Recipes From the Root Cellar_ 270 Fresh Ways to Enjoy Winter Vegetables - Andrea Chesman [3]
My recipes are designed to use either a 28-ounce can or a quart of home-canned tomatoes. They aren’t precisely equivalent; there are about 3 cups of tomatoes in a 28-ounce can and anywhere from 3½ to 4 cups in a home-canned quart. Don’t worry about the difference; just use whichever you have on hand.
My mother never cooked a dish that didn’t begin with “First, sauté an onion.” My recipes are more varied than her home-style Jewish cooking, but when I write up my recipes, I find I am in a similar rut with garlic. I rarely make a dish that doesn’t include garlic. If you don’t like garlic, simply omit it, or substitute a tablespoon or two of minced onion or shallot. I prefer the subtle flavor of shallots over onions in most dishes. If you don’t have a shallot on hand, substitute one-quarter of an onion.
I encourage you to substitute freely with ingredients you have on hand or ones you prefer. Collard greens and kale are often interchangeable, though I tend to use only kale in recipes that originated in Italy, where kale is preferred. Collards may take some extra cooking to become tender, so judge doneness by the tooth, not the clock. Turnips and rutabagas are quite similar in flavor and texture and can be used interchangeably.
Bum Rap for Root Vegetables
The very dependability and nutritional value of root vegetables has led to their decidedly uncherished status. Take the rutabaga, for example. This relatively large root vegetable was the result of a chance hybridization between a turnip and cabbage, first appearing in eastern Europe in the seventeenth century. One of the few vegetables to last through long, cold Scandinavian winters, the rutabaga was the food of the poor, valued as an important source of nutrition. From Sweden, it reached Scotland, and from there it spread to the rest of Great Britain and to North America.
In continental Europe, it acquired a bad reputation during World War I, when it became a food of last resort. In the German Steckrübenwinter (rutabaga winter) of 1916–17, large parts of the population were kept alive on a diet consisting of rutabagas and little else; grain and potato crop failures combined with the disruptions of war had resulted in severe food shortages. After the war, most people were so tired of “famine food” that they turned against the dependable rutabagas that had sustained them. The fact that the rutabaga was also fed to livestock in winter didn’t help its image.
Salsify, for its part, is associated with “gray meat” stews served in school lunches in France and Germany. These stews have done nothing to enhance the image of salsify and other root vegetables in Europe.
It is time for root vegetables to come out of the cellar and be fully appreciated for the nutritional and flavor powerhouses that they are. Roast a rutabaga today!
Many of my dishes call for mixed root vegetables. I prefer using a mixture for color and flavor, but you can certainly use just one type of vegetable, if that is what you have. Beware of using only carrots or parsnips, which can add too much sweetness to a dish. I recommend using golden beets in mixes of root vegetables; you can substitute red beets, but they will stain the entire dish a garish red that isn’t always appealing.
I have identified those recipes that are vegetarian with a , and they make up the bulk of the book. Some of these recipes are vegetarian only if you so choose — either I have given a choice of broths that include a vegetable broth, or a vegetarian variation follows the main recipe. In my definition, vegetarian recipes may include dairy products and eggs.
About the Book
The first chapter is devoted to the vegetables: how to buy and store them, how to prepare them, and cooking tips that will ensure success with every recipe. I’ve suggested ways to cook the vegetables without following specific