Winter Food Part 1: Hearty Vegetables, With A Recipe

There’s no coincidence that in the Spring and Summer we crave fresh, bright salads, leeks, and asparagus. After the leaden Winter, we want something green and vibrant to rouse ourselves from hibernation, and it just so happens these vegetables are in season. Likewise, many a Winter kitchen is warmed by the aroma of cold-weather vegetables - the roots (carrots, parsnips, beets), cabbage, squash – boiling, baking, or roasting, steaming up the windows. In the cold weather, our bodies desire the extra fuel they give, whether we need it to cross the tundra or the subway platform.

It’s not just for “tree-hugging” purposes that we should eat seasonally and locally, although sustainability and supporting local agriculture are also good reasons. Especially if you live in a temperate climate and you experience distinct seasons, it’s nutritionally wise to eat what’s readily available. The food will be fresher, with the maximum amount of vitamins and minerals intact.

The best reason, though, to eat seasonal fruits and vegetables? The flavor. (If anyone has eaten a fresh strawberry in the Winter that tasted good, like a Summer strawberry should, please write and tell me. You’ll need to supply some sort of proof, because I don’t think it’s possible.)

One of the difficulties I’ve experienced with many Winter vegetables is how to cook them and make them taste good. Boiled carrots are boring, and I don’t always want to use up all my butter glazing them. And cabbage? Sheesh. Sure, I could make coleslaw, but that’s not going to warm my kitchen.

I recently bought a head of cabbage to force myself to come up with something to do with it. On my cooking day, I thought, “with the potatoes, celery, onions and potatoes I have, I could make a corned beef.” Vegetables taste so good when they are cooked with meat – some of my favorite things to eat are the carrots, onions, and celery that have been braised with a nice, fatty brisket. But it was too cold outside and I didn’t want to walk the five, long, ugly blocks to the butcher shop to get the beef. So, I posed the question to myself: Could I braise these vegetables without a hunk of meat, and would they still taste good?

Obviously the answer is “yes.” Otherwise, I wouldn’t waste your time or mine with this article.

As I usually do, I first consulted Ms. Rombauer, who, in my apartment, is found in my 1951 edition of The Joy Of Cooking. I rarely follow her recipes exactly. Rather, I use her book as a sort of road map. Yes, she efficiently tells me how to get from Point A to Point B, but that doesn’t mean that along the way I can’t make a detour to the diner for a grilled cheese sandwich. Anyway, she gave me some helpful tips on braising vegetables, and that led to the creation of this recipe. I hope you enjoy it. I did. Immensely.

As I’ve stated in earlier posts, my cooking style relies on both the intellect and the five – six? – senses. If you don’t do this already, and if you get anything from my articles, please let it be this: learn your food, get to know what it looks, feels, and smells like during every step of the cooking process. Make friends with the nice food, Dear.

Braised Vegetables
Serves many, or just one person who likes leftovers.

Ingredients:
one head of green cabbage
6 stalks of celery
1 white onion
5 carrots
4 Yukon Gold potatoes
The vegetables can vary in size, type, and amount. If you love carrots, use more. If you hate celery, omit it. If you think parsnips would be lovely here, add them. If all you can find are yellow onions, use those. The point is to use hearty or cruciferous vegetables.
2 cups of stock (any kind: vegetable, mushroom, chicken, etc. or a blend)*
2 tablespoons of honey
¼ -cup plus a few splashes of Mutti Tomato Vinegar** (you can use any vinegar here, even plain white)
2 tablespoons of olive oil (or grapeseed oil, corn, etc. but not peanut or sesame)
8 whole peppercorns (I used the “Four-Peppercorn Blend”)
4 bay leaves
salt

Preparation:
1. Pre-heat your oven to 350°F***
2. Discard outer leaves of cabbage, then wash remaining head.
3. Remove and discard the core of the cabbage, then cut the cabbage into about ½-inch slices.
4. Scrub celery. Cut into 1-inch chunks.
5. Peel and thinly slice onion.
6. Wash carrots and cut into 1-inch chunks. Whether you peel them is up to you.
7. Scrub potatoes well and thinly slice. Leave the skins on.
8. Boil potatoes and carrots in water until potatoes are just barely tender. (If you are using other root vegetables, add them to the pot.)
9. When these vegetables are finished cooking, drain and reserve. (If you need the hot water for dissolving bouillon paste or cubes, remove the vegetables from the water and set them aside, rather than dumping the whole thing into the colander sitting in your kitchen sink. There goes all the water!)
10. While potatoes and carrots are boiling, heat your biggest frying pan on medium-high.
11. Add the oil. When it starts to shimmer, add the onions.
12. Sprinkle some salt on the onions and stir them around a little.
13. When the onions smell good, like onions cooking in oil should, and are just turning translucent, add the celery and cabbage. (If you are using other leafy or watery non-root vegetables, add them to the pan.)
14. Using your tongs - please tell me you have tongs! - flip the vegetables around in the pan a bit. Let them cook down just until the cabbage turns translucent.
15. When you have both sets of your vegetables cooked, place the cabbage-onion-celery mix on the bottom of the biggest roasting pan you own. Then arrange the potatoes and carrots on top.
16. In a separate receptacle, mix the stock, honey, and ¼-cup of vinegar. Stir well.
17. Pour the liquid into the roasting pan. Ideally, the vegetables will sit in the liquid, but not drown in them.
18. Place bay leaves and peppercorns in the pan.
19. Splash a little extra vinegar over the top, paying special attention to the potatoes.
20. Sprinkle a little more salt, paying special attention to the potatoes.
21. Cover the pan.
22. Cook in the oven for about 30 minutes until cabbage appears to have taken on some liquid and is tender.
23. Serve and enjoy!

*I didn’t have stock when I made this, but I always have little jars of "Better Than Bouillon" in my fridge. After the potatoes and carrots were finished cooking, I took two cups of the still-hot cooking liquid and dissolved into it ½ teaspoon each of Mushroom Base and Chicken Base, plus the honey and vinegar.

**This is my new favorite vinegar. It’s like smelling a tomato plant. The flavor is this nice convergence of sweet, savory, and umami, and it somehow isn’t too acidic. Impressive for a vinegar! And, it’s remarkably inexpensive, especially for a “fancy” vinegar. I got mine at Zabar’s for $4.99.

***Temperature isn’t crucial. At the same time I was cooking these vegetables, I was also broiling chicken, so my gas oven was set at about 500°F. If you are cooking something else with a different temperature, cook the vegetables at the same time and adjust your time accordingly – you’ll save time and fuel. It’s really hard to ruin this dish.