The Splendid Table/Lynne Rosetto Kasper

[Jenise]

While in the car on errands this morning I listened to a live interview on a Seattle public radio station with Lynne Rosetto Kasper, host of The Splendid Table. She (and her co-writer, Sally Swift) said a million interesting things, but perhaps one of the most interesting was her evening cooking method, which she had a name for that I don't recall except that it involved the number '450'. Four Fifty because what she does is walk in, turn the oven on to 450 degrees, throw a half-sheet pan (one of her two favorite kitchen pans, the other being a 12" straight sided saute pan) in to warm up, and only then check the fridge and the pantry to see what she's going to make for dinner.

Wow, here's someone who cooks in her oven almost EVERY night. I know people who use their oven about once a fortnight, and even then it might only be to bake cookies.

Jo Ann, you're interviewing her this week, too. Where and when, and is it something we can tune into or hear the recording of later?

I'm interviewing her a little later this afternoon. I listened to that interview this morning too, just to make certain I didn't till old ground when I spend my few minutes with her (anywhere from 30-60 minutes). My show airs later in the month (or sometimes in the week), but I never know when (unless I ask John for a heads up). I record for the blind so it is a subscription service. But last year they launched a streaming service over the internet. KUOW is our parent station. I'll let you know when and where and provide a link later.

BTW, I intend to ask Lynn and Sally to issue the next cooking challenge to our forum by giving us a theme ingredient, or specific number of identified ingredients, and or a cooking technique to try. See you in pictures!

I'm interviewing her a little later this afternoon. I listened to that interview this morning too, just to make certain I didn't till old ground when I spend my few minutes with her (anywhere from 30-60 minutes). My show airs later in the month (or sometimes in the week), but I never know when (unless I ask John for a heads up). I record for the blind so it is a subscription service. But last year they launched a streaming service over the internet. KUOW is our parent station. I'll let you know when and where and provide a link later.

BTW, I intend to ask Lynn and Sally to issue the next cooking challenge to our forum by giving us a theme ingredient, or specific number of identified ingredients, and or a cooking technique to try. See you in pictures!

Excellent, Jo Ann! Please do post a link.

I use my oven every day, often more than once. Then again, I'm obsessed with baking..

[Jenise]

But last year they launched a streaming service over the internet. KUOW is our parent station. I'll let you know when and where and provide a link later.

BTW, I intend to ask Lynn and Sally to issue the next cooking challenge to our forum by giving us a theme ingredient, or specific number of identified ingredients, and or a cooking technique to try. See you in pictures!

FANTASTIC. And....?

I use my oven every day, often more than once. Then again, I'm obsessed with baking..

I'm not, but I certainly use my oven for much more than my mother did when I was growing up. Then, ovens were pretty strictly for baking and holiday roasts. Though I'm not a baker like you, I now roast all sorts of things that my mother wouldn't have thought of. Take tonight's dinner: sourdough/parmesan cheese toasts topped with long-cooked broccoli was our vegetarian main course. One of the big ovens was required to roast the broccoli for over an hour, and the little toaster made the cheese toast. A meal, and two methods, that dear mom wouldn't have dreamed of. Yesterday, the oven baked the ribs for an hour when they came off the smoker, and also baked 24 corn muffins. So I use my ovens frequently, but definitely not so reflexively that I anticipate using it every night and turn it on even before I know what I'm making for dinner. That turns the oven into the primary tool where for most of us I think it's still the stove. Quite interesting to think about.

Why are you cooking the broccoli for an hour?

And meat is not "baked" unless it is encased in pastry or buried in a sauce.

Why are you cooking the broccoli for an hour?

Moot to me, I hate the stuff, but long-cooked broccoli is reputed to have an excellent flavor. I wouldn't be optimistic about the nutrient value...

[Jenise]

Why are you cooking the broccoli for an hour?

