12 November 2012

Légumes d'hiver rôtis au four

That's ‘winter vegetables roasted in the oven’. It was our lunch yesterday. It all started when we were in Blois last Friday and we stopped to look around in the Grand Frais produce market up there.



What we found was a good sale on all kinds of winter root vegetables, all at one euro a kilo. We bought some of course. My idea was soup or some kind of stew. Walt had a good idea too — he wanted to roast them in the oven. Yesterday he did it.



Here's a list of the vegetables he cooked:
Ail – Garlic
Carottes – Carrots
Navets – Turnips
Oignons – Onions
Panais – Parsnips
Patates douces – Sweet potatoes
Pommes de terre – Potatoes
Romarin – Rosemary
Rutabagas – Rutabagas (Swede)
He peeled them all and cut them into pieces of fairly uniform size. Then he tossed them in duck fat and spread them out in a single layer on a baking pan. He used duck fat, which made the result especially tasty, but you might use olive oil or some other oil, and maybe a little butter to get a similar result. Sprinkle them with salt and pepper before cooking. Walt used rosemary for flavor, but thyme would be good too.



He also added two chicken thigh/leg sections to the tray. All of it went into the oven at 425ºF (210ºC) for about 45 minutes. Midway through the cooking, you can turn the vegetables over, or stir them around a little, so that they brown evenly. And it they start to get too brown, just turn down the heat.

Test the vegetables for doneness by poking them with a knife or skewer. The carrots take the longest too cook, I think, so they could be parboiled before they go into the oven. Even so, the carrots we had ended up just fine, and the chicken was ready too by the time the vegetables were.

19 comments:

  1. Try some pumpkin with that selection... preferably butternut or similarly close fleshed types.
    'Swonderful.

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  2. I love roasted vegetables. On a cold SoCal winter day, the smell is wonderful when thyme and rosemary is added. Very slowly, the temperature is going down here.

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  3. Duck fat. Added to my shopping list for this week.

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  4. Tim, we used sweet potato instead of butternut squash. Similar and just as good if not better!

    Ever had sweet potato pie? It's a Southern U.S. specialty.

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  5. No, Ken, I haven't...
    Pauline and I tried to grow sweet potato in our greenhouse in Leeds but hardly got anything that far north... so they were eaten as per this post. The plants were very attractive though... and we've seen what looked like a purple-leaved Ipomea grown decoratively both here and in Liguiel.

    When we get a polytunnel we'll probably have another go... if we can get the 'slips' over here.
    We tend to avoid buying food that has too many 'food miles' and most of the sweet potato we see in the shops are from way-away.

    Might buy some though to have a go... Greene on Greens hasn't got a recipe [but has some interesting sweet spud recipes]... and all your 'labels' have vanished from the page... leaving just Auvergne... huh?
    However, I've just Goggled "sweet potato pie recipes" and it's come back with "About 17,100,000 results"... so I don't think there will be much of a problem.
    I'll see if I can find some Spanish grown ones in supermarchés.
    Thanks for the suggestion.

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  6. The sweet potatoes I got at Grand Frais were from Spain, and at one euro per kilo were a great bargain. By the way, North Carolina produces much of the U.S. crop. We had two kinds of potatoes when I was growing up there: sweet potatoes and Irish potatoes.

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  7. Oh, sweet potatoes! They are delicious (also nutritious and versatile). I think I read that you could live healthfully on a diet of collards and sweet potatoes.

    So Ken, you got a good start in life.

    I've tried to grow them here, but no go.

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  8. I'll bet that duck fat added a great flavor :) It looks very, very yummy.

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  9. I have a wonderful recipe that uses grated raw sweet potato and a bit of coconut....for a dessert-like concoction called sweet potato pudding....everyone raves

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  10. We discovered the delights of sweet potato not long ago and it makes excellent mash for a cottage pie or fish pie topping.

    Your veg look scrumptious....I can almost smell the glorious aromas from here....

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  11. Melinda, what about posting your sweet potato pudding recipe? I'm sure Ken won't mind. When I was in SoCal I ate sweet potatoes all the time, but only the orange variety and baked in the oven. They're delicious.

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  12. Sweet potato pie with some pecans on top miam!! miam !!

    used to eat boiled sweet potatoes as a snack after school on the island

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  13. Mmm mmm! There's nothing better. I can almost taste it from her.

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  14. Yum. That's one of my favorite recipes (minus the duck fat. We have it, with or without the chicken, at least once a week in the winter.

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  15. I don't particularly care for root veggies, but this looks mighty good!

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  16. This is one of our favorites! Our daughter, Maggie, made a similar melange but added brussels sprouts and purple cauliflower for a party dish. Delicious and very colorful!

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  17. Starman - You absolutely haven't lived until you've eaten root vegetables that have been roasted like Walt did! It really brings out a wonderful sweet, home-style taste that is marvelous!
    I'm always asked to bring roasted vegies to one of the Christmas parties I get invited to!

    I never thought of roasting the vegies with a couple of chicken legs! Great Idea - for next time!

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  18. Hi NTF, thanks for the comment, and for the idea of adding brussels sprouts to the mix of vegetables. We have vegetables left and I have to got to the supermarket this morning...

    Chris, maybe I'll make another batch with olive oil instead of duck fat. I'm actually running low on duck fat! Of course, I have a duck cooking project in the works, so there will be a new supply of fat.

    Carolyn, I can't complain. Can I add some Eastern NC barbecue to the collards and sweet potatoes? Or some seafood?

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  19. Not sure how to take that, "city" — ironic? sincere? Thanks for the comment.

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