TDG: Desperate Measures: Roasted Broccoli

[mikeczyz]

i roasted a medley of vegetables to accompany some braised meat. all of them turned ot wonderfully, exccept for the parsnips. they were sort of stringy.....strange texture. are roasted parsnips always like that? is roasting not a great technique for parsnips? were the parsnips of inferior quality?

mike

[Tonyfinch]

You could blanch the parsnips first in boiling water which softens them a bit. Then season with salt and pepper and place in REALLY HOT fat before roasting. This crisps up the outside and prevents the parsnips from absorbing fat and being soft and greasy.

[Shiva]

What Tony says, and I'll add that I've found parsnips take a lot less cooking than you'd think. They seem tougher than carrots or potatoes, but soften quicker when cooked.

[grahamtigg]

You need to remove the core of course. I quarter them lenghtwise to do this. I then steam them for 5 mins or so and let them dry before roasting. The longer you roast them the more they seem to shrink, although this does concentrate the flavour.

[jackal10]

Use young, small parsnips, otherwise remove the core.

You need to pretty well cook them by boiling them first.

Parsnips have a high sugar content, so if you just roast them they get too dark before they cook.

Roast in hot fat (WVOO or goose or duck) to crisp an brown the outside.

[Saffy]

I roast parsnips quite regularly, the key is choosing nice young fresh parsnips otherwise they will definately be stringy. I just toss them in with a medley of other root veges ( sweet potato, potatoes, red onions etc ) and a little oil or fat maybe some seasoning of somekind depending on the menu..

I never have any trouble with them. They do need to be turned over when cooking them too so they don't dry out.

[Fat Guy]

Mamster can roast anything . . .

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[guajolote]

If you wrap something in foil (beets) and put it in the oven aren't you really steaming them?

[Ruth]

I cannot believe that the broccoli will not become soft and lose color to boot if it is covered. I would prefer it seasoned, tossed with evoo and roasted in a 500° oven for about ten minutes. That is the method I use for asparagus and cauliflower; they retain their personality when cooked this way.

Edited July 7, 2003 by Ruth (log)

[weinoo]

Gotta go along with Ruth here - I never cover any vegetables that I'm roasting in the oven - I'm looking for that slight char and it just doesn't happen if they're foil wrapped.

[tammylc]

re. roasted kale...

Molly Katzen has a recipe for baked kale with parmesan in her cookbook "Vegetable Heaven." Which I don't have any more, so I can't give you any more details than that.

[mamster]

I have to admit this is a recipe I haven't bothered to play with very much, but I'll give the high heat roasting a try this week. A warning on the beets: I think I said 45 minutes in the article, but that's not always enough; it depends on the size and condition of the beets.

[LaurieA-B]

Actually we usually call this baked broccoli, as does Mark Strausman (Oven-Baked Broccoli, p. 94). I'm not sure how it became roasted broccoli in this article. It does become soft and lose color, and it's delicious. Strausman says, "Broccoli should be either very crisp, as in Chinese stir-fries, or very soft and sweet, as in this dish. Slowly baking broccoli in liquid, so that it cooks in its own juices, makes it tender and flavorful. The florets become almost crispy on top, and a golden glaze of Parmesan cheese pulls the whole thing together." It tastes really, really good. We eat this a lot. The main thing the broccoli has in common with Jim's roasted cauliflower is that you are taking two vegetables that many people (including me) grew up eating boiled and thinking it was disgusting. Out of the oven is something completely different. The Campagna Table has a generous number of delicious vegetable recipes. I'm especially fond of Peas and Prosciutto.

[Jinmyo]

Mr. mamster, you mean one could actually roast vegetables? Even beets?

You shouldn't just copyright this. You should patent it.

If you could grandfather the royalties you could soon rule the world. Which would make it a better place.

[Marlene]

The Baked Broccoli recipe

[kcd]

We love roasting veggies, ever since getting B. Kafka's book on roasting. A favorite in this house is roasting cabbage (what I think of as the Grandfather of the broccoli family). A whole cabbage feeds about 2 people (even if one of them is my non-cabbage-eating DH).

