Cooking Side Dishes

You will find a lot of roasted vegetables in this book. The brassicas, such as cabbage, broccoli, and brussels sprouts, and the roots, like carrots and beets, benefit from the intense dry heat of an oven, which concentrates sugars and provides the sublime contrast of crunchy on the outside and soft and tender on the inside.

Other cooking methods used are sweating (letting the vegetable cook, covered, in its own juices), braising (covered, but with more liquid and other ingredients added to exchange flavors), sautéing or stir-frying (stirring quickly in an open pan with minimal fat), broiling (tucking dishes under the broiler to brown their surface), and grilling (cooking foods over an outdoor gas or charcoal grill). What you won’t find is steaming, which drains away flavor rather than enhances it, or deep-frying, which masks an ingredient rather than highlights it.