17Vegetables

Vegetables used to sit at the edge of the plate, beside the meat and potatoes. Today cooks use fresh vegetables, carefully prepared, to bring flavor, color and variety to nearly any meal. Plenty of restaurants offer vegetarian main courses, long lists of vegetable sides, or a whole vegetarian menu. Diners know more and care more about health, and good fresh produce is easier to buy.

17.1 Families of vegetables

Cooks learn vegetables in families. Members of one family often look alike, grow alike and suit the same cooking. Four families come first: the cabbages, the fruit-vegetables, the gourds and squashes, and the leafy greens.

The cabbage family

The cabbage family is called Brassica. Its members are grown for their heads, their flowers or their leaves. Most grow quickly and like cool weather. Many are very old plants, and nobody knows where they first came from. They cost little, they are easy to find, and they are simple to prepare.

• Bok choy, also spelled pok choy, is a southern Chinese cabbage with white stems. Its dark green leaves sit on long white ribs that join at a rounded base. The stalks are crisp and mild, a little like romaine lettuce. It can be eaten raw but usually goes into a stir-fry or a soup. Look for bright white stalks and dark green leaves with no brown, wet spots. It is sold all year, and Korean kimchee is a pickled, fermented form.
• Broccoli is a flower. A thick stalk carries gray-green leaves and one or more heads of green florets. Eat it raw, or steam, microwave or sauté it, and serve it hot or cold. The stalks are very firm and do well with blanching first; stems often go slowly into soup. The leaves are usually not eaten. Choose firm stalks with tight, closed, dark green florets, and pass over any with yellow flowers.
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• Brussels sprouts were first grown around 1700. Many small heads grow in rows up a thick stalk, like tiny cabbages. They are usually steamed or roasted. Their flavor is strong and nutty and goes well with game, ham, duck and other rich meats. The best are small, firm, heavy and bright green, ¾ to 1½ inches (2 to 4 centimeters) across, at their peak from September to February.
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• Cauliflower grows one head per stalk: creamy white florets wrapped in big green leaves. Cook the head whole, or break it into florets to steam, blanch or stir-fry. Pick firm, tight heads with crisp, bright leaves. A yellow color or florets that spread apart mean it is past its best.
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• Head cabbage comes green or red. Green cabbage has a big, firm, round head of tightly packed pale leaves; flat and cone-shaped heads exist too. Red cabbage is a separate strain and can be tougher. Use it raw, as in coleslaw, or in soups and stews, or braise, steam or stir-fry it. The large leaves can be steamed soft and rolled around a seasoned meat filling. Choose firm heads whose cores have not dried out.
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• Kale has large leaves that are ruffled, curly or bumpy. Its somewhat bitter taste suits game, pork and ham. It is usually boiled, stuffed or added to soup. Look for crisp, gray-green leaves; the peak is winter. Ornamental kale, in pink, purple, yellow or white, can be eaten but is best kept for decoration.
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• Kohlrabi looks like a root but is a swollen stem, bred by crossing cabbage with turnip. The skin may be pale green, purple, or green touched with red; the flesh is white and sweet, like turnip, and can replace turnip in many dishes. Young plants are milder and more tender. Peel a mature one; just scrub a young one. Eat it raw, or boil or steam it whole, sliced or diced, or hollow it out and stuff it. Its peak is June to September.
• Napa cabbage, also called Chinese cabbage, is common in Asian cooking. The head is long and stout, with firm, pale green leaves. It is moister, more tender and milder than green or red cabbage. It can be eaten raw, but it is at its best stir-fried or steamed.
• Savoy cabbage has curly, ruffled leaves, often in mixed greens and purples. Cooks use the word savoy for any vegetable whose leaves are wrinkled, wavy or bumpy. Savoy is milder and more tender than ordinary cabbage and can stand in for it, raw or cooked. Its peak runs from August through the spring.
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Fruit-vegetables

To a botanist, avocados, eggplants, peppers and tomatoes are fruits: each grows from the ovary of a flower and holds seeds. Chefs cook and serve them as vegetables, so the kitchen treats them that way.

Avocados are pear-shaped, with rich, fatty, light golden-green flesh around one big pit that cannot be eaten. Some have smooth green skin; others have bumpy skin that is almost black. An avocado is at its best for only a short time. A firm one lacks flavor and creaminess; a ripe one gives to a gentle press but is not mushy. Ripe Haas avocados have nearly black skin, while other kinds stay green. Leave firm ones at room temperature to ripen, then refrigerate them for a day or two.

Avocados are mostly eaten raw: on salads, mashed or puréed into sauces, sliced into sandwiches, diced into omelettes, or halved and filled with a cold meat, fish or chicken salad. Cut flesh browns very fast. Dip cut pieces in lemon juice and wrap what is left tightly in plastic. Choose fruit with no blemishes or wet spots. The Haas peak is April to October; Fuerte avocados peak from November to April.

Eggplants (in French, aubergine) come in two main types. Asian kinds are round or long and thin, from creamy white to deep purple. Western kinds, more common in the United States, are shaped like a fat pear, with shiny lavender to purple-black skin. Both have dense, khaki flesh that tastes of little on its own and soaks up other flavors as it cooks. Grill, bake, steam, fry or sauté them, with the skin on or off. Choose plump, heavy eggplants with smooth, shiny, unwrinkled skin; the peak is late summer.

Salting sliced eggplant and leaving it to drain for 30 minutes takes out moisture and bitterness. It also stops the slices soaking up oil. The flesh is full of watery cells with tiny air pockets around them. Heat pushes the air out, and in unsalted eggplant oil runs into the empty pockets, so fried slices turn soggy. Salt pulls the water out of the cells first. The cells collapse, the pockets collapse with them, and there is no room left for oil.

Peppers belong to the Capsicum family and are native to the Americas. Christopher Columbus called them peppers because some tasted fiery, though they have nothing to do with peppercorns, the spice he was really looking for. Cooks in India and Asia took them up, and they are now basic to those cuisines.

Peppers come in green, red, yellow, orange, purple and white, and in shapes from tiny teardrops to cones and balls. Inside the dense flesh is a hollow, lined with white ribs that hold the seeds. A chile's heat comes from capsaicin, which sits in those ribs, not in the flesh or the seeds. Cut out the ribs and seeds and much of the heat goes with them. Small chiles are usually hotter, but heat changes with the kind and with the weather it grew in: hot, dry seasons make hotter peppers. Choose plump, brightly colored peppers with smooth skin and a bright green stem. Wear gloves to handle Scotch bonnets or habaneros, which can burn.

