How to cook vegetables.

Now you have in this world two kinds of vegetables and they are either root vegetables or not. Now how you cook them is a mater of common sense but a little thought in the matter will help you get the right result in the end.

Root vegetables are of cores your potatoes, carrots, turnips, or beets like beet root. They are very hard and you can cook then as follows. To boil them you can prepare them and place them in a pan of cold salted water and bring them up to the boil. Then turn the heat down and cook till they are ready. By ready I mean you need a little bite to them. Not cooked to a mush and not like they have not been cooked at all but a little resistance as you put your teeth threw the middle of them .Another way if you like is to take say your carrot and peel and cut it in a fashion that gives you a wide diagonal cut across the middle of the carrot. The aim is that in all vegetables like all plants are lots of tubes that run the length of the vegetable and in here are all the liquids that the plants carry up and down it to keep its self alive. By a long diagonal cut across the middle you open as many of the holes as you can. The next is to place them in a pan with a little butter and a tinny bit of water. Then cook over a slow heat with a tight fitting lid on the pan. All the juices escape from the carrots or what ever you put in the pan and it starts to steam its self in its own juices. Also at the end of the cooking process you have all the flavours there in the pan and not in the water after boiling. This is a fantastic way to cook them if you are going to puree them as every thing is there with an intense flavour.

Roasting root vegetables are fantastic as well. One of my favourite to do is roasting beetroot. The thing about roasting beetroot is that you get a real caramelized flavour to it. Roasting carrots parsnips and any kind of root veg is fantastic, Use some good oil garlic thyme, and then just let it roast good and slow.

Potatoes are a of course the root vegetable that you will most often cook. My advice is always use the same variety of potato in what you are cooking. If you use a waxy one at the same time as a softer floury one then you will be looking for trouble as one will cook before the other. Also if you are going to roast or make chips you must part boil them fist. By part boiling them and then bashing them about you get lovely bandaged fluffy edges that will crisp up as you cook them. Nothing can be better than a good hot chip all crispy on the out side.

All of your other vegetables mainly are what I would call green vegetables. But are not all green. Things like broccoli and cauliflower you simply get a pan of salted water and let it come to a boil. When it is at a rolling furious boil then plunge your veg in to that for a moment. Cook for a little while and then remove before it over cooks. Now if you are going to eat it that very moment just get it on the plate. If you are going to re heat it get it in some cold water, with ice if you have it. This is called refreshing the vegetables and stops the cooking process. Evan if you have it out of the boiling water the residual heat will continue to cook the veg and that will over cook if you do not do something about it. If you are cooking it to reheat then you want it to have quite a hard texture to it but if you are going to eat it strait away then you are looking for that little resistance on the teeth as you bite threw once more.

Other things such as courgettes or zucchini can be sauté in a pan with some butter and oil. Aubergines or eggplant can be done the same and but you get a lot of water out of them both. In fact it is a good thing to note now that a dish such as ratatouille is not how most people would make it. I have had some very pore excuses for this and the reason is simple. All the vegetables are place in the same pot at the same time and cooked out. If you think about it you would save your self some time. Cut up your vegetables and start by cooking first the pepper. Peppers are harder and take longer to do. Then tip them into the final dish that you will serve them in and place the pan back on the heat. Now cook the eggplant or aubergines. Then tip this in with the peppers once it has cooked and finally cook the courgettes or zucchini and tip them in. Add the tomato sauce and toss them all together. You will find that you will have a completely different dish to what you normally would have.

Really all you have to do is use a little judgment and think about what you are doing with the vegetables that you are going to cook. I have had to often a grate dish served to me and then some sad over cooked unimaginative veggies swimming in water placed next to it and the whole thing has been sadly let down . If you put the effort in you will get some thing good out of it.