Beet Salad with Goat Cheese Mousse

This was the appetizer I made for our Mother's Day dinner, because my mother, Sangeeta (my honorary sister, whether she likes it or not) and I all gravitate towards beet and goat cheese salads when they're on the menu. I need to work on my food photography skills, because this is a seriously beautiful dish and you don't get the full impact from my photo. Are pistachios primal? You could substitute macadamias if you prefer, but they won't have that pretty green tint.

Beet Salad with Goat Cheese Mousse

Serves 6-8, depends how big your beets are

6 beets 

2 shallots

2 lemons, juiced 

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/3 cup olive oil

6 oz goat mild goat cheese, softened 

2 oz cream, plus extra if necessary

Pinch salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme (if you don't have fresh, leave it out...you could grate some of the lemon zest from the juiced lemons into the goat cheese mousse instead) 

3 oz shelled pistachios, coarsely chopped

Preheat over to 425. Wrap each beet individually in foil and roast on sheet pan until a fork will pierce easily, 1 to 1 /2 hours. Unwrap beets and let cool. 

With an electric or non-electic whisk, whisk lemon juice, half  the shallots, salt and pepper. Add oil in a slow stream  while whisking. If you only have a blender, you can blend everything but the shallots and add the shallots in at the end. 

Peel cool beets. Chop into half-inch dice. Mix with remaining shallots and dressing. Taste for seasoning. Put the beets in the refrigerator to chill while you continue. 

Using an electric mixer, whip goat cheese with cream, adding more cream until you get a creamy consistency. Add, salt, pepper and thyme. Taste repeatedly, until it is perfect. Your friends and family don't know how much mousse is supposed to be on each plate. It's possible there won't even be any goat cheese mousse left to serve by the time you finish making it. (You might want to double all the mousse ingredients to ensure that your guests have a chance to try some too.) 

Either mound beet salad in center of appetizer plates, or if you're feeling really fancy, use a 3-inch-diameter cookie cutter, pastry ring or (cleaned) cat food can with both ends cut off, to make a neat tower of beet salad on the plates, packing the mold tightly with a spoon before gently lifting the mold up. Yeah, I made one this way before I reverted to a free-form pile of beet salad. I said it was because a molded salad seemed a bit precious, but let's face it, I was lazy. Frankly, I have better things to do than build a tower of beets. Dollop a spoon of goat cheese mousse on top of the beets. Sprinkle with pistachios. Grind fresh pepper over mousse.