• Sweet peppers, or bell peppers, have thick walls and crisp flesh. They are heart-shaped or boxy, sweet and fairly mild; red ones are the sweetest. Slice them raw into salads and sandwiches, or stuff and bake, grill, fry, sauté or purée them. Green ones are sold all year; other colors are easier to find in summer and autumn.
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• Hot peppers, or chiles, each have their own flavor, from mild and rich to fiercely hot. They are central to Asian, Indian, Mexican and Latin American cooking. The bigger, milder chiles, poblano and Anaheim among them, are good stuffed and baked or sautéed for a side dish, but most chiles are used to season sauces and other dishes.
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• Dried chiles taste stronger and sharper than fresh ones, and drying often gives a chile a new name. They are ground into chili powder, or soaked and puréed for sauces. One dried chile cannot replace another without changing the dish. Buy them clean and whole, still a little flexible, with no white spots and no stale smell.
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Tomatillos, also called Mexican or husk tomatoes, are small and bright green, no bigger than a little tomato, inside a thin papery husk. They taste tart and lemony. Use them raw in salads, puréed into salsa, or cooked in soups and stews. Pick ones whose husks have split but still look fresh, with plump, shiny, slightly sticky skin.

Tomatoes run from green (unripe) through gold to deep red, and from tiny currant tomatoes to huge beefsteaks. Plum tomatoes are meaty with few seeds; slicing tomatoes are full of seeds and juice. They spoil quickly, so most are picked mature but still green and ripened by wholesalers in rooms with set heat and humidity, which harms flavor and texture. Most are eaten raw, but they can also be roasted, grilled, sautéed, pan-fried or pickled. Choose plump, smooth, shiny tomatoes with an even color that fits the kind. Sun-dried tomatoes packed dry can be softened in oil or hot water.

Gourds and squashes

The gourd family has almost 750 species, all from warm parts of the world. They grow big roots, fast trailing vines and large leaves, and their flowers are often handsome and good to eat. A few came from Africa, but chayotes and most squashes first grew in the Americas.

• Chayote, also called merliton or vegetable pear, is a staple food across Central America. It is pear-shaped and slightly lumpy, light green, with one edible white seed. It is starchy and very bland, so it is usually paired with stronger flavors. It can be eaten raw, but roasting, steaming, sautéing or grilling improves it. Its peak is late autumn and winter.
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• Cucumbers are either pickling or slicing types, and one cannot replace the other. Pickling cucumbers (cornichon, dill, gherkin) have sharp black or white spines and taste bitter raw. Slicing types include the everyday green market cucumber, the burpless, the round yellow lemon cucumber and the seedless English or hothouse cucumber. Some are sold with a wax coat to keep in moisture; peel waxed skin off. Choose firm cucumbers, not hard, limp or yellow.
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• Squashes split into winter and summer types, by season and by skin. Every squash has a central cavity full of seeds, larger in winter kinds. The blossoms can be eaten raw in salads, battered and deep-fried, or stuffed with cheese or meat and baked. Choose squash with whole skin and good color, and no soft, wet spots.
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• Winter squashes include acorn, banana, butternut, Hubbard, pumpkin and spaghetti. Their hard shells and seeds are not eaten. The flesh is sweeter and stronger than summer squash and can be taken out of the shell before or after cooking. They are rarely eaten raw; bake, steam or sauté them, or purée them for soup or pie. Their peak is October to March.
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• Summer squashes include patty pan, yellow crookneck and zucchini. Their skins and seeds are soft and are usually left in. Eat them raw, or grill, sauté, steam or bake them. Their peak is April to September.

Greens

Greens are leafy vegetables that can be eaten raw but are usually cooked. They have a long history in Indian, Asian and Mediterranean cooking and in the cooking of the southern United States. Most taste strong and spicy; the mild ones usually eaten raw are the lettuces.

Greens are mostly water, so they shrink a great deal as they cook. Plan on 8 ounces (250 grams) of raw greens for each portion. Choose young, tender leaves with good color that are not limp, and avoid dry-looking stems and yellow leaves.

• Collards are a loose-headed cabbage with bright green leaves and a sharp, tangy taste. In the American South they are simmered slowly with ham hocks or bacon until very soft and served in their cooking liquid. They are rich in iron and in vitamins A and C, and best picked young or after the first autumn frost.
• Mustard greens, another member of the cabbage family, have large, frilly, dark green leaves and a bold, bitter taste. Serve them raw in salads or as garnish, or cook them, often with white wine, vinegar and herbs.
• Sorrel is a common wild plant of the buckwheat family. Its sour taste lifts soups, sauces and other vegetables, and it suits fatty fish and rich meats. A few minutes of moist heat turns the leaves into something like a purée.
• Spinach grows fast in cool climates and has smooth, bright green leaves on thin stems. Eat it raw, cook it by almost any moist-heat method, microwave it or sauté it. It grows in sandy soil, so rinse it again and again in cold water until no grit is left, and handle it gently because it bruises. Pull off the stems and large center ribs.
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• Swiss chard is a beet that grows no root bulb; it is grown for its wide, flat, dark green leaves. Steam it, sauté it or put it in soup. Its tart taste, a little like spinach, goes well with sweet foods such as fruit. Look for crisp leaves and clean white or red ribs.
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• Turnip greens are the long, deeply notched leaves of the turnip. Their pleasant bitterness is close to peppery mustard greens. Steam, sauté, bake or microwave them.

17.2 Mushrooms, truffles and onions

Mushrooms

Mushrooms are fungi. They spread by spores and grow as a stalk with an umbrella-shaped cap. They are not true vegetables, but the kitchen uses and serves them as if they were.

Cultivated kinds include:

• the common white mushroom;
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• shiitake;
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• crimini, also called Italian brown;
• straw;
• enokidake, or enoki;
• cloud ear, also called wood ear or Chinese black.
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The button mushroom is simply the youngest, smallest form of the common mushroom. The portabella, the largest cultivated kind, is a crimini left to grow, and can reach 6 inches (15 centimeters) across.

Mushrooms are sold fresh, canned and dried. They can be up to 80 percent water, so dried mushrooms are often the best value even at hundreds of dollars a pound. Kept somewhere cool and dry, dried mushrooms last for months. To use them, soak them in warm water for about 10 to 20 minutes, until soft.

Choose fresh mushrooms that are clean, with no soft or wet spots. On cultivated mushrooms, open gills (the ridges under the cap) mean they are old. Fresh cultivated mushrooms are sold all year; fresh wild ones mostly in summer and autumn. Fresh mushrooms keep up to 5 days refrigerated, in a container left open. They do not need peeling. If they are dirty, rinse them quickly in cool water just before use; do not soak them.

