FOOD Veg: No longer second fiddle

MEAL IN THEMSELVES Cauliflower, potato and spinach combine to make a deliciously simple and quick dinner.

No longer second fiddle


Food and cooking
Redmond Cabot

We had a problem in Cabot’s Source restaurant when we used to charge people two quid fifty for side vegetables. People said ‘Sure, it’s only veggies, you can’t charge that!’ But they were wrong. The value of vegetables as carriers of good things for our bodies is without doubt. It is time to value and appreciate  the humble yet mighty vegetable. Even meat maestro Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has written a tome  dedicated to veggies…
Gone is the day when veg played second fiddle to meat or to fish. Vegetables offer a huge variety of texture, flavour, colour and bite, and they are coming into their own in the Irish kitchen, offering us delicious nutrition and another way to support local Irish producers. Don’t be afraid of them. Play with them. Today, we’ll have some fun with spinach, cauliflower and carrots.

Spinach
Always wash spinach well, as it gathers grit. Never boil it – just place washed leaves in any pot or pan and cover with a lid. The steam will be enough to cook the leaves in 3 minutes (stir once or twice). Add butter for a creamy emulsion and that amazing buttery taste.
Try placing spinach in an oven dish and cracking two free range eggs on top. Bake it for five minutes until the eggs are just done, still soft in the middle. It’s a beautiful, harmonious marriage of creamy yellow yolks and bright-green leaves packed full of iron.
Or you could try a spinach mash. Fry two cloves sliced garlic with two handfuls of spinach for four minutes with olive oil, and then throw in two cooked potatoes, mashed. Mix up and serve warm with cracked black pepper.
For a light, refreshing spring salad, combine washed spinach and chopped shallots with some olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice, and season.

Cauliflower
The Brunette has recently been cooking a lot of cauliflower mixed with herbs/spices with potato in an Indian dish called Aloo Gobi. It’s is a great way of livening up cauliflower for kids, and quite simple to make. In a pot, gently fry a teaspoon of mustard seeds, two of cummin seeds, one of chilli and half of turmeric. Add two finely-chopped onions and four chopped garlic cloves. Cook on a medium heat for ten minutes and then add one cauliflower divided into florets and four roughly-chopped potatoes. Pour in about third of a litre of water and cook 20 minutes, allowing all the flavours to mix and intermingle. Add spinach if you wish, for extra colour.

Carrots
I like to think about what shape my carrots will be cut into first; discs, angled slices, little sticks, whatever takes my fancy. I always boil carrots in just enough water to nearly cover them, with a lid on, to keep all the goodness. Always leave some crunch with the vegetables, it is their natural state, and as a general rule of thumb, never stray TOO far from a vegetable’s  natural state. Toss your cooked carrots in the pan with some honey and touch of salt to make them extra lovely.
Carrots are also fab in a root-vegetable mash with cayenne pepper, or served with crispy bacon bits, or added to fried onions with added cream and a little salt and pepper. Or try roasted whole baby carrots with green tops intact, with some cummin seeds or rosemary for flavour, or roast honey-glazed carrots with fennel seeds thrown in.

Red Cabot is interested in food, nature and small things. He sells his food at Westport Country Markets in St Ann’s Boxing Club, James’s Street car park, Westport, every Thursday, from 8am to 1pm.