Derek Carver > wrote:

> On a recent trip to France I was served a delicious liver dish in a 'sang de
> betrave' sauce. It's deep red looked wonderful on the plate, and was a superb
> accompaniment. But I can't figure out the best way to achieve this rather
> thick sauce.

I wonder whether they used beetroot juice, as such, or beetroot kvas,
i.e. fermented beetroot juice. Both would work in such a dish.
>
> It gave the appearance of being reduced (maybe with some sugar) and stirred
> into the pan juices in which the liver had been cooked.

Unlikely any sugar was added, as beetroot juice and even kvas are fairly
sweet by themselves and any reduction would have only accentuated the
sweetness.

> My problem is how to get the juice in the first place. It seems that one
> could boil raw beetroot and then reduce the liquid (adding sugar, maybe,
> as I said) or One could boil beetroot and liquidise the whole thing (but I
> think that might make the sauce cloudy, which it wasn't - not that that
> matters if the flavour is there), or Maybe one can buy cans of beetroot
> juice (we don't have a juicer ourselves and I admit we've never seen it on
> sale - not that we've looked up till now).

Commercial beetroot juice (very occasionally) and kvas (in health food
stores always) are avaialble where I live, maybe you can find them in
Surrey or, more likely, in London, too.

That said, beetroot juice is best prepared by carefully washing the
unpeeled beetroots, steaming them, then trimming and peeling them and
juicing them by some method, for example in a juicer. Unlike the
misguided, beetroot-hating Barb (who, in reality, *loves* 'em!), I
wouldn't add any water, which only dilutes the goodness.

BTW, Barb will be overjoyed to learn that Avicenna recommended
beetroot-juice enemas.

Victor