Saturday Vegetables (Salsify!)

Again, Saturday was mostly spent prepping for Thanksgiving on Sunday, so dinner was mostly a matter of "wow, look at all these veggies we need to get out of the fridge!" We had bratkartoffeln, brussels sprouts sauteed with bacon, and some salsify.

The brussels sprouts dish (brown some lardons, toss in some halved brussels sprouts, saute covered over medium heat until nicely browned and fully cooked) was really good. It's hard to believe that I used to not like these things.

Salsify (Schwarzwurzel in German) was completely new to me; I picked some up because it's in all the shops and I wanted to give it a try. It is weird stuff. First of all it was unbelievable dirty. I soaked it and changed the water and scrubbed it and changed the water and soaked and scrubbed it and changed the water and it was still dirty when I peeled it. Secondly it releases some kind of sticky sap when peeled that is rather difficult to get rid of. I'm pretty sure the sap turns red when exposed to air, but it may have just picked up something else. Once the prep work was done, I cut the roots into bite-sized pieces and boiled them in salted acidulated water (per a suggestion from Bittman) until they started to get a bit tender. I drained the pieces and tossed them with some butter before serving. The roots didn't have much flavor (beyond butter and salt), but the texture was quite good. I wonder if a slower cooking/sauteeing would help with the flavor.