Truffles

Truffles grow underground, close to the roots of beech or oak trees. The only way to farm them is to plant oak groves where they may grow. The two main kinds are the black Périgord truffle and the white Piedmontese truffle. Fresh truffles are dug in the autumn and rarely sold far from where they are found. Their smell and flavor are so strong, especially in white truffles, that a little flavors a soup, sauce or pasta. Black truffles also garnish dishes and flavor pâtés, terrines and eggs. Imported fresh truffles may run to several hundred dollars a pound, so most kitchens buy them canned, dried or processed.

Olives

The olive is the fruit of a Mediterranean tree. Green olives are picked unripe; black olives are fully ripe. Straight from the tree they are too bitter to eat, so they are washed, soaked and cured or pickled first. A good green olive has smooth, tight skin; a ripe one is glossy, softer and a little wrinkled. Kinds range from the tiny black Niçoise of France to the large purple Kalamata of Greece. Ripe black olives are packed in seven sizes and green olives in eleven, up to super-colossal.

Olives come whole, pitted, sliced, halved or in pieces, and pitted green olives are often stuffed with pimento, jalapeño or almonds. Serve them as a snack or hors d'oeuvre, toss them into salads and pasta, or cook them into breads, soups, sauces, stews and casseroles. Tapenade is a paste of finely chopped ripe olives, used as a dip or a condiment.

Bulb onions

Bulb onions are white, yellow (Bermuda or Spanish) or red. Medium yellow and white onions have the strongest flavor; bigger onions are usually sweeter and milder. Onions flavor a huge range of dishes and are a must in mirepoix. see chapter 21: Mirepoix and seasonings

As a side dish, onions can be deep-fried, roasted, grilled, steamed or boiled. Pearl onions are small, about ½ inch (1.25 centimeters) across, with yellow or white skins and a mild taste. Cook them whole for a side dish, or add them to soups and stews.

Sweet onions include the Vidalia, the Maui, the Walla-Walla, the Super Sweet and the OSO Sweet. They hold more water and sugar and fewer sulfur compounds than other onions. They are best raw, on sandwiches, salads and burgers, because cooking takes away much of their sweetness. Each kind is in season only briefly, somewhere between January and August, and none keeps for more than a few weeks.

Choose onions that are firm, dry and heavy, with dry, brittle outer skins and no sprouts. Store them somewhere cool, dry and airy, and do not refrigerate them until they are cut.

Raw onions are not a potentially hazardous food, but fried onions are. A potentially hazardous food is one that lets disease-causing bacteria grow. see chapter 2: Potentially hazardous foods

Garlic, leeks, scallions and shallots

Garlic is used in nearly every cuisine. A head is made of many small cloves, each in a thin peel, and the whole head is wrapped in papery layers. Of around three hundred kinds, three matter in trade: the common pure white garlic with a sharp taste, a stronger pale pink Mexican garlic, and elephant garlic, as big as an apple and quite mild. Whole heads can be baked or roasted, but most garlic is peeled and sliced, minced or crushed. The finer you crush it, the stronger it tastes. The longer you cook it, the milder it gets. Choose firm, dry heads with tight cloves and no green sprouts. Keep it cool and airy, not in the refrigerator.

Fresh garlic is a non-hazardous food, but fresh garlic in oil is potentially hazardous.

Leeks look like overgrown scallions, with a fat white end and wide green leaves. Their flavor is milder than a bulb onion's, yet sweeter and stronger than a scallion's. Sandy soil gets between the layers, so wash leeks with care. Bake, braise or grill them as a side dish, or use them to flavor stocks, soups and sauces. Choose firm leeks with stiff roots and stems, and pass over any with dry leaves, soft spots or browning.

Scallions, also called green onions or bunch onions, are young bulb onions picked as green stalks. The white base may be long and slim or slightly round. Use them in stir-fries and to flavor other dishes, and slice the green tops into small rings for garnish. Look for clean white bulbs under bright green tops, and pass over limp or slimy leaves.

Shallots look like small onions with one flat side. Peeled, they break into cloves, as garlic does. Their flavor is mild but rich and layered. Many classic sauces and meat dishes start with shallots, and a side dish of shallots can be baked or sautéed. Choose plump, well-shaped shallots that are not dry or sprouting, and keep them cool, dry and out of the refrigerator.

17.3 Roots, tubers and stalks

Roots and tubers

• Beets are linked with cold northern places, where they grow most of the year. Boil them, then peel them for salads, soups or baked dishes. Choose small to medium, firm beets with smooth skin; hairy root tips can mean a tough beet.
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• Carrots are among the most useful vegetables of all. The most common kind, the Imperator, is long and pointed, medium to dark orange, mild and sweet. Cut them into many shapes and eat them raw, use them in mirepoix, cook them in liquid, grill, microwave or roast them, or grate them into cakes and muffins. Choose firm, smooth, bright orange carrots; any green tops should look fresh. see chapter 4: Putting the cuts to work on vegetables
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• Celery root, or celeriac, is a large, round, knobby brown root, popular in northern Europe. It is not the same plant as stalk celery. Peel off the thick skin to reach crunchy, creamy white flesh with a mild celery taste. Eat it raw, or bake, steam or boil it for soups, stews and salads; it goes well with game and rich meats. Cut raw pieces can wait in acidulated water so they do not brown.
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• Jerusalem artichokes are not artichokes at all but the tubers of a kind of sunflower, and growers now sell them as sunchokes. The lumpy brown skin can be eaten but is usually peeled off. The white inside is crisp and slightly nutty. Cooking makes them easier to digest. Chop or grate them into salads, or boil or steam them for a side dish or soup.
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• Jicama is a legume that grows a tuber underground. Under its thick brown skin is crisp, juicy, sweet white flesh, low in calories, that keeps a long time. It is mostly eaten raw, in salads or with salsa, and also goes into stir-fries. Size tells you nothing about quality.
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• Parsnips look and taste like white carrots but have a texture like sweet potato. Good ones are smooth, with tapering tips, and 5 to 10 inches long (12.5 to 25 centimeters). Peel them like carrots, then eat them raw or cook them almost any way; steamed very soft, they mash like potatoes. Avoid large, woody parsnips.
• Radishes bring a peppery taste and a crisp bite. Their skins may be white, black or any shade of red, and most are white inside. The Asian radish called daikon grows 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 cm) thick and from 6 to 20 inches long. Steaming and stir-frying both work, but radishes are mostly eaten raw, in salads or as garnish, and the leaves can be cooked as greens. Choose firm radishes that are not dry or hollow inside.
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• Rutabagas are roots from the cabbage family, with purple to yellow skin and yellow flesh that tastes starchy and cabbage-like. Cooked, they are close enough to turnips to swap with them. Peel them with a peeler or a chef's knife and cut them into quarters, slices or cubes. Bake them, boil and purée them, or slice and sauté them; caraway, dill or lemon juice suits them.
• Turnips are also cabbage-family roots: white skin blushed rosy red or purple, white inside, with a taste like radish that can be quite hot. Peel them, then dice, slice or cut them into julienne strips. Bake them or cook them in liquid; they are often puréed like potatoes. Choose small to medium turnips that feel heavy and firm, not rubbery.
• Water chestnuts are the tubers of an Asian water plant. Under the brownish-black skin is crisp, moist white flesh that stays crunchy even when cooked, which makes it popular in stir-fries. They also go into salads and casseroles, or are wrapped in bacon for the hors d'oeuvre called rumaki.

