“..Roasting vegetables changed my relationship to them forever.
Sautéed or steamed, they were mild and sweet and kind; we were friends.
But after a roasting, getting a little singed around the edges, more intense for their scarring, all hot and sexy, I wanted them.
OK, maybe that metaphor was a little TMI.
Anyway, the point is that once I discovered how much a ripping hot oven will complicate, concentrate and caramelize both carrots and cauliflower, I realized that you can roast pretty much any vegetable —
– broccoli, asparagus, string beans, whatever — with the same method, with fantastic results.
All you need is salt, pepper and olive oil and two things to keep mind: HEAT and SURFACE AREA.
Heat and surface area.
Heat and surface area.
There are no more typographical ways for me to emphasize this, but imagine there are, and imagine I’m using them.
Because the relationship of heat and surface area pretty much define 75 percent of cooking, and 100 percent of the time you’re talking about browning something.
Heat: Heat, of course, cooks your food.
At a very high temperature, sugars will caramelize (and proteins will brown), which is really what you want out of roasting vegetables.
(And at an even higher temperature, of course, they will burn, which is what you really don’t want out of roasting vegetables.)
Surface area: The more surface area you have directly touching the roasting pan or the hot air of the oven, the more caramelization you’re going to get, because it’s the outside of a piece of food that gets the most intense heat.
So this means two things: ..
..1) don’t pile your vegetables on top of one another — lay them out in one layer..
.. And 2) how you cut your vegetables really matters.
Tiny pieces will have more exposed surface area relative to their insides than big chunks.
And an elongated shape, like a domino, for instance, will have more surface area than a cube.
So, keeping these two things in mind, you can always adjust what you need to do get the results you want.
You’d like more browning?
Turn the heat up or cut your vegetables smaller.
You’d like your vegetables more cooked and tender?
Cut your vegetables smaller and turn the heat down.
Like that roasted flavor, but not too much?
Cut your vegetables bigger and/or turn the heat down.
You’re smart people.
You’re picking up what I’m puttin’ down..”
go to source/story>>How to master roasted vegetables – Francis Lam – Salon.com
