4 Fall Harvest Cooking Techniques to Master
Autumn in New York is a beautiful palette of warm colors: burnt orange, golden yellow, even dazzling red. At Citarella, our bounty of fresh-picked produce is no less colorful!
"We work with farmers from all over the state to bring you the sweetest, most flavorful seasonal fruit and vegetables available, straight from the field and orchard to your kitchen."
Whether you’re planning a dinner party for friends or a weeknight family dinner, our produce department provides a cornucopia of inspiration. To help you get the most out of your produce, we offer the following cooking tips for roasting, poaching, sautéing and braising your vegetables to perfection.
HOW TO: ROAST
Perfect for: Brussels sprouts, carrots, pumpkin, butternut squash, cauliflower, and stone fruit.
Few cooking methods make culinary magic with as little effort as roasting. Pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees, and simply toss vegetables in our imported olive oil, spreading them in a single layer on a sheet pan. Cook until tender and perfectly browned, turning the vegetables half way through their cook time so that they brown evenly. Making a mix of roasted vegetables? Add the raw vegetables to the sheet pan in stages. Roasting root vegetables like carrots or turnips will take the most time and they should be put into the oven first. Softer vegetables, like broccoli or string beans, can be added later since they don’t require as much time in the oven. Apply the same basic technique to oven-roasted fruit with a few modifications: arrange cut fruit in a porcelain dish, sprinkle with sugar and a pinch of our California sea salt, and then bake in a preheated oven until tender and browned, stirring half-way through their cook time to promote even roasting.
HOW TO: SAUTÉ
Perfect for: bell peppers, string beans, mushrooms, onions, and apples.
From a batch of freshly trimmed string beans to a flavor-building mirepoix (an aromatic blend of vegetables like carrots, onions, and celery used as the base of many recipes), a quick sauté in a hot pan can add a tremendous amount of flavor to fruits and vegetables. To sauté like a master chef, be sure to choose the correct sauté pan for your portions. Preheat your pan and then add a minimal amount of fat like oil or butter. Cook your cut fruits or vegetables quickly on medium high heat, stirring or tossing them often, until the desired texture and color is achieved.
HOW TO: BRAISE
Perfect for: carrots, parsnips, and collard greens.
When you think about braising, meat probably comes to mind, but this gentle cooking method is an excellent way to infuse more flavor into your vegetable dishes, too and it works well with many of fall’s seasonal offerings. To start, heat butter or oil in a large pan on the stovetop, adding diced onion or minced garlic for extra flavor. Once the aromatics have softened, add the vegetables along with a small amount of liquid, such as chicken stock. Cover the pan and let the vegetables simmer on medium heat until they begin to soften, and most of the liquid has been absorbed.
HOW TO: POACH
Perfect for: string beans, apples, pears, and plums.
From tender green beans infused with lemon and garlic to fragrant wine-and-spice-simmered stone fruit, the trick to perfectly poached vegetables is keeping the temperature of the liquid low (barely simmering, between 160 and 180 degrees Fahrenheit). Choosing a poaching liquid like water, wine, juice, tea, or stock and add it to a large pot on your stovetop over a medium heat. Be sure to use enough liquid to fully submerge your fruits or vegetables. You can include other flavorful ingredients in the poaching liquid, too: cloves of garlic, bunches of herbs, citrus zest, cinnamon sticks, and more. When the poaching liquid comes to a low simmer, showing signs of very small, gentle bubbles, add your cut fruit or vegetables. Then, simply cook until you reach the desired tenderness. The first crisp days of fall are the perfect time for comforting flavors like sweet-and-spicy cinnamon-poached apples or tender, hearty roasted squash, carrots and greens. Our selection of local produce is sure to inspire countless warm, cozy, cold-weather meals - click here to find your closest market.
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