes to cool.

The beetroot and leeks will now be done. The leak leaves should be completely black and the beetroot should be soft to the core. Peel the beetroot and dice into small triangular segments. Crush the leek ash in a pestle and mortar and place in to a bowl, it should turn to a fine powder quite easily. This will bring a beautiful nutty umami flavour to the dish, at the garnishing stage.

Next candy some walnuts. Sprinkle some granulated sugar in a dry pan over a medium heat and when it is caramelised golden brown, add the walnuts, coat, then remove from the pan and allow to cool.

Finally, dice cherry tomatoes into quarters along the core so that they nicely hold together. You should now be ready to plate up.

Take a metal serving ring and fill from the bottom, firstly with the rocket leaves, then the tomatoes, the pickled fennel, the cheese,  beetroot quarters, radish and finally, the candy walnuts. You can kind of layer this throughout the salad if you like.

Remove the ring, garnish with the herb oil and the leak Ash. Serve immediately before the oil begins to run.

This dish is fantastic as an autumnal starter, but is equally great in the spring. There are many different stages to the dish but if you’re prepared in advance, you can have many of the items prepped in advance in bulk, such as the leek ash, herb oil and candied walnuts. Enjoy!