Two or Three Vegetables

[victorthecook]

I've been feeling the lack of vegetables the last little while, so I went a bit wild tonight. First, baked potatoes are easy. Wash 'em, stick 'em in the oven, and wait around an hour. I had cheap n' cheerful Safeway potatoes, and ended up washing them with a kitchen scrubber -- but they got clean.

Then, brussels sprouts. I peel off the outer leaves, trim a bit of the stem, and cut into halves or quarters to get pieces that are similar to one another in size.

Next, I peeled and sliced into thin coins a pound and change of carrots.

First the brussels sprouts: Into my largest frying pan, in one layer, with a couple tablespoons of butter. Cooked 'em for a few minutes on medium-high heat, adding some salt meanwhile. Then I threw in a cup or so of chicken stock, slammed on a lid, and set a timer for ten minutes.

Now the carrots: Into a frying pan with a couple tablespoons of butter, a sliced clove of garlic, and a hefty pinch of saffron. Some salt, a couple minutes of high heat and some shaking, and I added pepper, a half-lemon's worth of zest, and a cupful of water, then slammed the lid on. They steam/braised until they got tender, about six minutes. Then off with the lid, stir around, and boil off the remaining water.

And then the sprouts -- lid off, stir around, and boil off the remaining stock to a light sauce.

And there's dinner: potatoes, carrots, and brussels sprouts. It's better than it sounds.

Comments

[greatblueheron.livejournal.com]

The potatoes and carrots sound very good. I tend to think Brussels sprouts should be lightly tossed out of the nearest window or perhaps briefly blended in the dispose-all. But maybe I've never had 'em cooked right. I have an ambiguous relationship with the cabbage family in general (do I remember right that b. sprouts are tiny cabbagettes?)

It's good weather for cooking these days, at any rate. Or at least here in the SE. What's it doing meteorogically out your way?

[victorthecook.livejournal.com]

On Brussels sprouts -- reasonably fresh sprouts cooked lightly with a bit of butter have a very nice, almost nutty flavor. Yes, they are tiny cabbage-ettes, but with a milder flavor. They don't need to be cooked long, since they're very small.

The things I've seen that will ruin them: keeping them way too long (I forgot some for well over a month in the back of the 'fridge... past their prime, to put it lightly), or boiling the hell out of them. If the kitchen smells like a sulfur hot spring, you know something has gone wrong. But they're really not hard to cook -- I've done this under field conditions on vacation without any trouble.

Weather here has been a mix. Chilly until we got the furnace fixed, then most of a week of mid-70-degree days, and now high 50's with periodic rain. So it's been nice to have the stove on, but comfortable outside.

[batyatoon]

So, wait -- how did you cook the potates?

[victorthecook.livejournal.com]

They were just baked - in this case, in a ~375F oven for about an hour. Not exciting, but tasty all the same.