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Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Making boiled veg interesting

Boiling veg seems to be a basic part of British cookery, but I've never understood it.  Why take crunchy, sweet, flavour-filled carrots and turn them into dull-coloured mush?  Why boil tatties when you can bake them, mash them, roast them or fry them?  I think I am getting it now though: the cooking time has to be spot on or it all goes wrong.  Although I still find plain boiled veg a little dull.

Over Christmas, Bella, Seb and I stayed in a wee cabana on a Caribbean island, Caye Caulker.  For the only time during our Belize trip we had a basic kitchen.  Especially since Bells and I decided that a key Christmas Day tradition we must preserve was a big home-cooked feast, we really put it through its paces.  Produce available on the island / condiments etc in our kitchen were limited, but there were a few Chinese supermarkets and a couple of decent fruit and veg stands.


We ate jicama, radish and hibiscus petal salad (similar to this one), green beans, tomato and cucumber salad, refried beans, rice, tomato-garlic sauce, hot sauce, and boiled carrots.  We made the carrots interesting:


Boiled carrots with honey, ginger and coriander

Peel and chop 4 large carrots and boil until just done / still with some crunch (10-15 min, taste to check).  Finely chop a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, and 2 tbsp fresh coriander leaves.  When the carrots are done, drain them, transfer to a bowl and add 2 tbsp honey, plus the ginger and coriander.  Mix and serve warm.


Yesterday I boiled some little russet potatoes, primarily because I wanted the potato water for an experiment (more on that soon, if it works).  That meant I had a clutch of perfectly boiled little potatoes waiting in the fridge for me to do something with them.  I decided to fry:

Fried boiled potatoes with garlic, rosemary and thyme

Slice the cold boiled potatoes (about 8 fairly small ones; skin on if poss) into discs about 2 in across and 1/2 in deep.  Finely chop 2 cloves garlic.  Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan and add the garlic.  Fry for a minute or two until starting to soften and brown.  Add the potatoes and a good pinch of rosemary and another of thyme, and season well.  Fry on medium heat until the cut sides of the potatoes are nicely crisped and browned (I managed to burn them a little - watch it), taste for seasoning, and eat with a dollop of something saucey and good (baba ghanoush, in this case, since I made some at the weekend).
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