Ash-Baked Beetroot with Dill Oil, Salt-Baked Walnut & Burnt-Onion Vinaigrette

1. 01

   Prepare the fire and salt bed

   If cooking over open flame or in a wood-fired setup, let embers settle into a bed of white-hot ash. If using your oven, preheat to 200°C and line a heavy roasting pan with a 3cm layer of coarse sea salt. The salt is your heat sink; it'll hold the embers' warmth. Brush any loose ash off your beetroots — don't peel them.

   ~10 min
2. 02

   Bury the beetroots

   Nestle the four whole beetroots into the ash bed (or salt bed in the oven). Cover completely — they should disappear under an inch of hot ash. If using fire, rake ash around them and let it settle. In the oven, cover the roasting pan with foil. Listen for the quiet hiss of their own moisture. Smell the sweetness coming.

   ~60 min
3. 03

   Meanwhile, char the onions and make the vinaigrette

   Halve the onions with skin on. Place them cut-side down in a dry, heavy pan over high heat — cast iron is your friend. Let them blacken, almost char, for 8–10 minutes per side. You want the edges to weep and the skin to crack. Once cool enough to handle, peel away the burnt skin (leave some char for texture and bitterness), roughly chop, then place in a bowl with the vinegar. Let it sit; the vinegar will pull all that burnt sweetness into sharp, dark liquid.

   ~20 min
4. 04

   Salt-bake the walnuts

   In a small, heavy pan, warm 150g of sea salt over medium heat until it just begins to shimmer. Add the walnut halves and toss constantly for 3–4 minutes — they'll toast, release oil, and take on the salt's mineral grip. Tip onto kitchen paper to cool and drain excess salt. These become nutty, crisp, and vaguely savory — a foil to everything else on the plate.

   ~5 min
5. 05

   Make the dill oil

   Blanch the dill fronds in boiling salted water for 30 seconds, then shock in ice water. Squeeze dry. Blend the dill with 120ml of cold-pressed oil until bright green and smooth — a hand-held stick blender works fine. Pass through a fine sieve if you want silk; if you want texture and don't mind bits, leave it rough. Season with a grain of salt.

   ~10 min
6. 06

   Crack open and dress

   Remove the beetroots from heat. Crack each one open with a spoon or knife — the flesh should be tender, almost gelatinous at the edges. Peel away the charred skin while still warm (it comes away like old leather). Slice or halve the beetroots onto warm plates. Dress immediately with the burnt-onion vinaigrette, a generous drizzle of dill oil, and a scatter of salt-baked walnuts. Finish with a fine grating of fresh horseradish over the top.

   ~5 min

First bite: the beetroot is soft, yielding, almost melting, with a faint char on the outside edges. Then the burnt onion hits — dark, funky, vinegary, briefly almost unpleasant in the best way. The dill oil arrives cool and grassy, a whisper of herb against the heat. The walnut cracks between your teeth with salt and nuttiness. The horseradish sneaks up last, sharp and gasping, clearing your sinuses and making you reach for another fork. It's a conversation, not a meal.

• ·If you don't have access to live fire, the oven method works just as well — the salt bed mimics the ash's heat-holding capacity, and you still get that roasted, almost burnt-sugar character.
• ·Don't peel the beetroots before cooking; the skin holds them together and traps moisture. Peel while still warm — it comes away clean.
• ·The burnt-onion vinaigrette gets better as it sits; make it a day ahead if you can, and let the char dissolve into the liquid.
• ·Walnut oil can go rancid quickly once opened — keep it in a cool place and don't buy it weeks in advance. Rapeseed is more forgiving.