What Stuart said. Discovered it from Nancy Silverton at her Mozza Pizzeria in L.A. Saw "Pizza with long-cooked broccoli" on the menu and turned up my nose totally. Then the guy next to me at the bar ordered one and I got to taste. I was in love. Parboiled first then placed in a shallow pan (crowded, but not deep) in a slow oven (about 250) drizzled with olive oil and dusted with salt and roasted until the tops just start to brown, the broccoli develops great character over the next hour and 15 or 30 minutes. I could put it on pizza just like she did, but I've come to prefer the thick slice of toasted sourdough spread with butter/parm/garlic to a pizza crust for this preparation. Truly delish and currently our favorite vegetarian repast.

What you said, Stuart - except I like broccoli just fine - but would no more cook it that long than I would fry chicken naked.

Pretty sure all the valuable phytochemicals and Vitamin C have been totally removed after that cooking period. And I know a lot of people who don't like the flavor of broccoli. It would hardly be fair to ask them to eat it when it was providing them with nothing but flavor.

Every move I make in the kitchen is designed to keep both maximum flavor and nutrition in the food. This seems to violate about 50% of my cooking philosophy.

And meat is not "baked" unless it is encased in pastry or buried in a sauce.

A rose by any other name. How 'bout ham?

And meat is not "baked" unless it is encased in pastry or buried in a sauce.

A rose by any other name. How 'bout ham?

Point to Larry.

And meat is not "baked" unless it is encased in pastry or buried in a sauce.

A rose by any other name. How 'bout ham?

Point to Larry.

Let me take that point back - You can't fight common usage, even when it's incorrect. Same thing with language in general. We are forced into what began as incorrect all the time. Common usage.

Try get get "chaise lounge" - which I see in all the ads - back to "chaise longue" for instance. Ain't gonna happen. Every English major has little things that just grind at him/her, but we are marching forward into the future.

Like how John Prine knew he was living in the future - he read in the papers 15 years ago.

We roast meats. We bake vegetable substances. People - and chefs - being what they (we) are will try to jumble the easy stuff as much as possible.

Example - would you say you were "baking" a raw leg of porK? Nah, you'd say you were roasting it.

Cure that same leg (no need for cooking at all except to add flavor,) turn it into a ham and all of a sudden you are "baking" it. Why? No reason.

I actually go into all this in my book which is, after all, about COOKING TECHNIQUES.

[Jenise]

And I know a lot of people who don't like the flavor of broccoli. It would hardly be fair to ask them to eat it when it was providing them with nothing but flavor.

Every move I make in the kitchen is designed to keep both maximum flavor and nutrition in the food. This seems to violate about 50% of my cooking philosophy.

So, you're a vitamin snob. Listen, I totally understand that long cooked broccoli isn't exactly macrobiotic, but it does no damage and I serve this dish with a big healthy salad. Really, I'll take my empty overcooked broccoli over the heavy fat of your mac n' cheese and empty calories of the desserts most people can't live without that I NEVER serve. Or to put it another way, within the paramaters of an everything-in-moderation lifestyle, long-cooked broccoli's pretty benign.

And I know a lot of people who don't like the flavor of broccoli. It would hardly be fair to ask them to eat it when it was providing them with nothing but flavor.

Every move I make in the kitchen is designed to keep both maximum flavor and nutrition in the food. This seems to violate about 50% of my cooking philosophy.

So, you're a vitamin snob. Listen, I totally understand that the broccoli has no vitamins left, but I serve this dish with a big healthy salad, and I'll take my empty overcooked broccoli over the heavy fat of your mac n' cheese and empty calories of the desserts most people can't live without that I never serve. Within the paramaters of an everything-in-moderation lifestyle, long-cooked broccoli's pretty benign.

It's not so much that I'm a snob (about this, anyway) but that I have always endeavored to cook food for others as I would want it prepared for me. That being said, I do dearly loved a full plate of macaroni and cheese - prepared by me.

Listen, I totally understand that the broccoli has no vitamins left, but I serve this dish with a big healthy salad, and I'll take my empty overcooked broccoli over the heavy fat of your mac n' cheese and empty calories of the desserts most people can't live without that I never serve. Within the paramaters of an everything-in-moderation lifestyle, long-cooked broccoli's pretty benign.

We've actually done this a couple of times, using your suggestion (I think it was you) of roasting HALF the broccoli, with the other half being steamed only a couple of minutes, and then combined. Interesting combo of flavors. And of course the short-cooked has plenty of C left. In addition, broccoli of course has other nutrients/properties that aren't bothered by heat.

