Bittman’s three ways to cook root vegetables

Video: Try Mark Bittman’s tasty veggie meals

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   >>> with" how to cook everything." this morning we're going underground to cook root vegetables , mark pittman is our chef, his recipes also appear in the "new york times" magazine. i don't picture you as an underground guy.

   >> i was once an underground guy.

   >> some root vegetables are more familiar to people than others, why don't you point out a couple of them.

   >> this is bizarre to people, that's celeriac, it's related to celery, it's a celery root . and oddly enough, you can roast this thing with all of those weird, hairy things on there and it's quite good, but most people peel them. these are the kind of beets that are grown mostly for the greens, which are similar to chard. but they come in all colors, shapes as and sizes. and radishes, parsnips, carrots.

   >> now if you want to eat something that's in season or close to root vegetables are where it's at.

   >> the rumor is that the more you cook them, the sweeter they become.

   >> some of them are sweet raw, but all of them are sweet cooked.

   >> what are we making?

   >> this is basically a saute of grated root vegetables . so i like for these, a u-shaped peeler. you can use whatever you want . and peel around like that. or whatever is comfortable for you. some people like to peel in strips. some people even like to peel right-handed, which i don't get.

   >> lefties, unite.

   >> and you can grate on a box grate or much quicker of course is a food processor . the joke when my grandmother, who made a lot of root vegetables was grating, is that nothing is any good unless there's a bit of a knuckle in there.

   >> you've got onions sautes in here with a little olive oil .

   >> and grated radish, turnip, carrots and sweet potato . it goes in there with some garlic and salt and pepper . of course.

   >> how long is this going to saute?

   >> pretty quick, especially if you get the heat to the right level. ten or 15 minutes , you can cut this in chunks in a way, it's equally nice effect. we have a nicer chew when you're dow done. but if you're interested in speed, this is the way to go. this is what this looks like.

   >> you're not going to brown these, you're just kind of cooking them until they get nice and soft?

   >> and they're beautiful, and some scallions, a little bit of cayenne. and some fish sauce or sherry.

   >> why the fish sauce ?

   >> we're doing sort of a vietnamese preparation. but you can flavor these, lemon and vinegar would give you sort of an italian kind of thing. or a tarragon.

   >> it turns out looking something like this.

   >> it turns out looking exactly like that.

   >> let's come over here, i want to talk about this other one. you're going to do sauteed beets now?

   >> this is really great. this is, i just started at the end and show you. to get this beautiful glazed look on these beets, it's quite easy. you put beets in a pan with some butter.

   >> when you cook beets, they're going to bleed. i mean they tend this color beet, they tend to get the purple sauce all over everything. and yet i'm looking over here, for some reason you've managed to separate them.

   >> the real dangerous thing is cutting and peeling them. and i always do that in the sink. sort of because --

   >> it really does stain.

   >> a little white wine , a little stock. the great thing, the thing i like most about these -- we should have a cover, but we don't. so anyway, we cook these, you know, i like that, you know what, you know what you're doing.

   >> using your surroundings.

   >> you cook these until they start to boil and you cover them and you cook them for a few minutes. and you take the cover off and cook out all the liquid and what you have is this beautiful, buttery glaze on here.

   >> all right.

   >> and then they're really sweet. great at room temperature.

   >> they're really good. tell me about this potato nick?

   >> that's my grandmother's name. a recipe i learned from my grandmother. it is essentially one huge potato latka. grated potatoes, onions, eggs, cooked in a big pan, turned over.

   >> you know, technically potatoes are tubers, not vegetables.

   >> i do know that, i was waiting for you to say that. the entire segment is failure.

   >> mark bittman , thank you.

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