Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat
Page 23
The problem persisted: how could I ever convey my fervent love for vegetables and demonstrate their endless variety in just a few pages? As I compiled list after list of my favorite vegetable recipes, I realized that nearly all of them involved one of six cooking methods. These are the simplest, most useful methods for every cook to master. Once you do, go fearlessly to the market, knowing you can—and will—turn any vegetable you find into something delicious.
Use Vegetables: How and When to help you choose which vegetables to cook each season, and how to best prepare them. Refer to The Worlds of Fat, Acid, and Flavor to vary the way you flavor and garnish your vegetables. But cook your vegetables properly to make them universally delicious, no matter what cuisine inspires you.
Blanch: Greens
* * *
When you’re unsure about what to do with your greens, begin by setting a big pot of water over high heat. While the water comes to a boil, decide if you’d rather use the greens for Kuku Sabzi, Pasta alle Vongole, Ribollita (page 275), or something entirely different. Line a baking sheet or two with parchment paper and set aside. (If the greens have tough stems, strip the leaves as directed on page 232. Save kale, collard, and chard stems and blanch them in separate batch after you cook the leaves.)
Once the water’s at a rolling boil, season it until it tastes like the summer sea, then add your greens, whatever kind they may be. Do what the Italians do: first cook the greens just until they’re tender. Chard will take about 3 minutes, while collards can take upwards of 15 minutes. Pluck a leaf from the pot and taste it. If it’s tender to the bite, it’s ready. Use a spider or sieve to pull the greens from the water, then spread them onto the baking sheet in a single layer. Let them cool, grab handfuls of greens and squeeze out the excess water, then chop them coarsely.
Sauté blanched chard leaves and stems with browned onions, saffron, pine nuts, and currants, for a side dish inspired by the Sicilian seaside. Toss blanched spinach, chard, kale (or green beans, or asparagus) with Goma-Ae Dressing (page 251) to make your own version of that sushi joint staple to serve with Glazed Five-Spice Chicken. Sauté blanched bok choy with red pepper flakes and minced garlic—a preparation so simple you might assume it’ll underwhelm you. Don’t. Cook blanched collards with bacon and browned onions to serve with Spicy Fried Chicken. Treat blanched beet and turnip greens like you would Indian Garlicky Green Beans, and make yourself something delicious to serve alongside Indian-Spiced Salmon (page 311).
And if you have any greens left, ball them up, then wrap and refrigerate for 2 or 3 days, until you decide what you’d like to do with them. You can also freeze balls of greens in a single layer overnight, then transfer into resealable zipper bags. Keep frozen for up to 2 months, until the hankering for kuku sabzi—or any other verdant dish—returns. Just defrost and continue cooking as above.
Sauté: Snap Peas with Chilies and Mint
Serves 4 generously
* * *
You might remember my mentioning that the word sauté refers to the flip of the wrist that makes all the food cooking in a pan jump. If you haven’t got the movement down, practice (look back to page 173 for tips on learning how to sauté). And in the meantime, just use tongs! Sauté vegetables that will cook quickly, in just a few minutes, and whose texture, color, or flavor will suffer from overcooking.
About 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 pounds sugar snap peas, trimmed
Salt
12 mint leaves, julienned
Finely grated zest of 1 small lemon (about 1 teaspoon)
1/2 teaspoon red chili flakes
Set a large frying pan over high heat. When it’s nice and hot, add just enough olive oil to barely coat the bottom of the pan. When the oil shimmers, add the snap peas and season with salt. Cook over high heat, sautéing the peas as they start to brown, until they are sweet but still crisp, about 5 to 6 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the mint, lemon zest, and chili flakes. Taste and adjust salt as needed. Serve immediately.
Steamy Sauté: Garlicky Green Beans
Serves 6 generously
* * *
Steamy sautéing is a method for vegetables that are a little bit too dense to sauté directly. By cooking them with water for a few minutes before turning up the heat and letting them brown, you’ll ensure they’re cooked all the way through.
2 pounds fresh green beans, yellow wax beans, Romano beans, or haricots verts, trimmed
Salt
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
Set your largest frying pan over medium-high heat and bring 1/2 cup of water to a simmer. Add the green beans, season with a couple generous pinches of salt, and cover, removing the lid every minute or so to stir the beans. When they are almost completely tender, about 4 minutes for haricots verts and 7 to 10 minutes for more mature beans, tip any remaining water out of the pan, using the lid to keep in the beans. Return the pan to the stove, increase the flame to high, and dig a little hole in the center of the pan. Pour the olive oil into the hole and add the garlic. Let the garlic sizzle gently for about 30 seconds, until it releases an aroma, and immediately toss it with the beans before it has a chance to take on any color. Remove from the heat. Taste, adjust seasoning, and serve immediately.
Variations
• For classic French flavors, replace the olive oil with unsalted butter, omit the garlic, and toss with 1 teaspoon finely chopped tarragon before serving.
• For Indian flavors, replace the olive oil with ghee or unsalted butter and add 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger to the garlic.
