Question
Sharon Burrus
I’m having trouble getting a nice carmelization with roasted veggies. If I use a wetting substance for flavor it makes it steam and takes longer to cook and the potential of cooking. Any tips?
Answer
So we're gonna do two things here. First I'm going to show you, you can't see it very well, but pan placement is the key to a good roasted vegetable of any kind. That's my first recommendation. And if you like to play Jenga or Tetris, then this assignment is for you because placing the carrots in an equal array about an inch apart, will allow the vegetables to roast beautifully. What happens is that if you take, um, your carrots and you place them in a pan, uh, if they're on top of one another, they're going to steam rather than roast. So the other important thing is the oven temp. Uh, I roasted those in my little oven here at 450 degrees Fahrenheit. So your oven has to be hot enough. And the other thing is, I mean, you can see a comparison between the two. These I made in the air fryer, these I made in the stove exactly as they're made in the assignment. Um, I did, uh, put on this, uh, a teaspoon of tahini and a tablespoon of mustard and mixed it together, and it, it has some very nice ice and caramelization on it. Uh, when they came out of the oven, they were absolutely delicious. And, uh, these are air fried. And even though they look kind of lonely right now, they also have beautiful caramelization on them, and I used nothing on them. So it takes me back to food sometimes look differently than they did when we were adding lots and lots of oil. And feedback that I get from students is, oh my gosh, these vegetables taste so much better without the oil. Because oil can sometimes mask the natural flavor of, uh, a cooked fruit or vegetable. So, uh, heat is the trick. That's what you have to do.