Stalks

Stalk vegetables are stems with a lot of cellulose fiber. Pick them young and tender, and trim off tough fibers before cooking.

• Artichokes are the unopened flowers of a kind of thistle. A young, tender globe artichoke can go into the pot whole; older ones need the fuzzy center, called the choke, taken out first. Simmer, steam or microwave whole artichokes, and serve them with hollandaise sauce, garlic butter or lemon juice. The heart can be cooked on its own for salads, fillings or a side dish. Choose tight, heavy heads, solid green to gray-green. Brown marks from frost do no harm.
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• Asparagus has bright green spears topped with a ruffle of tiny leaves. Thick spears are often woody and tough, but they still make soup or purée. Eat it raw, or steam it briefly, stir-fry, microwave or grill it. Spring asparagus needs only lemon juice or clarified butter, and asparagus with hollandaise is a classic. Choose firm, plump spears with tight tips, green all the way down. White asparagus is grown under soil, which keeps the light off and stops chlorophyll forming; it is milder and softer.
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• Bamboo shoots are the young shoots of certain bamboos, eaten once the tough brown skin is stripped away. They are good in stir-fries or served like asparagus. Canned shoots, in brine or water, are the usual form in the United States; rinse them well before use.
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• Celery was once a medicinal herb. Its pale green stalks are curved and stringy. It is often eaten raw, but a side dish of braised or steamed celery works too, and it is one of the three vegetables of mirepoix. Choose crisp stalks with no sign of drying.
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• Fennel has been eaten in the Mediterranean for thousands of years: the bulb as a vegetable, the leaves as an herb and the seeds as a spice. The bulb is made of short, tight stalks like celery, topped with feathery leaves, and tastes of anise or licorice; the taste softens when cooked. Eat it raw, or grill, steam, sauté, bake or microwave it. Choose a fairly large, bright white, compact bulb with fresh cut edges.
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• Hearts of palm are the soft insides of cabbage palm stems: ivory, slim and delicate, tasting a little like asparagus. Fresh ones are grown in Florida; canned ones are sold everywhere. They are usually served uncooked in salads or marinated in an herb vinaigrette.
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• Nopales are the pads of the prickly pear cactus. They taste like green bell pepper and have a slippery, jelly-like texture that thickens stews and sauces. To prepare one, hold the pad with tongs, cut away the thorns and the "eyes" with a sharp knife or peeler, and trim the edge all round. Cut the pad into julienne strips or cubes, then boil or steam them, chill them for salads, or sauté them with onions and peppers. Choose stiff, heavy pads that are neither dry nor soggy.
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Baby vegetables

Baby vegetables appear in many fine restaurants: miniature carrots, tiny turnips, squash no longer than a finger, little heads of cauliflower. Some are true miniature breeds; others are ordinary kinds picked before they are grown. They are often sold with their flowers or leaves still on. They bruise easily and spoil fast. Many can be eaten raw, but most often they stay whole and are steamed or lightly sautéed, and set beside meat, fish or poultry. see chapter 9: Steaming vegetables

17.4 Potatoes

Potatoes are one of the few vegetables that began in the Americas, most likely in the Andes mountains of South America. The part you eat is the tuber, the swollen part of the stem that grows underground. Potatoes are tough and easy to grow, so they are cheap and easy to find. In the United States people eat nearly 50 pounds of them each a year.

Potatoes are rich in complex carbohydrates that are easy to digest, with little or no fat. They also supply vitamin B6, vitamin C and potassium, but cooking them in liquid, as for boiled or mashed potatoes, can destroy much of the vitamin C.

Mealy or waxy: the first choice

The most important choice when buying potatoes is mealy or waxy. Match the type to the dish.

• Mealy potatoes, also called starchy potatoes, are high in starch and have thick skins. They are the best for baking, and suppliers often call them simply "bakers". They are low in sugar, so they can stay in the fryer long enough to cook through without burning outside. They break apart when boiled, which makes them good for whipped or puréed potatoes.
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• Waxy potatoes are low in starch and have thin skins. They are best for boiling. Baked, they never turn fluffy, and deep-fried they go limp and soggy because they hold so much water.
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Kinds of potato

Kinds of potato, their texture and their best uses.

Choosing, grading and buying

Choose heavy, very firm potatoes with clean skins and few eyes. Pass over any that show sprouts, cracks, cut edges, soft spots, green streaks or a lot of eyes. Size A potatoes are bigger than size B, which must measure 1½ to 2¼ inches (3.75 to 5.5 centimeters) across.

In the United States potatoes are graded under the voluntary system of the USDA (the Department of Agriculture). U.S. Fancy is the top grade, but most wholesale potatoes are U.S. No. 1. Retail potatoes may also be graded U.S. Grade A or U.S. Grade B.

Potatoes usually come in 50-pound cartons, sold by count: the number of potatoes in the box. In a 100-count carton each potato weighs about 8 ounces on average. The usual counts are 80, 90 and 100. Bigger potatoes, which means lower counts, cost more, but size has nothing to do with quality, so buy the size the dish needs.

Storing potatoes

Most produce is refrigerated between 2 and 4°C (36 and 39°F), but potatoes are one of the exceptions that belong somewhere warmer. The best range for them is 50 to 65°F (10 to 18°C), and they are never refrigerated. Below 40°F (4°C) the starch turns to sugar. The cooked potato then tastes too sweet, may turn gray or streaky, and burns more easily in the fryer.

Keep potatoes in the dark. Light makes them build chlorophyll, which turns them green and bitter. A green patch may mean solanine, a toxin that is harmful eaten in large amounts, so peel the green away. Solanine is also in the eyes and sprouts; cut those out and throw them away before cooking.

Stored well, baking and all-purpose potatoes keep for about two months, and new potatoes for several weeks. Leave potatoes unwashed until you need them, because washing makes them spoil faster. Once peeled, keep them covered in water in the refrigerator so they do not turn brown.

