Solid food!
Today (Monday the 17th, actually, but it took me a while to write this up), as I was walking to the produce market, I thought to myself, “I’d like some solid food this week.”
So I picked up a bunch of carrots, some red potatoes, several yams, two heads of broccoli, a stalk of celery, and a loaf of olive bread. I wasn’t entirely sure what I’d do with all of these things, but I figured something tasty – and solid – would come of it.
Coming home, I took from the fridge a couple of beets (one regular, one Chioggia) and two leftover half-onions – one red, one yellow. I pulled the last bit of garlic off the windowsill.
After washing up the veggies, peeling the carrots and beets, trimming the carrots and celery, chopping the roots into bite-sized chunks, and finely slicing the onion and celery, I began to really plan out my work. I knew I wanted to roast the roots, but I was also interested in alternative approaches to the potatoes. In particular, I had been thinking of boiling those while steaming broccoli above as a way of economizing on the use of both energy and time. The timing didn’t work out that way, but I did wind up re-using the water from the taters to steam the brassicas.
Seeing that the roasting would take the longest time, I prioritized that. I began by melting some butter (still Earth Balance, actually – though one recent commenter offered to teach me to make my own ghee), and sautéing the beets, yams, and carrots, with a little salt and pepper, long enough to coat them all in oil.
While those roots were sizzling in the pan, I covered the potatoes (cut into bite-sized chunks like the rest of the roots) with water, salted the mix, and turned the burner on high. (I think this might actually be when I cut up the onion and celery.) Once the potatoes were going, and the veggie prep was done (between stirrings of the pan-full of roots), I transferred those roots into a baking dish and put them in the hot oven (425ºF). The frying pan was left with a blend of colors and a coating of oil, which I knew would lend wonderful flavors to the next stage of this process.
Setting a metal colander over a large metal bowl, I drained the now-slightly-tender (perhaps overly tender) potatoes while retaining the liquid, and returned the liquid to the saucepan in which the potatoes had been simmering. Melting some more butter in the pan, I began to fry the potatoes.
Casting about the kitchen for something to do between occasionally tossing or stirring the potatoes, I retrieved from the fridge some leftover juice from half a Meyer lemon, together with the other half of that lemon, and juiced the latter of these into the former. I cut up the broccoli, tasting the occasional bit from the trimmings. I withdrew the roots from the oven and stirred them gently, added to them most of my slightly-crushed and thoroughly-peeled garlic, and returned the whole lot to the heat. Stirring minced garlic and dried rosemary into the potatoes, I started the broccoli stems steaming and waited for something to be ready.
Actually, there was quite a bit more waiting in all of that, but I used it in cleaning up my kitchen, tidying things, etc.
In any case, I eventually removed the potatoes from the pan, replacing them with the onions and putting the potatoes in a small baking/serving dish in the bottom of the oven to keep warm. When the onions were translucent, I added the celery, and put the broccoli florets in the steamer with their stems. When the celery was just about to go from bright to translucent, I put that mixture in a baking/serving dish too, and into the oven for warmth.
After melting more butter, I dumped the broccoli into the waiting pan, just long enough to coat it entirely, and removed it to yet another oven-proof serving dish. I didn’t put it straight into the oven, though – I deglazed the pan with the lemon juice, and poured the resulting sauce over the bright, crisp broccoli. I put on the lid, tossed the mixture together, and added it to the waiting foods in the hot oven.
When it was time to serve the meal, I pulled all the assembled dishes from the oven and laid them on trivets and hot-pads atop the table. For presentation, I made on each plate a bed of sautéed onions and celery and covered it with roasted root vegetables, crispy garlic-rosemary potatoes, and lemon-butter broccoli. Beside all this, we enjoyed the olive bread and plenty of water. For dessert, we had satsuma mandarin oranges.
December 23rd, 2007 at 09:05
Merry Christmas!!
January 8th, 2008 at 22:27
I’m sorry. I forgot that I said that I would send you the instructions for making ghee. It’s too late tonight, but I went and got my instructions and put them by the computer, and I will type them up tomorrow. It’s really not that hard.
January 9th, 2008 at 11:38
Basically ghee is made by simmering butter until the water evaporates and you have just the fat left.
In a heavy bottomed 3 quart saucepan, heat one pound of sweet butter, cut into tiny pieces, over low heat. It should not sizzle, just melt slowly. This could take 5-15 minutes.
When the butter has melted completely, increase heat to medium. A thin layer of foam will form on the top and the liquid will begin to crackle as the moisture is released. Let it simmer for about 10 minutes. You don’t need to stir it. Little crumbs of milk solids will form in the liquid and cover the bottom.
When the crackling stops and the foam subsides, this indicates that there is no more moisture left in the liquid fat. From this point, you must watch it carefully because the foam will reform and you have to push it aside to see the bottom. Just when the solids on the bottom turn brown, turn off the heat and let the residue settle to the bottom.
(This browning is the critical moment. Brown enough makes the nutty flavor of ghee. Yum. Too brown just tastes burnt.)
When the ghee is cool enough to handle, pour the clear liquid into a superclean jar, taking care that none of the residue from the bottom of the pan gets into the jar. You can also strain it through a double layer of cheesecloth if you want. Cover it tightly with a lid.
Ghee, or usli ghee as it is sometimes called, will keep in the refrigerator for like four months. It can be kept on the kitchen counter for up to a month if the temperature is less than 75 degrees in your kitchen. If you don’t think you’ll use it all that quickly, you can put some into a separate jar and keep it in the freezer as long as you want. One pound of butter will make about 1 1/2 cups of ghee.
My directions came from Julie Sahni’s cookbook, Classic Indian Cooking. I bought it for Chris for Christmas the year we were engaged. It was a wonderful investment for a happy marriage.
January 9th, 2008 at 12:48
Thanks, Robin!