My Roasting Mantra

By Sidonie Maroon, The Food Co-op Culinary Educator, abluedotkitchen.com

Follow Sidonie on The Food Co-op’s Facebook group Cooking with the Co-op

Recipes included:
Roasted Apple Plum Poppy Seed Rye Crisp, Roasted Beet, Apple & Tomato, Roasted Cauliflower Medley with Tahini Sauce

My Roasting Mantra

I lived at the Olympic Hostel at Fort Worden from 2006 to 2011. My husband, Christopher, ran this peaceful and friendly accommodation for eighteen years.

When I arrived, our culinary scene changed. We had plenty of dining space and gave large dinner parties, indoors and out. I often cooked for crowds, and it helped that we had three full sized ovens, two in the hostel, and one in our adjoining apartment. In those days I was chef-crazy and would stop at nothing to fulfil whatever flavor aspiration I was chasing. Once, we gave a Greek themed party for a gathering of 40 nature artists. I worked several days on eight moussakas and had them in the ovens, with dinner only half an hour away, when someone locked both of the ovens by starting the self-cleaning cycle. We got those casseroles out, but it was close.

During this time, I discovered the benefits of roasting fruits and vegetables. I used six jumbo rimmed baking sheets that came from the closed Port Townsend Baking Co. at Fort Worden. (Do you remember the sourdough from that bakery?! It makes sense that Frank d’Amore was their lead baker.) I was forever moving trays of roasting onions, zucchini, red peppers, or plums and peaches in and out of the ovens. I am grateful to the student who showed me how to line the trays with parchment paper. It made the cleanup easy and I could lift the food with the paper.

At the Olympic Hostel I began teaching international foodways classes, and my roasting method was a hot topic.

This was my roasting mantra

Use parchment paper

Don’t overfill the baking sheets, or the ingredients will steam instead of roasting.

Cut everything to a similar size.

Rub in salt, flavor pastes and spices

Use enough oil to keep everything loose and flavorful

Roast at 425 f for 30 minutes, on middle racks, then check and move the edge ingredients to the middle, and roast for another 15 to 20 minutes or until done.

I explained to my students how flavor builds through the dry heat of the oven, caramelizing the natural sugars in the produce. We’d roast and eat trays of deliciousness together in conversion experiences.

There is nothing like the smells that fill the kitchen, of roasting fruit and vegetables. It’s all hands-on chopping fresh produce and initiating it through heat into the society of elevated flavors. It’s so easy, pure science and yet miraculous. Roasting adds indescribable depth to a dish, a melting sweetness with smoky after notes. Repeat with me — 425F on parchment lined baking sheets.

What to roast?

Roast stone fruits like cherries, plums and peaches to use as sauces, chutneys or fillings.

Caramelize onions

Make fruit sauces to freeze or can.

Roast vegetable medleys with different spice ways from Mediterranean to Indian.

Make the vegetable components that will go into soup, stew, salad or flatbread

Roasted fruit combinations to love

Plums with cinnamon and vanilla

Peaches with ginger, lemon and bourbon

Apricots with cardamom and orange

Roasted veggie combos to swoon over

Cauliflower, onions, garlic, lemon, salt, and black pepper

Red peppers, balsamic vinegar, thyme, and Roma tomatoes

Carrots, lemon, coriander, and fennel seed

Versatile Roasted Chutney

makes 4 cups

Make this delicious chutney with stone fruit, or use other summer vegetables like zucchini or cauliflower.

Ingredients

1 ½ lbs sliced stone fruit, like plums, peaches or apricots

½ cup raisins

2 onions, chopped

½ cup walnuts or pecans, chopped

¼ teaspoon red chili flakes

2 teaspoons fennel seed

1 teaspoon black mustard seed

1 teaspoon Celtic sea salt

2 tablespoons finely minced fresh ginger

3 tablespoons finely minced garlic (about 6 cloves)

¼ cup olive oil

Directions

1. Toss everything together on a parchment lined large rimmed baking sheet.

2. Roast in a preheated oven at 425 F for 30 minutes. Stir, bringing the edge ingredients into the center. Roast for another 15 to 20 minutes or until you love it.

