Nigel Slater’s winter roots with warm spiced butter recipe
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Version 0 of 1. The recipe Place a deep pan of water on to boil, one to which you have a steamer basket. Scrub 250g of carrots, then peel 250g of Jerusalem artichokes and the same weight of parsnips. Cut all the vegetables into thick slices. Put the vegetables into the steamer basket and cook for 8-10 minutes or until they are tender to the point of a knife. Remove from the heat. Put 3 tbsp of groundnut or olive oil in a deep-sided frying pan, add 50g of butter and warm over a moderate heat. Peel, halve and slice 4 small banana shallots, add them to the butter and let them cook for 5 minutes or so until soft and pale gold. Tip in a teaspoon each of cumin seeds, crushed coriander seeds and a half-teaspoon of ground ginger. Cook in the butter for 2 or 3 minutes, until the spices smell warm and nutty, then add the steamed root vegetables. Turn the vegetables in the butter, letting them warm through, then add a generous handful of chopped parsley. Sprinkle over a few drops of rice-wine vinegar then serve. Serves 2. The trick I often use a colander placed over a pan of boiling water as a steamer. It works well enough. Let the shallots cook slowly, regularly turning them in the butter so they soften without browning too much. Let the spices warm in the butter before you add the vegetables to give them time to perfume the butter. The twist Potatoes, cut into thick chunks or wedges, are very good cooked this way, too – you could add them instead of the artichokes. Pine kernels would be a good addition to the spiced butter, as would whole skinned almonds. Email Nigel at nigel.slater@observer.co.uk. Follow Nigel on Twitter @NigelSlater |