Chefs' Tips Tricks!
Working with Harvest Vegetables by ROBYN MACLEAN photography by INGRID KUENZEL AND DONG KIM
‘Tis the season of bountiful Chef/Proprietor Paul Stoffel Q Haute Cuisine (Calgary) harvest from our many amazing Alberta producers. “Vegetables are incredibly versatile in terms of preparation, presentation, After spending months and taste, leaving a lot of room dedicated to soil and seeds, texture to play and create,” says Chef Stoffel. farmers near and far have “You’ll often find me charring my provided us hungry locals red peppers. Charring or roasting with a gorgeous array of reduces the sharpness and intensifies colourful, healthy and, most the natural sugars, leaving you with a whole new smoky, tender and importantly, flavourful juicy ingredient,” he explains. “My vegetables. technique is to roast over an open Most of us already know there a few golden guidelines to cooking vegetables, such as uniform slicing and cooking the soft together and the hard together, but in order to make vegetables the star of the show rather than the back-up singer, we’ve asked a few of our favourite chefs to share some of their go-to vegetable recipes and tips.
flame, turning frequently to ensure even charring. If you don’t have a gas stove, you can char it under the broiler. When the pepper is completely charred, I place it into a bowl and saran wrap tightly, or in a Tupperware container with a tight fitting lid. I then let it steam and cool for 10 minutes, allowing the skin to easily
Chef Paul Stoffel
peel away from the flesh. From there I gently scrape the skin off with my knife, then wipe the remaining off with a cloth. Be careful not to run under water as it will wash away the oils of the pepper, destroying the flavour you worked so hard to attain.”
Vegetable Pavé 12