Roast: Butternut Squash and Brussels Sprouts in Agrodolce
Serves 4 to 6
* * *
Roasted vegetables develop unparalleled sweetness both on the inside and on the surface due to caramelization, the Maillard reaction, and the release of their internal sugars. In other words, roasting is the best way to coax out sweetness.
With this in mind, I always aim to balance that sweetness with an acidic condiment, whether it’s an Herb Salsa, a Yogurt Sauce, or a vinegar-based agrodolce. This dish always finds its way onto my table at Thanksgiving, a meal so rich and starchy that extra acid is always welcome.
1 large butternut squash (2 pounds), peeled, halved lengthwise, seeds discarded
Extra-virgin olive oil
Salt
1 pound Brussels sprouts, trimmed, outer leaves removed
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
6 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon red chili flakes
1 garlic clove, finely grated or pounded with a pinch of salt
16 fresh mint leaves
Preheat the oven to 425°F.
Slice each half of the squash crosswise into 1/2-inch thick crescents and place in a large bowl. Toss with enough olive oil to coat, about 3 tablespoons. Season with salt and place in a single layer on a baking sheet.
Halve the Brussels sprouts through the stems, then toss in the same large bowl, adding more olive oil as needed to coat. Season with salt and place in a single layer on a second baking sheet.
Place the squash and sprouts into the preheated oven and cook until tender and caramelized, about 26 to 30 minutes. Check on the vegetables after about 12 minutes. Rotate the pans and switch their positions to ensure even browning.
Meanwhile, in a small bowl, toss the sliced onion and vinegar and allow to sit for 20 minutes to macerate (see page 118). In another small bowl, stir together another 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, sugar, chili flakes, and garlic, and a pinch of salt.
When the roasted vegetables are brown on the outside and completely tender when pierced with a knife, remove them from the oven. The sprouts might cook a little more quickly than the squash. Combine the vegetables in a big bowl. Stir the macerated onions and their vinegar into the olive oil mixture, then pour half of the marinade over the vegetables. Toss to combine, taste, and add m
ore salt and marinade as needed. Garnish with torn mint leaves and serve warm or at room temperature.
Long-Cook: Spicy Broccoli Rabe with Ricotta Salata
Serves 6
* * *
There’s overcooking and then there’s long-cooking. Overcooked vegetables are the ones that are forgotten in the blanching water or sauté pan for a few minutes, emerging wilted, brown, and sad. Long-cooked vegetables, on the other hand, are carefully tended until they grow tender and sweet—and they’re one of my favorite ways to use up the overlooked vegetables in the produce drawer.
2 bunches (about 2 pounds) broccoli rabe, rinsed
Extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
Salt
Big pinch red pepper flakes
3 garlic cloves, sliced
1 lemon
2 ounces ricotta salata cheese, coarsely grated
Cut off and discard the woody ends of the broccoli rabe. Slice the stems into 1/2-inch pieces, and the leaves into 1-inch pieces.
Set a large Dutch oven or similar pot over medium heat. When it’s hot, add 2 tablespoons olive oil to coat the bottom of the pot. When the oil shimmers, add the onion and a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is soft and beginning to brown, about 15 minutes.
Increase the heat to medium-high, add another tablespoon or so of oil, and the broccoli rabe to the pot, and stir to combine. Season with salt and red pepper flakes. You might need to mound the broccoli rabe to make it fit, or wait for some of it to cook down before you add the rest. Cover the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until the broccoli is falling-apart tender, about 20 minutes.
Remove the lid and increase the heat to high. Let the broccoli begin to brown, then use a wooden spoon to move it around the pan. Continue cooking until all the broccoli has evenly browned, about 10 minutes, then move it all to the outer edges of the pan. Add a tablespoon of olive oil into the center, then add the garlic into the oil and let it sizzle gently for about 20 seconds, until it starts to release an aroma. Before the garlic begins to brown, stir to combine it with the broccoli. Taste and adjust the salt and red pepper flakes as needed. Remove from heat and squeeze the juice of half a lemon over the broccoli.
Stir, taste, and add more lemon juice if needed. Heap onto a serving platter and shower with coarsely grated ricotta salata. Serve immediately.
Variations
• If you don’t have ricotta salata on hand, substitute Parmesan, pecorino Romano, Manchego, Asiago, or dollops of fresh ricotta.
• To round out the flavor with a little meatiness, reduce the total amount of olive oil to 1 tablespoon and add 4 ounces bacon or pancetta, sliced into matchsticks, in with the onion.
• To bump up the umami, add 4 minced anchovy filets in with the onion. Everyone will notice that the greens are unusually flavorful, though most people won’t be able to pinpoint precisely why.
Grill: Artichokes
Serves 6
* * *
Recall the miraculous way Heat transforms the flavors of wood into the extraordinary flavors of smoke and you’ll intuit why any vegetable will be improved by time spent on the grill. But only a handful of them can be properly grilled from a raw state. Think of grilling as a finishing touch for most starchy or dense vegetables, such as these artichokes, fennel wedges, or baby potatoes. Treat them right, by parcooking them on the stove or in the oven until they are tender, then skewer and grill them for a dose of smoky aroma.
