The great advantage of writing a food blog is that you can endlessly remix your past posts and watch them turn in on themselves like an edible ourosboros. Last week I lamented the poor state of the seasonal vegetables in my winter garden, the week before I looked at ice cream.

This week I put seasonal vegetables in ice cream. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time and I’m sure that I promised somewhere that I would risk something vegetarian (or at least VLML in the parlance of the airline industry).

The recipes that I’ve cooked so far from the SBS back catalogue have been reliable. Sure, the chicken occasionally catches fire and the quantities are at times, a bit vague, but they all seem to work out in the end. While I was trawling through the seasonal recipes, I came across this: Blackberry beetroot soup with parsnip ice cream.

It’s modern Australian, insofar as no other nation has the same affection to beetroot. I have no idea from which television series it came. And as a recipe, it has a list of ingredients but no quantities. It assumes much. As the lone commenter notes:

What is the coffee salt referred to in this recipe? How do you candy beetroot?

So I thought that I’d try to answer these prescient questions and a few more, and hopefully produce something edible. As with most of the recipes that I end up cooking, I failed to follow the recipe.

Step One: Parsnip Ice Cream

400g parsnip, peeled
375ml milk
150g sugar
pinch of salt
4 large egg yolks
375ml cream

While the recipe suggests making the beetroot soup base first, I hit the ice cream. Roast 400 grams of peeled parsnips with 50 grams of sugar at 100oC, stirring every ten minutes. At 100 degrees, this will take you about five hours – so I cut my first corner, by turning the heat up to 200C and roasting for about 45 minutes. The parsnips come out soft, brown and caramelised. Leave aside to cool.

Once cool, blend the parsnips with about 50ml of the milk. If you’re keen on a smoother ice cream, pass this through a sieve. I left mine chunky, because the caramelised chunks of parsnip were chewy like candy.

In a saucepan, warm the remaining milk, sugar and pinch of salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks.

When the milk is warm, slowly pour it into the yolks, whisking constantly. Scrape the yolks back into the saucepan and cook, stirring constantly with a spatula, until the mixture thickens and coats the back of the spatula.

Remove from the heat and mix in the cream and parsnip mix. Cool in an ice bath and pour into your ice cream maker, following whatever arcane instructions that accompany it.

Step Two: Beetroot and cocoa soup

I failed dismally in procuring blackberries but rather than wallow in my disenchantment, I remembered an article about beets in cocoa from the relentless experimenters Aki and Alex from food blog Ideas in Food. They make a rich syrup of sugar, cocoa and pressure cooked beets – which would probably work well as a blackberry soup substitute. Bittersweet instead of tart, and warmer for winter.

1 large fresh beetroot, about 300gms
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups milk

Cut the stem off the beetroot and boil in water, skin on. You’ll know when it is done when a metal skewer easily pierces through to the centre. Once done, remove from heat. When cool, peel off the skin. Wear gloves if you fear the beetroot staining you.

Slice the beetroot into half centimetre slices. Set aside a thinner slice per person for presentation.

Warm the milk, add cocoa, sugar and sliced beetroot. Stir until blended and the mix turns a rich, reddish brown.

Step Three: Coffee Salt

I have no idea what coffee salt is either. This is my best guess.

4 coffee beans
A teaspoon of flake salt

Grind coffee beans in a mortar and pestle, until it reaches the same rough texture as the flake salt. Mix in the salt.

Step four: Plating

Pour a centimetre of the cocoa into a bowl. Place two slices of beetroot in the centre, and top with the unpoached, thin slice.

Make a quenelle of the parsnip ice cream, and place on top of the beetroot. Dress with a pinch of coffee salt. Serve.

Phil Lees is on twitter at @phil_lees