What's in Season?

Root vegetables, that is what the winter months are all about with them all being so much better with a good hard frost on them. Very often these humble root vegetables are not seen as being as glamorous as their summer counterparts but, the reality is that one can probably do so much more with a winter vegetable than a summer offering. Parsnips, carrots, Swede and celeriac, all so wonderful, without them how would we make a broth or a stew, and how fabulous they are just as vegetables in their own right. What about garlic or have you thought about roasting them with sesame seeds, cooking them with orange zest and orange juice or roasting them with coriander or cumin seeds. Recently for a client I cooked Thai carrots, sliced carrots cooked in a sealed pan with coconut milk, lemon grass, red chillies, a little ginger and garlic and finished with fresh coriander, so good you need nothing with them, a meal in themselves! 

Parsnips make great crisps, just peel off the flesh using a vegetable peeler into long thin strips, deep fry them at 140°c until the fat stops bubbling, drain on kitchen paper and lightly salt, I guarantee they will put you off potato crisps for life! Of course we all roast our parsnips with our Sunday lunch, don’t we? Next time try adding a little honey or brown sugar, this will intensify their natural sweetness while also helping them to caramelise better. As the winter draws on cut out the thick central stalks of the parsnip and use these for making soup, with the addition of a little curry powder and some apples it makes a fantastic warming winter bowlful. Swedes, for so many a vegetable only fit for animal food, yet it too is so versatile. They are great when braised in a little cream with a touch of sugar and cracked black pepper, they roast well as all roots do and also make the most wonderful fondants, being served either as a garnish or a vegetable. 

Celeriac is not what one would normally consider a terribly common vegetable in this country yet it seems to be growing in popularity in recent years. I always feel that there is something rather old fashioned and slightly central European about them. These knobbly turnip-like roots have a delicate celery flavour and perfume to them and are fantastic when mixed 50/50 with mashed potato turning everyday mash into something more special while they also give any stew an intense depth of flavour. Try making a Salad Remoulade, it really is quite simple yet so tasty, great to eat with any roast game, game terrine or pie. For my part I like to serve it with roast partridge.

Cabbages are also an excellent example of a versatile winter vegetable, now notice I say cabbages and not cabbage, there are just so many varieties and all of them so different from each other, and at this time of year, with their fantastic array of colours, flavours, textures and uses, they are virtually indispensable. Anyone that ever-thought cabbage was boring should definitely think again, there are Savoy’s that can be so intense in their shades of green, from the yellowy glow of the centre leaves to the deep bottle green of the outer ones, there is Cavolo Nero, a relative new comer to these shores with such a deep green which is almost black in its intensity it makes its name ‘black cabbage’ so apt. 

Then there are red cabbages so dark and rich of colour their deep purple positively glowing with health and vigour. White cabbages like footballs so hard and solid, one is better off trying to cut them using an axe rather than a knife. No, cabbage is not, by any stretch of the imagination, boring!