We want to eat healthy foods and renounce the familiar, artery-clogging staples of our past, but what do we cook instead? "The American culinary scene has become a minefield of strange ingredients and elaborate preparations," writes the mother-daughter author team in Dreaded Broccoli.
I recommend and ordinary Romertopf (Roman pot), a clay pot of German manufacture that is widely available in this country. Even if you're a single person, get a large Romertopf - the 4-quart size. If it's big enough to roast a whole week's worth of vegetables, all the better.
A clay pot must me treated with some care. Always soak it for at least 15 minutes before using it and never put into a preheated oven no matter what the recipe says. Also, exercise some care when you remove it from the oven. It' s not a good idea to put it (or its lid) down on a cold metal surface while it's hot.
Makes 6 to 8 servings
Potatoes, whole or halved
Carrots, cut into thirds
1 or 2 onions, whole or halved
1 or 2 whole heads of garlic (remove some of the papery outer coating, but don't separate the cloves)
Sweet potatoes, whole or halved
Mushrooms, whole (bury these under other veggies, or they'll shrivel a little)
Fennel bulb, well trimmed
Young, small turnips, whole
Parsnips, whole but with dirty-looking parts, scraped away
Winter squash, quartered and seeds removed
All vegetables should be washed, but there is no need to peel anything.
Hint on proportions: I like to use enough potatoes to fill about a third of the pot, enough carrots and sweet potatoes to fill another third, and then I do what I want with the final third.
Suggested liquids: Use not more than 1 or 2 cups of liquid, enough to leave a little broth, but no so much as to create a stew.
Chicken stock
Soaking liquid from dried mushrooms
Beer
Vegetable stock
Leftover cooking liquid from grains, dried beans, or vegetables
Fill the presoaked clay pot with the vegetables, pour in the liquid, cover the pot, and place it in a cold oven. Set the oven at 40 degrees F and bake for about 1 1/4 hours.
Serve the vegetables directly from the pot with whole-grain bread and a green salad. I don't add much in the way of flavor enhancers to the pot. I like the vegetables to be adaptable to whatever mode of preparation I choose when I recycle them. If, like me, you choose a plain preparation, serve it with plenty of condiments. Pommery mustard, chutney, and salsa are all good. But it's really the discrete tastes of the various vegetables that provide the main enjoyments of this dish. Of course, the garlic helps a lot. One of the great pleasures of this meal is to play with the garlic. Eaters can extrude the cloves onto the bread and vegetables A bean salad complements this meal nicely. So does a fine Cabernet.
Suggested vegetables: In approximate order of importance.
No clay pot? If you don't own a clay pot, the same mix of vegetables and liquid can be placed in a large, shallow pan, more or less in a single layer. Cook, covered, at 350 degrees F for about 30 minutes, using only about 1/2 cup of liquid. Then uncover and continue to bake, turning and basting the vegetables occasionally.
