Phil Vickery's Christmas veg
The best way I have found to cook crispy, crunchy roast potatoes is to blanch them in boiling water until the edges start to crumble away.
Phil Vickery shows us how to make our Christmas veg anything but boring with his crispy roast potatoes, honeyed carrots, brussels sprouts with apple butter glaze and roasted parsnips.
Roast potatoes
(Serves 6-8)
Phil says" "Chefs can’t cook roast potatoes, this is Fern’s recipe with a tweak here and there. Drain well, then cook in very hot dripping or goose or duck fat, and only turn them once. That really is it!."
Ingredients:
1 kg peeled potatoes - Rooster or Maris Piper are good roasters200g good beef dripping, duck, goose fat or lardSalt and freshly milled black pepper
Method:
Preheat the oven to 200C/ Gas 7
Place a pan of cold water on the stove and bring to the boil, add salt and re boil. Pop in the potatoes cut into large quarters. Bring back to the boil and simmer for about 10 minutes, or until the outsides start to fall away and carefully drain.
Place the dripping in a baking tray, pop into the hot oven and heat for 10 minutes, or until just smoking
When drained, remove the tray from the oven carefully, add the potatoes to the hot fat, season well with salt and pepper and pop into the oven. Cook for 35-40 minutes.
When the bottoms are very crisp and golden, turn over and return to the oven and cook for a further 35-40 minutes, until both sides are crisp and golden
The inside will be soft and powdery with two crunchy edges, perfect!.
Serve piping hot.
Roasted honeyed carrots
Ingredients:
500g small carrots100mls vegetable oil2 tsp cumin seedsjuice 1 large lemonSalt and freshly milled black pepper2 tbsp clear honey
Method:
Peel the carrots, cut the ends off and split in half from top to tail - then cut into quarters
Heat the oil in a baking tin in a hot oven, 200C/Gas 6-7, for about 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, bring a pan of salted water to the boil. Add the carrots, bring back to the boil and simmer for 1 minute.
Drain well, then carefully lay in the very hot oil and season well with salt and pepper and return to the oven
Cook for 30 minutes, then carefully turn over and return to the oven for a further 30 minutes, until crispy on both sides
Pour on the honey, seeds and lemon juice and cook for a further 5 minutes to glaze. They will burn very quickly, so keep an eye on them.
Serve piping hot and golden brown\
Brussels sprouts with apple butter glaze
Ingredients:
700g sprouts, tightly closed and brilliant green, trimmed100g unsalted butter6 small shallots, peeled and chopped finely1 large Bramley apple, finely diced250mls dry cider1 x 10g vegetable stock cubePepper
Method:
Cook the sprouts in plenty of boiling water, until soft in the centre (about 10 minutes) - They need to be slightly over cooked. Or, place into a medium sized bowl, add salt, pepper and 200ml water. Cover with film, make a couple of small holes and microwave for 5 minutes. Check and see if cooked, if not recover and cook for a further 2 minutes.
Cool under cold water then drain really well. This can be done a few hours before. When you come to serve, there is only one way to warm them up - pop them in the microwave
Warm the butter and add the shallot and cook for 1 minute to soften, then add the apple and cook for 10 minutes until the apple softens
Add the cider and stock cube and cook down until syrupy
5, When ready add the sprouts and coat well.
Roasted parsnips
Ingredients
1kg parsnips (that's about 6-8 medium ones)200ml oilSalt and freshly milled black pepper2 tbsp clear heather honey
Method:
Peel the parsnips and top and tail
Split in half from top to tail, then cut into quarters, leaving the core in
Heat the dripping or fat in a baking tin in a hot oven (200C/Gas 6-7) for about 10 minutes
Meanwhile, bring a pan of salted water to the boil, add the parsnips, bring back to the boil and simmer for 1 minute maximum, or, they will start to fall to pieces
Drain well, then carefully lay in the very hot dripping - season well with salt and pepper and return to the oven. Cook for 35 minutes, then carefully turn over and return to the oven for a further 30 minutes, until crispy on both sides.