6 artichokes (or 18 baby artichokes)
Extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
Salt
Set a large pot of water on to boil over high heat. Build a charcoal fire, or preheat a gas grill. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Remove the tough, dark outer leaves from the artichokes until the remaining leaves are half yellow, half light green. Cut away the woodiest part of the stem end and the top 1 1/2 inches of every artichoke. If there are any purple inner leaves, cut them out, too. You may need to remove more in order to cut away everything fibrous. It might seem like you’re trimming a lot, but remove more than you think you should, because the last thing you want is to bite into a fibrous or bitter bite at the table. Use a sharp paring knife or a vegetable peeler to remove the tough outer peel on the stem and at the base of the heart, until you reach the pale yellow inner layers. As you clean them, place the artichokes in a bowl of water with the vinegar, which will help keep them from oxidizing, which makes them turn brown.
Cut the artichokes in half. Use a teaspoon to carefully scoop out the choke, or fuzzy center, then return the artichokes to the acidulated water.
Once the water has come to a boil, season it generously until it’s as salty as the sea. Place the artichokes in the water and reduce the heat so the water stays at a rapid simmer. Cook the artichokes until they are just tender when pierced with a sharp knife, about 5 minutes for baby artichokes and 14 minutes for large artichokes. Use a spider or strainer to carefully remove them from the water, and place them on the prepared baking sheet in a single layer.
Drizzle the artichokes lightly with olive oil and season with salt. Place the artichokes cut-side down on the grill over medium-high heat. Don’t move them until they begin to brown, then rotate the skewers until the cut side is evenly brown, about 3 to 4 minutes per side. Flip, browning the other side in the same way.
Remove from the grill and drizzle with Mint Salsa Verde (page 361), if desired, or serve with Aïoli or Honey-Mustard Vinaigrette (page 240). Serve hot, or at room temperature.
STOCK AND SOUPS
Stock
With stock on hand, dinner is always within reach. A tasty, simple, quick dinner that can take one of countless forms—soup, yes of course, but also stuffing and panade, a gratin made with bread and abundant stock. Or grains cooked in stock, which deliver flavor and protein without relying on meat. Or a poached egg and just-wilted spinach drowned in stock. And then, of course, there are the endless braises, soups, and stews that stock will enrich.
Every time you roast a chicken, cut off the neck or head, feet, and wingtips (and even the backbone, when spatchcocking) before salting, and throw them all into the freezer in a plastic bag. Then, after dinner, add the carcass into the plastic bag. One chicken carcass isn’t really enough to warrant a pot of stock, so save up three or four and make stock every month or two. You can also save onion ends, the last stalk of celery that’s about to go rubbery, parsley stems, and carrot ends and store these in a bag in the freezer. When your freezer can no longer contain the mess, empty it all out into a big pot and prepare to make stock.
If all you have on hand is roasted bones, it’s worth making a trek out to the butcher shop to buy a few pounds of chicken heads and feet, or some wingtips. The gelatin the raw bones contain will add a ton of body and richness to the stock.
Chicken Stock
Makes 8 quarts
* * *
7 pounds chicken bones (at least half should be raw)
7 quarts water
2 onions, unpeeled, quartered
2 carrots, peeled and halved crosswise
2 celery stalks, halved crosswise
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
4 thyme sprigs
5 parsley sprigs or 10 stems
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
Put everything but the vinegar in a large stockpot. Bring the stock to a boil over high heat, then turn down to a simmer. Skim any foam that rises to the surface. Now add the vinegar, which will help draw out nutrients and minerals from the bones into the stock.
Simmer uncovered for 6 to 8 hours. Keep an eye on it to make sure it stays at a simmer. If stock boils, its bubbles will recirculate fat that rises to the top of the stock. With the sustained heat and agitation, the stock will emulsify. This is one of the times you’re not looking for an emulsion, because beyond looking cloudy, emulsified stock also tastes cloudy and clings to the tong
ue in an unpleasant way. One of the best things about good stock is that though its flavor is rich, it’s also clean.
Strain through a fine-meshed sieve and cool. Scrape the fat that rises to the top and save it in the fridge or freezer for Chicken Confit.
Refrigerate for up to 5 days, or freeze for up to 3 months. I like to freeze stock in old yogurt containers, which have the added benefit of premeasurement.
Variations
• To make Beef Stock, follow the same process, but replace the chicken with 6 pounds meaty beef bones (such as knuckle bones) and 1 pound beef marrow bones. Brown the bones on a rimmed baking sheet in a single layer in a 400°F oven for about 45 minutes. Brown the aromatics in the recipe above in the stockpot with a few tablespoons of olive oil before adding the bones, 3 tablespoons tomato paste, and water. Set the baking sheet over a burner set to low heat, and pour in 1 cup dry red wine. Use a wooden spoon or spatula to loosen all of the caramelized bits from the pan, and add them, along with the wine, into the stockpot. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook for at least 5 hours before straining. To make a Super-Rich Beef Stock, begin with chicken stock instead of water.