Plant it
Black
This
Halloween week, I visit with Paul Bonine, author of Black Plants: 75
Striking Choices for the Garden (xeraplants.com). We chat about some of our favorite plants
with strange, sinister, mysterious and beautiful black foliage or flowers
(above, center, brass buttons, Leptinella squalida ‘Platt’s Black’, photo Glenn Kopp,
MoBot; right, giant bird of paradise, Streliztia nicholai, photo Lynne Harrison).
For
hellebore photos, northwestgardennursery.com.
The Root
of it All
By popular
demand, the recipe for Root Stew — an autumn favorite that only takes about an
hour to make, and serves 12 or more for a Halloween buffet.
INGREDIENTS
1 cup
yellow onions cut into half-inch pieces.
2 cups each
of five or more assorted roots peeled and cut into one-inch chunks. (Plunge
chunks into cold water to keep them from turning brown.) Roots: sweet potatoes,
white potatoes, rutabaga, and a tropical root that is new to you (such as
boniato, cassava, taro, yucca). Butternut squash, although a fruit not a root
(optional additions, see below *).
4 cups
chicken or vegetable stock (one 32-ounce box if you use that)
2 cans
coconut milk
Thai five
spice powder, or curry powder (optional)
1 package
raw cranberries.
3-5
gingersnap cookies.
Accompaniment:
Basmati or jasmine rice; assorted garnishes, for example salted peanuts, golden
raisins, shredded sweetened coconut, chopped cilantro, mango chutney and the
like.
PREPARATION
In a
non-stick sauté pan, cook onion in olive oil until translucent and dump into a
large stew pot. Lightly sauté the roots in batches and add them to the stew
pot. Add oil when necessary.
Add the
liquids, which should cover the root chunks, turn on low fire and bring to a
gentle boil (uncovered). Add seasoning if used. Salt, or one chicken bullion
cube.
When the
roots are just about tender (around 30 minutes), crush four or five ginger snap
cookies into the liquid to flavor and thicken it. Stir gently and continue to
cook.
Just before
serving, pour in the contents of one entire package of raw cranberries. Gently
fold so as not to break root chunks. (The cranberries will explode in your
mouth.) Turn off the burner. Cover the pot and let the stew rest until ready to
serve.
Serve over
rice. Provide garnishes in small bowls with little spoons for serving.
* There are
so many things that can go into this stew. Perhaps I should call it Kitchen
Sink Soup.
Optional additions to try: 1 cup of one or two
of the following: partially cooked cut carrots, cut parsnips, cubed beets,
cooked chickpeas, cauliflower florets added towards the end.
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