This winter, throw your vegetables in the oven
We gathered last week as a group of 10 to celebrate Christmas.
Through the late afternoon, the aroma of a prime rib, supplied and
prepared by my brother-in-law, permeated the house.
This was a significant Piece of Meat, a roast that resembled the
haunch of a brontosaurus, one that filled our oven to capacity.
This winter, throw your vegetables in the oven
We gathered last week as a group of 10 to celebrate Christmas. Through the late afternoon, the aroma of a prime rib, supplied and prepared by my brother-in-law, permeated the house.
This was a significant Piece of Meat, a roast that resembled the haunch of a brontosaurus, one that filled our oven to capacity.
With a daughter whipping up crème puffs and homemade vanilla ice cream, we were relegated to side dishes. Mashed potatoes – jumped up with a few cloves of garlic in the boiling pot – were a given.
But in the middle of winter, what to do with those side dishes is problematic. Green beans are looking tired and tough. Vegetables that have more frequent flier miles than I do, thanks to their trip from farms in far-off tropical locations, just didn’t seem right.
So we went to ground – root vegetables, that is.
Green salad was easy. San Benito County is the center of the baby lettuce universe. So we served a salad of mixed baby greens, mixed with fresh pomegranate seeds and blood orange segments. The whole thing was red and green – get it? We dressed it with four parts good olive oil to one part aged balsamic vinegar, blended with a teaspoon of Dijon mustard and dusted with fresh ground salt and pepper. As simple as the salad was, it was a delicious way to start the meal.
Then we went for the roots.
We prepared carrots cut into shoestring-sized matchsticks, steamed and served with brown butter in which we had cooked a tablespoon of black mustard seeds. Chopped parsley was tossed in.
But the real event was a platter of roasted vegetables.
It’s less a recipe than a suggestion, but taking what you like and tossing it all into a hot oven is a great way to celebrate the season.
We grabbed carrots, parsnips, shallots, a sweet potato, Yukon gold potatoes, turnips and the last beets from the garden.
We peeled and chunked all the vegetables, tossed them with a little olive oil and sea salt, and tightly covered them in a roasting pan with two tablespoons of water and six sprigs of fresh thyme. They were left to roast, with only a few stirs, covered for 30 minutes.
Then we forgot about the vegetables until after the mighty prime rib came out of the oven, when we again increased the heat to 400 and returned the pan to the oven, this time uncovered, to allow the vegetables to brown around the edges just a bit.
For the last five minutes, a drizzle of aged balsamic vinegar finished the dish. We picked out the thyme and scooped the now caramelizing vegetables into a serving dish.
“Is this a turnip?” one guest asked. “I’ve never had a turnip.”
Some of roots we pluck out of the ground may look unfamiliar and perhaps a little intimidating but, prepared this way, flavors mellow and blend, natural sugars make themselves known and the whole experience is more than the sum of its parts.
At the end of the meal, as we sat nearly holding our sides, it was good to see that there were no leftover vegetables.
If any of the vegetables mentioned above is a no-no, just leave it out, or consider something else. I’d guess yucca root, burdock or Jerusalem artichokes would be great additions to the mix. Going aboveground, a few wedges of fennel or celery would be welcome.
The point is to take hardy winter vegetables, braising them with just enough liquid to make them tender before roasting them until they threaten to start burning.
They’re vegetables good enough to make you forget the main course – unless it’s the prime rib to end all prime ribs.