Here is central Texas, it is time to roast peaches and scoop icecream.

[JAZ]

If you wrap something in foil (beets) and put it in the oven aren't you really steaming them?

Could be. But from personal experience, I've found that beets don't do well unwrapped in the oven. They always seem to become tough.

[tighe]

An actual audio recording from mamster's kitchen as he prepared this particular dish. I believe thats Laurie on piano...

[Rachel Perlow]

I made the Baked Broccoli recipe tonight - came out wonderful. Since there's cheese on top at the end, I'll have to remember to use a little less salt next time (I sprinkled pretty generously, since I was using water instead of broth). But it was very very good. Actually, since I was making pork chops on the Weber, I cooked it on there in an aluminum pie tin. Worked out well as the chops came off just about the time the foil needed to come off the broccoli and the heat raised for 5 minutes. Just enough time for the chops to rest.

However, I am a little confused about the title. The recipe says baked broccoli, and I think that is a more accurate description. But the article is about roasting vegetables, especially broccoli.

[Anna N]

I made the Baked Broccoli recipe tonight - came out wonderful. Since there's cheese on top at the end, I'll have to remember to use a little less salt next time (I sprinkled pretty generously, since I was using water instead of broth). But it was very very good. Actually, since I was making pork chops on the Weber, ....

Rachel,

We must have been on the same wavelength last night! I too, did the broccoli and pork chops on the BBQ and some steamed new potatoes. I did the broccoli in the oven but was at my daughter's house and couldn't find a metal baking tin and was reluctant to risk her glass dish at high temp. I think it would have been better with that blast of high heat at the end but even so, we really enjoyed it. I was quite surprised at how much colour it retained. The big plus for us was that, unlike steamed broccoli, it didn't instantly turn almost icy cold when served!

Anna N

[mamster]

I fudged the baking/roasting distinction. Baking a vegetable wrapped in foil is somewhere between steaming and roasting; then when you take the foil off, it becomes genuine roasting. I would have titled the column "Baked Broccoli" rather than roasted, because it's more alliterative, but you know those headline writers.

[Jim Dixon]

I've tried to ignore this thread, but it keeps coming back up like a bad piece of fish. Just for the record, I think I called it caramelized cauliflower, but I'd be happy if the vegetable and me were never mentioned in the same breath again (not that I won't keep cooking and recommending the dish...actually have some small purple heads in the reefer right now just waiting for the treatment).

Anyway, I looked in Webster's and both 'baked' and 'roasted' are defined (and I'm paraphrasing here) as cooking in dry heat, as in an oven. There's no mention of covering or wrapping or any lack thereof.

I don't think that a food that may generate some steam from its own juices while being baked or roasted is actually being steamed. To me, 'steaming' means cooking with the moisture and heat (240F, if I'm remembering correctly) of live steam. However, I'm sure there are at least a few other opinions out there.

Jim

[mamster]

Jim, sorry for the trauma. Oops, it's back up. Down, boy!

[Chufi]

I know many have sung the praises of roast cauliflower here on EGullet. But tonight as I was preparing dinner I was reminded that roasting in a hot oven, with some oil, salt and maybe some herbs, is one of the very best ways to prepare any vegetable. The heat intensifies the flavor, you get all those lovely crispy bits.. mmm. Tonight I roasted a combo of carrots, potatoes and shallots, tossed with thyme and rosemary and olive oil:

before

and after roasting:

Some of my favorites:

green beans

pumpkin and butternut squash

parsnip, celeriac, and jerusalem artichoke.

Sometimes I serve them hot but I also love roast vegetables at room temp, as part of a salad.

What are your favorite vegetables for roasting and how do you use them?

[emmalish]

Oh yeah, this is my favourite winter food. And it's so simple to prepare and so satisfying.

I usually do a mix of new potatoes, sweet potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, leeks, beets and mushrooms (of course this mix varies depending on availability and what else looks good), with just salt & pepper & balsamic for seasoning. I'll cook the root vegetables covered for a little while to give them a head-start, then add the rest of the veggies and roast them.

This with a pan-fried or baked halibut filet, and some roasted spaghetti squash. Mmmmmm.