Wizard Recipes

The following general guidelines for vegetable cookery should be considered regardless of the cooking method used:

1. Vegetables should be carefully cut into uniform shapes and sizes to pro­mote even cooking and provide an attractive finished product.

2. Cook vegetables for as short a time as possible to preserve texture, color and nutrients.

3.Cook vegetables as close to service time as possible. Holding vegetables in a steam table continues to cook them.

4. When necessary, vegetables may be blanched in advance, refreshed in ice water and refrigerated. They can then be reheated as needed.

5.White and red vegetables (those with flavonoid pigments) may be cooked with a small amount of acid such as lemon juice, vinegar or white wine to help retain their color.

6.When preparing an assortment of vegetables, cook each type separately , then combine them. Otherwise, some items would become overcooked in the time required to properly cook others.

Dry-Heat Cooking Methods for Vegetables

Broiling and Grilling

Broiling and grilling use high heat to cook vegetables quickly. This preserves their nutritional content and natural flavors. The radiant heat of the broiler or grill caramelizes the vegetables, creating a pleasant flavor that is not generally achieved when vegetables are cooked by other methods.

Selecting and Preparing Vegetables to Broil or Grill

Broiling is often used to cook soft vegetables such as tomatoes or items that might not rest easily on a grill rack. Broiling is also used to warm and brown items just before service. If necessary, the vegetables can be basted to prevent them from drying out under the broiler’s direct heat. Sometimes a cooked vegetable is napped with sauce or clarified butter and placed briefly under the broiler as a finishing touch at service time.

A large range of vegetables can be grilled. Carrots, peppers, squashes, egg­plants and similar vegetables should be cut into broad, thin slices. They can then be placed on the grill in the same manner as a portion of meat or fish to create attractive crosshatchings. Smaller vegetables such as mushrooms, cherry tomatoes and pearl onions can be threaded onto skewers for easy handling.

Seasoning Vegetables to be Broiled or Grilled

Vegetables contain little fat and therefore benefit greatly from added fat when being broiled or grilled. The added fat can be a brushing of clarified but­ter or a marinade such as one made from olive oil and herbs. Some vegetables may be brushed with butter and coated with bread crumbs or Parmesan be­fore broiling.

Procedure for Broiling or Grilling Vegetables

1. Heat the grill or broiler.

2. Use a wire brush to remove any charred or burnt particles that may be stuck to the broiler or grill grate. The grate may be wiped with a lightly oiled towel to remove any remaining panicles and help season it.

3. Prepare the vegetables to be broiled or grilled by cutting them into appropriate shapes and sizes, then seasoning, marinating or othenvise preparing them as desired or directed in the recipe.

4. Place the vegetables on the broiler grate, broiler platter or grill grate and cook to the desired doneness while developing the proper surface color.

Here you can find a delicious and easy recipe for Grilled vegetables. My family love’s it and is quite simple. All you need is :

Grilled Vegetable Skewers

Ingredients:

6oz. Zucchini

6oz Yellow squash

12 Broccoli florets, large

12 Cauliflower florets, large

24 pieces Onion, large dice

12 pieces Red bell pepper, large dice

12 Mushroom caps, medium

For  Marinade:

4 oz. Rice wine vinegar

8 oz. Vegetable oil

1oz. Garlic, chopped

2tbs Dried thyme

1 Tbsp. Salt

1/2 tsp Pepper

How to made:

1. Combine all ingredients for the marinade and set aside.

2. Cut the zucchini and yellow squash into 1/2-inch thick semicircles.

3. Blanch and refresh the zucchini, yellow squash, broccoli florets, cauliflower florets, onions and red bell pepper

4. Drain the vegetables well and combine them with the marinade. Add mushroom caps to the marinade. Marinate the vegetables for 30-45 minutes, remove and drain well.

5. Skewer the vegetables by alternating them on 6-inch (10-centimeter) bamboo skewers.

6.Place the vegetable skewers on a hot grill and cook until done, turning is needed. The vegetables should brown and char lightly during cooking .Serve hot

For best flavor, appearance and least nutrient loss cook vegetables as quickly as possible. The quickest-cooking methods present us with most tasty vegetables-blanching, stir-frying, deep-frying, grilling and broiling. But the slow-cooking oven roasting also brings out full flavors.

When you want to cook several kinds of vegetables together irrespective of what method you use, you have two choices to arrive at vegetables with the same degree of tenderness. Either add them to the pot or pan at different times, starting with the slowest-cooking, densest vegetables then gradually adding the faster-cooking ones, or cut them into different sizes-the slow-cooking vegetables into smaller pieces than the fast-cooking ones.

You may also combine two cooking methods. For example, pre-blanching vegetables significantly speeds up grilling, broiling or sautéing. Blanching is also an efficient way of preparing vegetables to fast last-minute serving, the way restaurant chefs serve freshly-cooked crisp vegetables in the shortest time.

The chef has the supply of pre-blanched, cooled vegetables ready to sauté on high heat in butter or oil and seasonings in less than a minute. Efficient home cooks do the same.

When cooking strong-flavored vegetables, such as those in the cabbage and onion families, the flavor becomes milder if you cook it in water to cover. The strong flavor components leach into the liquid.

They also become milder if you leave your pot uncovered so some of the strong volatiles spread their aromas throughout your house, leaving their vegetable source behind. Due to chemical reactions, prolonged cooking increases the strong flavor of cabbage-family vegetables, but decreases the onion-family vegetables.

A useful way of concentrating flavor in some high-moisture vegetables is a technique the French call dégorger. The idea is to get rid of part of the water without heat. You grate or finely dice the vegetables (cucumber, zucchini, cabbage) to increase the surface area and sprinkle it generously with salt.

After several hours the salt draws out some of the water that you drain in a colander or you wrap the vegetables in a kitchen towel and squeeze out the water by twisting the towel. After thoroughly rinsing out the excess salt, the vegetables are ready to sauté, stir-fry, bake or whatever method is suitable.

Useful Tips to remember :

¨ Use yellow onion in cooking, sweet onion for salads

¨ The flatter the onion the less the pungency

¨ For most intense garlic flavor add garlic late to the sauté pan or dishes

¨ Cooking ginger in water or oil mutes pungency; cooking in acidic liquid increases it

¨ Keep extra minced garlic and ginger in small containers in your freezer

¨ To ripen tomatoes, keep them out of the sun in a warm place in a closed paper bag

¨ Canned tomatoes are better for cooking than tomatoes out-of-season

¨ Chili powder is a spice mix; ground or powdered chili is pure red chili ground into fine

powder

¨ Keep ground chili and paprika in the freezer for best flavor

¨ To tame chili-induced fire in your mouth, get rid of chili oil with alcohol or milk products, or

soak it up with bread or tortilla; avoid water

¨ The ribs in the chili carry most pungency; the amount you include defines how hot your dish

will be

¨ Mushrooms add flavor and texture to dishes; some are bland but soak up flavorful liquids

¨ Heating creates the flavor in mushroom; raw mushrooms are pretty but flavorless

¨ Store mushrooms in paper bags in refrigerator, never in plastic

¨ Cook vegetables with three goals in mind: best flavor, most nutrients, most eye appeal

¨ Cook all vegetables for shortest time possible, particularly green vegetables to preserve color. Never add any acid or baking soda to the cooking water

¨ One of the best vegetable cooking methods is blanching in plenty of boiling, salted water. Microwave cooking is the least suitable