French Glazed Vegetables
When Sara and Lisa visited Paris several years ago, they learned this recipe for a spectacular and simple vegetable side that is equally unique and showstopping. It's more a method than a recipe, though, and can be applied to many vegetables, such as sweet potatoes, green beans, snap peas, parsnips, and more.
- 1 large cucumber
- 1 large turnip
- 2-3 large carrots
- vanilla sugar
- salted butter
- 1/4 cup water
Peel all your vegetables. Remove seeds from cucumber, if desired. Dice the cucumber into 1/2 inch cubes. Dice the turnip and carrots into 1/4 inch cubes. Using a kitchen scale set to grams, zero out a large bowl. Weigh all the vegetables and record the weight.
Calculate:
Weight of vegetables * 0.06 = weight of butter
Weight of vegetables * 0.04 = weight of vanilla sugar
Once you've made your calculations, weigh out the appropriate amount of butter and sugar, and add everything--the vegetables, butter, sugar, and water--to a large, cold skillet. Turn the heat on high, stir occasionally, and cook until the water completely evaporates. Taste for seasoning. We usually don't need additional salt and pepper, but if you do, we won't judge. Then, it's done! You can cook it to this point, set it to the side, and briefly re-heat the whole pan right before service, if you're wanting to make the dish in advance.
Note: you can use any crunchy vegetables you like in this dish. Harder vegetables should be diced smaller than softer vegetables, like cucumber, because of the difference in cooking time.