Serve warm or cool. Will keep for a week refrigerated

Apple Plum Poppy Seed Crisp with Rye

Makes 1 large crisp or 2 smaller crisps

Ingredients

Fruit

6 cups (5 medium apples)chopped medium dice local baking apples on the tart side, several kinds works well

3 cups (6 plums) local Italian plums chopped in a medium dice

4 tablespoons tapioca flour

¼ cup sugar

2 tablespoons brandy (I had some homemade vanilla brandy)

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

Topping

1 cup rye flakes toasted

2 cups rolled oats toasted

½ cup sunflower seeds

1 cup local rye flour

3 tablespoons local poppy seeds

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ to ¾ cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1 cup cold unsalted butter (two sticks) cut into ½ inch cubes

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375F 190C

Butter casserole(s) for crisp

Fruit

1. Chop apples and plums, sprinkle tapioca flour, sugar, spices and brandy with fruit, mix together and let sit while you make the topping.

Topping

1. Toast oats and rye flakes together in a heavy bottomed pan stirring occasionally, I use cast iron, about 4-5 minutes on low, they will smell toasty.

2. In a food processor add: 2 cups of the toasted oat/rye flakes, rye flour, sunflower seeds, poppy seeds, sea salt, cinnamon, and sugar. Spin to combine, everything should be spun to a meal. Add cold butter and pulse 6-8 times until the size of small peas, add the last cup of rye/oat flakes and briefly pulse to just combine.

Finishing and Baking

1. Lay fruit on the bottom of the casserole and topping over it. Gently mix and move the topping so that some of it goes down into the fruit.

2. Bake for 45-50 minutes. It should smell wonderful toasty but not burnt. Decorate with dried local apples and plums. Serve warm to local people.

Roasted Beet, Apple and Tomato

Makes 5 cups

Roasting

Ingredients

1 onion /150g chopped

1 large beet / 400g peeled and cut into a medium dice

1 baking apple / 200g chopped

2 cups roma tomatoes, chopped

½ cup /50g celery chopped

1 tablespoon ginger, minced

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons fresh thyme, minced or 1 teaspoon dried thyme

¼ cup unsalted butter

Spices: using a spice or coffee grinder, grind into a rough powder

1 teaspoon whole coriander seed

1 teaspoon fennel seed

1 teaspoon sea salt

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon whole peppercorns

¼ teaspoon allspice berries

2 dried bay leaves, crumbled

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Lay prepared onion, beet, apple and tomatoes together on the baking sheet. Rub spices and salt into the produce and dot with butter. Roast for 25 minutes, stir and continue to roast for 25 to 30 minutes more.

Roasted Cauliflower Medley with Yogurt Tahini Sauce

Serves 4 as a side dish

Ingredients

1 medium cauliflower broken into florets

1 medium eggplant peeled and sliced into 1 inch cubes

1 medium zucchini sliced into ½ inch cubes

A handful of tender green beans cut into 1 inch pieces

10 garden pole beans cut into 2 inch sections

1 head of garlic peeled into separate cloves

3-4 tablespoons olive oil

Sea salt about 1 teaspoon

Instructions

Preheat oven to 450F to 230C

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper

Lay diced vegetables on the tray

Massage olive oil and sea salt into the vegetables

Bake for 20 minutes, stir and bake for another 25 minutes

Vegetables should be melty and tender roasted

Kefir Tahini Sauce

1 cup roasted tahini

1 cup yogurt

1 clove raw garlic crushed

Juice of 1 lemon plus zest

1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions

In a food processor while vegetables are roasting

Crush garlic in processor

Add other ingredients and process until smooth

Taste and adjust for salt, sour or liquid

Serve roasted veggies with tahini sauce on warm flatbreads

With lightly salted chopped tomato, cucumber and shredded lettuce