[Jenise]

Listen, I totally understand that the broccoli has no vitamins left, but I serve this dish with a big healthy salad, and I'll take my empty overcooked broccoli over the heavy fat of your mac n' cheese and empty calories of the desserts most people can't live without that I never serve. Within the paramaters of an everything-in-moderation lifestyle, long-cooked broccoli's pretty benign.

We've actually done this a couple of times, using your suggestion (I think it was you) of roasting HALF the broccoli, with the other half being steamed only a couple of minutes, and then combined. Interesting combo of flavors. And of course the short-cooked has plenty of C left. In addition, broccoli of course has other nutrients/properties that aren't bothered by heat.

Yes, that was me! I love the combo of flavors and textures. I don't do that for the toasts because I want to smoosh the broccoli on top. Anyway, it makes me really happy to know people try things like this--thanks for saying so.

I think you might be concentrating those nutrients, not getting rid of them with roasting...the same way you concentrate the sugars of an onion, for example, when you roast it. Boiling that long? Yeah, your nutrients are gone...but roasting, I'm not so sure...I will poke around and see what I learn (I did an enormous thing on "nurtriceuticals" a year or so ago, and broccoli was big..)

b

[Jenise]

I think you might be concentrating those nutrients, not getting rid of them with roasting...the same way you concentrate the sugars of an onion, for example, when you roast it. Boiling that long? Yeah, your nutrients are gone...but roasting, I'm not so sure...I will poke around and see what I learn (I did an enormous thing on "nurtriceuticals" a year or so ago, and broccoli was big..)

b

That would be quite cool of you, Barb. I'd be very interested, too, in understanding whether or not the low temp slow roast also preserves nutrients that would be lost at higher heat.

I think you might be concentrating those nutrients, not getting rid of them with roasting...the same way you concentrate the sugars of an onion, for example, when you roast it. Boiling that long? Yeah, your nutrients are gone...but roasting, I'm not so sure...I will poke around and see what I learn (I did an enormous thing on "nurtriceuticals" a year or so ago, and broccoli was big..)

b

Barb,
You'll find a mixed bag of reactions. Vitamins A, C&E are sensitive to oxidation, so they will be lost somewhat to oxidative processes during roasting -- but only at the surface of the veggie which is exposed to the air. The B and D vitamins are more stable to oxidation but aren't totally thermally stable, either. The sugars in roasted onion are a different story: the heat promotes the enzymatic degradation of starch to glucose, which tastes sweet (the carmelization is a different process, known as the Maillard reaction). The big difference between boiling and roasting is that boiling extracts out the water-soluble vitamins (many B and C) and minerals.

Mark Lipton

I think you might be concentrating those nutrients, not getting rid of them with roasting...the same way you concentrate the sugars of an onion, for example, when you roast it. Boiling that long? Yeah, your nutrients are gone...but roasting, I'm not so sure...I will poke around and see what I learn (I did an enormous thing on "nurtriceuticals" a year or so ago, and broccoli was big..)

b

Barb,
You'll find a mixed bag of reactions. Vitamins A, C&E are sensitive to oxidation, so they will be lost somewhat to oxidative processes during roasting -- but only at the surface of the veggie which is exposed to the air. The B and D vitamins are more stable to oxidation but aren't totally thermally stable, either. The sugars in roasted onion are a different story: the heat promotes the enzymatic degradation of starch to glucose, which tastes sweet (the carmelization is a Hifferent process, known as the Maillard reaction). The big difference between boiling and roasting is that boiling extracts out the water-soluble vitamins (many B and C) and minerals.

Mark Lipton

Yeah, and this is probably the main reason I advocate boiling as opposed to steaming. We use the water in which those nutrients are extracted. It goes into other food.

Hell, I don't care if folks want to roast their vegetables for a week. I just want them to be aware of what they might be losing in the process. Not everybody is a "reader."

Mark, Thanks for the good explanation--and if I understand correctly, the long roasting doesn't mean you concentrate nutrients the way I guessed it might, but you don't lose the amount others thought you might by the long roast--only at the surface? All very interesting-..

B