Chicken Breast with Beetroot Sauce - Farewell Floyd!

As a tribute to Keith Floyd, I thought I would dust off a copy of ‘Floyd on France’ that I had on the shelf. Like a lot of people, Keith managed to get me to raise my level of cooking back then. Maybe, even subliminally, I really love a glass of wine or 2 whilst cooking in the kitchen….. This dish was my first real dinner party dish that made people raise their eyebrows – it looks different but tastes great. (I have copied the reciped exactly as in the book)

The inspiration for this has come about from 'A Slice of Cherry Pie' blog and 'Back to the Chopping Board' blog.

Ingredients:

• 4 Small Chicken breasts – boned and skinned
• Salt & Pepper
• Butter
• 1 shallot – finely chopped
• 1 glass of dry white wine
• 1 medium beetroot – cooked and pureed with its own weight in butter
• 150ml (5fl.oz) double cream
• Fresh Chervil and julienne strips of cooked beetroot to garnish

Season the chicken and sauté gently in butter for about 4 minutes on each side. Keep warm and covered.

Boil the shallot in the wine until almost reduced to nothing. Now stir in the beetroot butter into the remaining wine and shallot until melted. Add the cream until you have a smooth consistency and a bright purple sauce. Remove from the heat and keep warm.

There should be a little juice from the chicken that has been resting: pour thid into the sauce. Then slice each breast into thin scallops and reconstruct into its original shape. Pour a little sauce on to each plate, lay the chicken on top of the sauce and decorate with strips of beetroot and chervil.

Oh, by the way - don't serve it with dauphinoise potatoes - just too much! I think crushed new potatoes would be much better.