Cooked potato dishes and safety

Any cooked plant food counts as a potentially hazardous food. Hot-holding equipment must keep food at 60°C (140°F) or hotter, and food being reheated must hold 74°C (165°F) for 15 seconds or more before it goes into a hot-holding unit. Potato dishes made with cream, butter or custard call for particular care on both counts. see chapter 2: Heat: cooling, holding and reheating

Choosing a method

Potatoes taste fairly neutral, so they go with many savory dishes, and almost every dry-heat and moist-heat method works on them. They also go into braises and stews, soups such as vichyssoise, dumplings such as gnocchi, breads, pancakes such as latkes, puddings, salads and even vodka. Plenty of potato dishes use two methods in turn: hash browns are parboiled and then sautéed, and the best French fries are blanched in oil before the final fry.

Most potatoes are done when they are soft and a knife tip meets little resistance. Fried potatoes should be crisp and golden-brown outside and moist and tender inside.

Baking and roasting

Potatoes roasted beside meat or poultry pick up the fat and juices that run from the roast. Mealy or waxy, peeled or not, both roast well. see chapter 8: What roasting is

For a true baked potato, use a mealy potato such as a russet and leave the skin on. Do not wrap it in foil or cook it in a microwave: either one steams the potato, and the skin will not crisp. A good baked potato is white and fluffy inside, not yellow or soggy.

• Scrub the potatoes well.
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• Prick the skins with a fork so steam can escape.
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• If you like, rub them with oil and salt. Leave them unwrapped.
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• Bake until a paring knife slides in easily.
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Baking en casserole means baking raw or parboiled potatoes in a dish with a sauce, cheese, meat or other flavorings. Scalloped potatoes bake in béchamel sauce; potatoes au gratin are topped with cheese. Both should form a crisp brown crust, hold their shape when cut and have a smooth sauce. Layer the potatoes with the other ingredients, or mix everything and turn it into a buttered pan, then bake until done. These dishes can be baked ahead and held loosely covered in a steam table, then browned under a broiler or salamander at service.

A gratin dauphinoise shows the method.

• Cut russet potatoes into thin slices, keeping them in water as you cut so they do not darken.
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• Lay them in a buttered dish in layers, seasoning each with salt, white pepper and nutmeg and sprinkling it with grated Gruyère.
• Whisk egg yolks into simmered half-and-half and pour it over.
• Scatter the rest of the cheese on top and bake at 350°F for 30 to 45 minutes, until tender and golden.
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Sautéing and pan-frying

Waxy potatoes, red or white, sauté and pan-fry best. They are often parboiled or fully cooked first, which is a good use for leftover boiled potatoes. Choose the fat for flavor: oil, lard, bacon fat or clarified butter. Heat the fat before the potatoes go in, so they form a crust instead of soaking up fat. Good sautéed potatoes are crisp and well browned outside, tender inside, and never soggy or greasy. see chapter 8: Sauté and pan-frying

There are two ways to do it. In the tossing method, small pieces cook in a little fat and are flipped against the sloped side of the pan so they brown all over. In the still-frying method, shredded or sliced potato covers the base of the pan and is left alone until the underside is well browned; then the whole cake is turned to brown the other side and cut into wedges.

Deep-frying

Top-quality russets are the potato to deep-fry. Peel them or not. Peeled potatoes should wait in clean, cold water until you cut and cook them. The water draws off some starch, which keeps them white and crisp and stops small pieces sticking together. see chapter 8: Batters and breadings

Fried potatoes are cooked twice.

• Wash, then peel or trim the potatoes, and cut them into pieces of even size.
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• Blanch them in a fryer basket in oil at about 250°F (121°C) until tender and translucent, 2 to 3 minutes. Blanching oil may run anywhere from 250 to 300°F (120 to 150°C).
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• Drain them and spread them in one layer on a sheet pan or hotel pan until service.
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• At service, fry them again at 350 to 375°F (about 177 to 191°C) until golden brown.
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• Drain briefly on paper, salt to taste and serve at once.

Boiling and mashing

For every moist-heat method, waxy potatoes do best. "Boiled" potatoes are really simmered. Water is usual, but stock can be used or milk added for flavor. see chapter 9: Moist heat: poach, simmer, steam

• Wash, peel or trim the potatoes, and cut them into even pieces. Do not cut them too small, or they take up water and turn soggy.
• Start them in cool liquid that covers them by several inches, so they cook evenly. Bring it to a boil, then lower it to a simmer.
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• For a slightly firm result, drain them just short of done and let carryover heat finish the job.
• Drain in a colander. Unlike other vegetables, potatoes are not refreshed in cold water, which makes them soggy.

For basic mashed potatoes, start with 2½ pounds of mealy potatoes such as russets, and work fast so they stay hot.

• Peel them and cut them into large, even dice.
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• Simmer them in salted water until a paring knife goes in easily, taking care not to overcook.
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• Drain them well and whip them for 30 to 45 seconds.
• Beat in warm milk and melted butter, and season.
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Yukon Golds can be mashed another way: cut in ½-inch pieces, simmered 15 to 20 minutes and passed through a food mill into hot cream and butter.

Classic potato dishes

Many classic potato dishes start from duchesse potatoes. To make them:

• Cook mealy potatoes until fork-tender and dry them on a sheet pan.
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• Press them through a ricer while warm.
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• Blend in butter, nutmeg, salt and pepper, then a whole egg and two yolks.
• Pipe the mixture into spirals, brush with clarified butter, and bake at 375°F until the edges brown, 8 to 10 minutes.
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Classic potato preparations, with and without the duchesse base. see chapter 4: The classic cuts and their sizes

17.5 Buying, storing and preparing vegetables

Buy in season

Buy fresh vegetables by the season. At its peak a vegetable costs the least, there is the most to choose from, and its color, flavor and texture are all at their best.

Grades and packs in the United States

The USDA runs a voluntary grading system for fresh vegetables sold on wholesale markets. It judges appearance, condition and anything else that affects waste or eating quality. The general grades, best first:

• U.S. Extra Fancy
• U.S. Fancy
• U.S. Extra No. 1
• U.S. No. 1

Some vegetables also have grades of their own; onions, for example, can be graded U.S. No. 1 Boilers. Consumer grades, lettered with Grade A as the best, are required only for potatoes, carrots and onions.

Fresh vegetables are sold by weight or by count, in cartons called cases, lugs, bushels, flats or crates. How much each holds depends on the vegetable, its size and the packer. Celery, for example, comes in 55-pound cartons holding from 18 to 48 heads.

Wholesalers can also sell common vegetables such as onions, carrots, celery and lettuce already trimmed, cleaned and cut to order. Diced onion costs more per pound than whole onions, but it can save a great deal of time, labor, trimming loss and storage space. Processed vegetables may lose some nutrients, moisture and flavor.

