Winter vegetables offer warm meals
From inside the produce aisles, it’s hard to tell what season it
is. Bins of tomatoes, peppers and lettuce vie with traditional
winter standbys for space right through the winter months.
But there’s much to recommend at least some of what’s harvested
in winter into winter menus. All the members of our family crave
more citrus right at about the time the fresh crop comes in. The
blood oranges decorating a tree in our back garden are coloring up
nicely now, just in time for Christmas.
Winter vegetables offer warm meals
From inside the produce aisles, it’s hard to tell what season it is. Bins of tomatoes, peppers and lettuce vie with traditional winter standbys for space right through the winter months.
But there’s much to recommend at least some of what’s harvested in winter into winter menus. All the members of our family crave more citrus right at about the time the fresh crop comes in. The blood oranges decorating a tree in our back garden are coloring up nicely now, just in time for Christmas.
Winter also seems to call for the more robust greens like mustard and kale, greens that profit from long, slow cooking.
Our family Thanksgiving tradition does not involve yams swaddled in a thick coating of marshmallows, but we didn’t overlook root vegetables last week.
Instead we served a dish of braised carrots and parsnips, dusted with chopped parsley. Parsnips look like overgrown white carrots, but their taste is much sweeter, without a hint of the bitterness that sometimes creeps into carrots.
Often, when I go through the checkout line at the supermarket, the clerk will ask what I do with those funny looking ivory colored roots.
On Thanksgiving, we peeled, chunked and roasted them with the carrots at 375 degrees in a covered pan with a ½ c. chicken broth and a pat of butter for 45 min., then uncovered them until they just started to brown.
But my favorite way to eat them is as a puree. We just thought two piles of white stuff on the plate – mashed potatoes and parsnips might be a little too much white stuff.
Both these recipes come from one of our most-used cookbooks, “Vegetables Every Day,” by Jack Bishop.
Pureed parsnips with butter and nutmeg
1 ½ pounds parsnips
2 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
¼ c. milk, warmed
Salt
Pinch of grated nutmeg.
Peel the parsnips, cutting into 2-inch chunks. Larger parsnips may have a woody core that should be removed.
Place in a steamer basket and place over boiling water, covering the pot until the vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes. Drain and place in a food processor. Add the butter, milk, salt to taste and nutmeg and process until smooth. Adjust seasoning as necessary.
Dandelion greens from the supermarket bear nearly no resemblance to the noxious weeds poking up from the lawn. The leaves are long and narrow, surrounding a central rib. Their flavor is assertive, bitter and “green” at the same time. The next recipe reveals the ability of bacon to transform just about anything.
Dandelion greens with bacon and onion
1 ½ pounds mature dandelion greens, thoroughly washed and tough stem ends discarded
1 tsp. salt
2 strips bacon
1 small onion, minced
2 tsp. red wine vinegar
freshly ground black pepper
Bring some water to boil in a large saucepan, adding greens and salt. Cook until the greens are tender 5-6 min. Drain thoroughly and chop coarsely.
Cook the bacon over medium heat until crisp, removing strips from the pan and draining them on paper towels. Add the onion to the bacon fat and saute until soft. Add the greens and cook, tossing, until heated through. Add the vinegar and a generous amount of pepper. Crumble the bacon over the greens and serve.
