Hey everybody,
I've been busy catching up with people and tomorrow is Strutt (Canada's Largest Wearable Art Show), so I thought I'd get a post up tonight about something I've become better acquainted with in the last few years.
The parsnip.
(Oh, hooray, a root vegetable.)
But I've come to love it so much! Especially since it seems to have a short growing season and gets even tastier from frost exposure. That's good for chilly-ass Canada! Here's the Wikipedia entry, and the CFIA entry, for more technical stuff.
It's related to anise, celery, carrot, dill, cumin, parsley, and a whole bunch of others. It's a weed, essentially. It's the root of the weed! But lucky us: one day we dug it up and ate it.
It's kind of nice that carrot, parsnip and dill marry nicely as a soup. It's got this nice fragrance to it that amps up any roasted dish or soup. I've had equal luck using it in both, and I shared a recipe before for fried parsnip "chips"; so far I think that's my favourite way to cook them.
If you're unfamiliar with it, give it a try. More raw parsnips have got a really pretty, floral flavour, and if tastes were assigned a "colour", this would definitely be "white". It's clean. It has a bit of peppery/bitterness (kind of similar to that of arugula) on the finish, as root vegetables tend to have, but when sauteed in butter with salt and pepper, caramelization does wonders to soften and enrich the flavour.
I want to try this recipe I found while surfing links. I'll post when I find how it turns out!
Whew, lots of links in this one. Now go get crazy with some parsnips. Do it with style.
Bon appetit,
Melissa
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