The USDA also controls organic labels, in four tiers:

• "100 percent organic": only organic ingredients, grown and made without added hormones, pesticides or synthetic fertilizers, from soil that has gone three years without unapproved synthetic products.
• Organic, or the USDA seal: a processed food with 95 percent or more of its ingredients, by weight, organic.
• "Made with organic ingredients": a processed food with 70 to 95 percent.
• Below 70 percent: organic ingredients may be listed on the information panel, but the word organic may not appear on the front.

Choosing the variety for the job

Within one vegetable, the variety matters. Potatoes fall into three groups:

• Mealy, such as Russet Burbank: looks glistening and feels dry and grainy on the tongue. Best baked, mashed or as French fries.
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• All-purpose, such as White Chippewa, Yukon Gold and Klondike Gold: in between.
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• Waxy, such as Red Pontiac: looks translucent and feels pasty and wet on the tongue. Best boiled and in potato salad.
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Variety is not the only thing that makes a potato mealy. Growing conditions count: soil, climate and fertilizer. Storage time counts, since new potatoes tend to be waxy. And storage temperature counts: above 50°F sugar turns back into starch, while below 50°F starch turns into sugar.

Each use has its own standard:

• Boiled Red Pontiac: white and slightly translucent, firm enough to hold its shape with little or no sloughing (outer layers peeling away), and mild and slightly sweet.
• Mashed Russet Burbank: white, glistening, light and fluffy, never pasty or lumpy.
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• Baked Russet Burbank: separate, glistening white particles that feel dry on the tongue.

Sweet potatoes come dry-meated, with mealy yellow to tan flesh, or moist-meated, with soft tan to brownish-red flesh. Moist-meated ones are often called yams, though true yams belong to a different genus. Squashes split the same way: summer squash such as zucchini has a soft rind, much water, little starch and a short storage life; winter squash such as acorn or spaghetti has a hard shell, less water, more starch, yellow or orange flesh, and keeps longer.

Respiration and ripening

Vegetables do not ripen the way fruit does, but they go on breathing, or respiring, after harvest. The faster a vegetable respires, the faster it ages and decays, so leaves wilt and stems and stalks turn dry, tough or woody. The rate depends on the kind of vegetable, how mature it was when picked, and how it is stored.

Ethylene gas speeds ripening. Fruits and vegetables give it off on their own, and it can be used on purpose, especially on fruit-vegetables such as tomatoes. Produce shipped mature but still green can be exposed to ethylene just before sale to bring on its color.

Storing fresh vegetables

A few rules keep stored produce fresh:

• Refrigerate most produce between 2 and 4°C (36 and 39°F), with a few exceptions, such as potatoes, kept warmer.
• Hardy vegetables such as carrots and cabbage last for weeks; delicate ones such as lettuce do not keep and should be bought as fresh as possible.
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• Water left on vegetables softens them and starts rot.
• When storing and rotating stock, take out anything rotting, because one bad piece spoils the rest.

Every refrigerator follows one rule: raw food is stored below cooked and ready-to-eat food, never above it. Keep dairy products out of the vegetable cooler. see chapter 2: Refrigerated storage

For storage, vegetables sort into two groups. Winter squash, potatoes, onions, shallots and garlic keep best between 40 and 60°F (4 and 16°C), ideally in a produce refrigerator of their own; without one, keep them at room temperature somewhere dry and airy. An ordinary refrigerator is too cold for them, because cold turns their starch to sugar and changes their texture and flavor. Most other vegetables keep best at 34 to 40°F (2 to 4°C), with fairly high humidity.

Store greens and other delicate vegetables away from apples, tomatoes, bananas and melons. Those give off a lot of ethylene gas.

Preserved vegetables

Preserving makes vegetables last longer. The main methods are irradiation, canning, freezing and drying. All but drying leave texture and flavor much as they were, and canning and freezing work for cooked vegetables too.

Irradiation treats food with ionizing radiation, usually gamma rays from cobalt 60 or cesium 137. It kills parasites, insects and bacteria, slows ripening and stops sprouting, without noticeably heating the food, so flavor and texture stay the same; some nutrients may be lost. Irradiated vegetables need no pesticide spray after harvest and last longer. In the United States the FDA treats irradiation as a food additive. Grains, fruits and vegetables may receive low doses, and the label must say "Treated with radiation" or "Treated by irradiation".

Canned vegetables are the backbone of many food service menus. The cleaned vegetables are sealed in a can and held at high heat for a set time, which kills spoilage microbes; the sealed can keeps air out and slows decay. The heat also softens most vegetables, costs many vitamins and minerals, and can turn green vegetables a dull olive color. Canned vegetables come out of the can essentially cooked.

The USDA has three grades for canned vegetables. U.S. Grade A, also called Fancy, must be tender, unblemished and of top quality. U.S. Grade B is also called Extra-Select. U.S. Grade C, also called Standard, may be uneven or short on flavor, but it can go into soups and casseroles when cost matters.

Rules for canned vegetables:

• Unopened cans keep at room temperature almost indefinitely.
• After opening a can, move what is left into a proper storage container and refrigerate it.
• Throw out any bulging can at once, without opening it.
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• An unopened can of vegetables is not a potentially hazardous food, unless it is marked "Keep Refrigerated", but an opened one is.

Frozen vegetables are nearly as handy as canned, though they often need some cooking and take up costly freezer space. Freezing holds back spoilage microbes and keeps most nutrients, and green vegetables usually keep their color. Texture still suffers: water in the cells freezes into ice crystals that burst the cell walls. Individually quick-frozen (IQF) vegetables are chilled very fast with cold air blasts, chilled plates, liquid nitrogen or similar means, which keeps the crystals small.

Some frozen vegetables are raw, some blanched to shorten cooking, and some fully cooked, needing only heating. They usually go into the heat still frozen. Once thawed or cooked, keep them in the refrigerator and reheat them as you would fresh vegetables, and never refreeze them. They are graded like canned vegetables and usually come in cases of bags or boxes weighing 1 to 2 pounds (450 to 900 grams) each.

Storing frozen vegetables:

• Store frozen food at -18°C (0°F) or colder. Should it warm above that, food can lose color and vitamins, and cooling it again does not undo the damage.
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• Frozen fruit and vegetables keep for months if well wrapped.
• Anything poorly wrapped gets freezer burn: dry white or gray patches where moisture has been lost, harming texture and flavor.
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• Keep the freezer steady as well as cold, because rising and falling temperatures draw moisture out of the vegetables.

Dried vegetables are mostly beans, peas, peppers, mushrooms and tomatoes. Drying changes flavor, texture and look far more than other methods do. Losing water concentrates flavor and sugar and makes the food last much longer.

