Slow roasted vegetables is one of those things I started making years ago to make use of whatever I had left in the fridge and lower pantry storage bins, but it's become not only a family favorite but also the dish most requested at the potlucks and holiday office parties we go to. It couldn't be easier, or less expensive, and yet it's got the earthy elegance of something well worth eating.
Pour about an eighth of an inch of good-quality olive oil into a roasting pan -- if you're going to cook these on the woodstove, make it a cast iron, or enameled cast iron one; if it's going in the oven, any large glass or metal roaster will do. Then add in assorted root and winter vegetables cut into large stew-sized chunks (about 1.5 inches square, roughly speaking). Carrots, celery, potatoes, quartered medium sized onions, whole cloves of garlic, sweet potato, beets, turnips, rutabagas, pumpkin, squash, parsnips, whole button musrooms, whatever you have on hand. Sprinkle ground rosemary and thyme, as well as salt or sea salt and black pepper over the top, then toss until all are coated with the olive oil and herbs.
Now, cover them with the roaster pan cover or with aluminum foil, and let them roast at low temperature for as long as you can. The vegetables will certainly cook if you put them on 350 degrees or right on top of the woodstove for an hour or so, but they will be simply cooked vegetables. Put them in the oven at 200 degrees, or on a stack of trivets on the outer shelves of the woodstove, for the whole day, and the sugars in the vegetables carmelize and the flavors seep into one another and it becomes a whole different beast.
About an hour before serving, take off the cover and sprinkle with balsamic vinegar, then leave the pan open for a while to dry out the juices a little bit and bring them all to just the right texture: soft but still with the separate pieces of vegetable still recognizable, you don't want it to become a mixed puree. To this end, try not to stir the vegetables too vigourously; if you need to turn them to re-coat with oil, use a flat spatula and lift and flip them rather than stirring.
When I make this at home, I often top it with feta-stuffed portobello mushroom caps. About an hour and a half before serving, remove the stems from several large portobello mushrooms. Open the roasting pan and scoop out a few tablespoons of the juice. Mix it with some feta cheese and cream cheese, adding herbs, salt and pepper to taste. Add a little more juice or some milk if it needs to be thinned to spreadable consistency. Spread this thickly in the caps, and put them right on top of the roasting veggies. Cover the whole thing over again for about a half hour, then open to dry out for a little while, then run it briefly under the broiler before serving to brown the tops of the cheese.
Because of all the starches, this doesn't really need accompaniment, but brown rice or a wild rice pilaf seems to go nicely, as does baked beans and brown bread for a rich warm winter meal.
The special gourmet-tasting elegance of roasted vegetables comes from the long cooking time -- and yet, that's not time when you are doing anything. Cutting up the vegetables may take twenty minutes to a half hour, but then your work is effectively done. Put your feet up by the woodstove and knit or read while heat converts simple root and winter vegetables to extraordinary effect. Now that's multi-tasking, the Satisfying Living way.
No comments:
Post a Comment