Preparing vegetables: protecting nutrients

Once a vegetable is peeled or cut, it starts losing nutrients to the air and to any liquid it sits in. Vitamins gather just under the skin, so peel thinly, or not at all. Cut pieces of even size so they cook evenly and look good on the plate.

Keep raw and ready-to-eat food apart while you work. Use separate cutting boards, cloths, knives, sinks and work areas for raw and ready-to-eat food, or else wash with detergent and sanitize between uses. Wash your hands after touching raw food, before you do anything else. see chapter 2: Cross-contamination and allergens

Rules for cooking any vegetable

Whatever the method, a few rules hold.

• Cook vegetables as briefly as you can, to keep their texture, color and nutrients.
• Cook them as close to service as you can. A steam table keeps cooking whatever sits in it.
• If you must work ahead, blanch the vegetables, refresh them in ice water, refrigerate them and reheat them as needed. see chapter 7: Moist heat
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• To help white and red vegetables keep their color, cook them with a little acid: white wine, vinegar or lemon juice.
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• For a mix of vegetables, cook each kind on its own and combine them after. Cooked together, some would be overdone before others were ready.

Acid, alkali and color

What is in the cooking liquid changes texture and color, most of all with moist heat, though it matters for dry heat too, since those recipes often start with blanched or parboiled vegetables.

Texture. Adding an acid such as wine, vinegar or lemon juice makes vegetables resist softening, so they need longer to cook. An alkaline liquid softens them fast and can make them mushy; it also costs nutrients, thiamin above all, and may add a bitter taste. Tap water, traces of detergent on pans, or baking soda can all make a liquid alkaline. Used on purpose, ⅛ teaspoon (0.6 milliliter) of baking soda per cup (225 milliliters) of dried beans speeds their softening.

Color. Three groups of pigment color vegetables, and most vegetables carry a blend of them.

• Chlorophyll leads in green vegetables: broccoli, spinach, green beans.
• Carotenoids lead in yellow and orange vegetables: carrots, winter squash, tomatoes, red peppers.
• Flavonoids lead in white, red and purple vegetables: cauliflower, beets, red cabbage.

Early in cooking, heat makes colors look brighter, chlorophyll most of all. Acid slowly turns green vegetables a dull olive; a slightly alkaline liquid keeps them green. Flavonoids work the other way round, keeping their color in slight acid and losing it in alkali. Carotenoids do not react to either. Color alone does not change flavor, but a vegetable can look so unappetizing that nobody will eat it.

A vegetable also releases its own acids as it cooks. Put a lid on the pan and those acids build up: good for flavonoid color, bad for chlorophyll. So if color were all that mattered, green vegetables would cook in alkaline liquid and flavonoid vegetables in acid. In practice, the better color usually costs texture and nutrients.

How acid and alkali change color and texture. Alkali always costs thiamin and other nutrients.

Which method suits which vegetable

Cooking breaks down a vegetable's cellulose and gelatinizes its starch. That softens it, makes it easier to digest and gives it a pleasant flavor. The aim is usually to cook briefly, but sometimes looks and nutrition pull apart: the methods that keep color and texture best often lose more nutrients. see chapter 7: Starch gelatinization

• Broiling and grilling cook fast with strong radiant heat, which keeps nutrients and browns the vegetable for a flavor no other method gives. Broil soft vegetables such as tomatoes. Cut carrots, peppers, squash and eggplant into broad, thin slices to grill; thread mushrooms, cherry tomatoes and pearl onions on skewers, soaking wooden skewers in cold water for 15 minutes first. Vegetables have little fat, so brush them with clarified butter or an oil-and-herb marinade. see chapter 8: Fitting the method to the food
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• Roasting and baking mean the same thing for vegetables. They bring out natural sweetness and keep nutrients. Eggplant, winter squash and other hearty vegetables suit them best. Onions, carrots and turnips roasted beside meat flavor the roast and take on its juices. Winter squash and sweet potatoes can be seasoned with brown sugar or honey. see chapter 8: What roasting is
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• Sautéing is quick, so have every vegetable, herb and sauce ready first. Cut the pieces evenly. Quick-cooking kinds such as mushrooms, onions, greens, stalks, summer squash and fruit-vegetables need nothing but washing and cutting. Done right, they are brightly colored and slightly crisp. see chapter 8: Getting the food and the pan ready
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• Pan-frying is less common for vegetables, but floured green tomatoes and floured eggplant slices (for eggplant Parmesan) are pan-fried.
• Deep-frying suits potatoes, squash and mushrooms. Apart from potatoes, most vegetables are breaded or battered first, and the coating usually carries the seasoning. Blanch slow-cooking kinds, like cauliflower and broccoli, first, so the inside cooks before the outside burns. Aim for a crisp, golden outside and a tender center that is not greasy. see chapter 8: Batters and breadings
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• Blanching and parboiling both cook in boiling water; the difference is time. Blanching lasts seconds and can also take away strong or bitter flavors, soften firm foods, fix color or loosen skins; kale, chard, snow peas and tomatoes are blanched for these reasons. Parboiling lasts several minutes, to soften roots, cauliflower, broccoli and winter squash and shorten the final cooking. see chapter 7: Moist heat
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• Boiling suits carrots, cabbage, green beans, turnips, red beets and almost any other vegetable. Boil green vegetables fast in plenty of water to keep color and flavor, but simmer starchy roots slowly so the heat reaches the center. Add acid for white and red vegetables to the water before the vegetables go in.
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• Refreshing, or shocking, means plunging boiled, blanched or parboiled vegetables into ice water the moment they leave the pot, unless they are served straight away. It stops the cooking and keeps the color. Lift them out as soon as they are cold; left soaking, they lose nutrients and flavor.
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• Steaming works in a convection steamer, in a basket over boiling liquid, or by pan-steaming in a covered pan with a little liquid. Steamed vegetables keep their shape better than boiled ones, but they cook very fast, so overcooking is the usual mistake. Pan-steaming suits small pieces such as peas, beans and broccoli or cauliflower florets. Cook over stock or court bouillon for extra flavor. see chapter 9: Steaming vegetables
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• Braising and stewing cook vegetables slowly in a little liquid that reduces to a light sauce. A braise is usually one vegetable, a stew several. Romaine and Boston lettuce, cabbage, Belgian endive and leeks are often braised; a stew may hold garlic, onions, carrots, celery, peppers, tomatoes, eggplant and summer squash. Because the liquid is served too, these dishes keep their flavor, and they hold hot for service longer than most. see chapter 10: Stewing
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• Microwaving is a form of steaming and often needs no added water, so color, flavor, crispness and nutrients hold up well. Any vegetable that steams well can be microwaved, but the ovens are small, so their best use is warming up small amounts that were blanched or part-cooked.
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• Puréeing starts with vegetables baked, boiled, steamed or microwaved. Cook white, red and yellow vegetables quite soft and purée them hot. Refresh green vegetables and purée them cold, or they overcook and lose color.

17.6 Cooking vegetables: time, method and color

How long a vegetable cooks, and how, changes its color, flavor and texture. The words for these changes were met with raw produce: the pigments chlorophyll, carotenoids, anthocyanin and anthoxanthin; the flavor groups mild, Brassica and Allium; and the texture builders cellulose, pectin and hemicellulose. see chapter 4: What happens inside the produce

Testing cooking time

A simple test shows what time does. Cut about 1 to 2 cups of each vegetable into pieces of the same size: carrots peeled, washed and cut into ¼-inch slices; broccoli in thin, washed spears about 2 inches long; onions peeled, or skinned after a quick blanch, and cut into bite-size pieces.

• Boil the vegetable, and start timing when the water comes back to the boil.
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• At 3 minutes, take out a third and put it in a custard cup.
• Keep boiling until the vegetable is crisp-tender. Note the time and take out the second third.
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• Boil the last third for 5 minutes more and take it out.
• Compare the three cups for appearance, texture and flavor.

Then think it through:

• How did each color change?
• Did texture change the same way in every part of the vegetable, and why or why not?
• What caused any change in flavor?
• What does a short cooking time gain?

Testing cooking method

A second test compares methods. Prepare a cup of the same vegetable for each of four methods, cut evenly. Cook carrots and cabbage until crisp-tender, and onions until their flavor turns mild. Carrots stand for the mild group, cabbage for Brassica and onions for Allium.

• A little water, lid on. Use only enough water to stop scorching, about ¼ cup in a one-quart pan. Add the vegetable to boiling water, cover and bring back to the boil.
• A lot of water, lid off. Bring enough water to cover the vegetable to the boil, add the vegetable and bring it back to the boil without a lid.
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• Microwave. Put it in a 1-pint dish with 2 to 4 tablespoons of water and a tight lid or microwave-safe wrap. Cook on full power until done, stirring once.
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• Steamer. Put enough water in the base that it will not boil dry. When it boils, put the vegetable in the top, cover, and cook over fast-boiling water.
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Afterwards, ask:

• Did every flavor group give the same result?
• Do the best methods for flavor, nutrients and looks agree, and if not, what compromise makes sense?
• Why is it hard to give an exact time, or an exact amount of water?
• How do microwaved vegetables compare with the others?
• How should frozen vegetables be cooked differently from fresh?

Four quick techniques

• Blanch or parboil: part-cook in plenty of boiling water, to stop enzymes working or to make peeling easier. see chapter 7: Moist heat
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• Pan: cook very thin slices over high heat in just enough oil to stop sticking. You can add 1 to 2 tablespoons of water and cover the pan to make steam; shake the covered pan so nothing sticks.
• Sauté: in an open, shallow pan, cook in a little fat over fairly high heat, only until just done. Done right, the vegetables look translucent, not brown. see chapter 8: Sauté and pan-frying
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• Stir-fry: heat a little oil, add very thin slices and cook over medium-high heat, stirring all the time. A wok is best, but a large, deep skillet works. Keep each batch small.
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A method guide for common vegetables

Times below are approximate and are for prepared vegetables. Roasting is at 500°F, in one layer, tossed in a little olive oil and turned halfway. Steaming is in a covered basket over 1 to 2 inches of boiling water. Microwaving is on High, covered tightly.

Approximate times by method.

Tips for buying and preparing:

• Asparagus: fresh spears snap when bent; trim the ends and shave woody parts with a peeler.
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• Corn: it should feel heavy, with moist silks. To grill it in the husk, pull back the husk, remove the silks, close it again and leave the ears to soak for 20 minutes.
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• Zucchini: under 8 inches long they are sweeter, with fewer seeds.
• Leeks: split them lengthwise and fan the layers under cold running water to wash out the sand.
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• Spinach and chard: rinse them well, and leave the water on the leaves when they go into the pan.
• Frozen peas: cook them without thawing.
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Blanch first, finish later

Many vegetable dishes cook in two steps: a short boil to get the vegetable nearly done and set its color, then a quick finish in a pan or oven. see chapter 7: Moist heat

• Haricots verts (thin French green beans) boil in salted water for 2 to 3 minutes, then go straight into salted ice water to stop the cooking. Dried, they are warmed through in a sauté pan, in batches, with caramelized shallots and toasted almonds.
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• Brussels sprouts boil for about 5 minutes, until just slightly tender, then are halved and browned cut side down in olive oil with pancetta for about 10 minutes.
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• Asparagus is blanched in salted boiling water until just tender, cooled in an ice bath and patted dry, then warmed for about a minute in clarified butter with garlic and shallots.
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• For a gratin, broccoli or Brussels sprouts are boiled in plenty of water until nearly done, layered with a cheese sauce, topped with buttered crumbs and baked at 350 to 375°F for 15 to 20 minutes.
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Cooking with little or no water

Some vegetables need almost no added water. For panned spinach, wash the leaves by plunging and lifting them in water, again and again, until no sand settles in the bowl. Then cook them in a skillet with a tight lid for about 3 minutes, using only the water still clinging to the leaves.

Leeks get the same washing. Cut them in quarters lengthwise and then into 2-inch strips, lift them through the water until it runs clean, and put them into hot butter wet. Cook five minutes, add a little broth and lemon zest, cover, and cook about five minutes more until tender.

Halved winter squash bakes cut side down in a dish with boiling water ¼ inch deep around it. An acorn squash bakes at 400°F for 35 minutes, then is turned up, filled with apple, brown sugar, cinnamon and butter, and baked about 40 minutes more. A spaghetti squash bakes at 350°F for 45 to 60 minutes; its flesh is then pulled into strands with a fork.

Mixed vegetables roast well together when cut to one size. Sweet potato, red potato, carrot, fennel, green pepper and red onion in 2-inch pieces, tossed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and seasoning, roast at 425°F for about 45 minutes, until tender and lightly browned. see chapter 8: What roasting is

Keeping cooked vegetables safe

Cooked vegetables are potentially hazardous foods. see chapter 2: Heat: cooling, holding and reheating

• Hold them hot at 60°C (140°F) or above.
• To cool them, bring them from 60 to 20°C (140 to 68°F) within two hours.
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• Then bring them from 20 to 4°C (68 to 40°F) within four hours.
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• Shallow pans, an ice-water bath and stirring all speed the cooling.
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