Yes, I’m a day late. I unloaded the truck Sunday, fell down, went boom. Yesterday was a lot of cleaning and recovery. So we’re a day late.
This weekend, I had the most amazing time cooking an 18th century supper for about 40 or so reenactors. I had a blast, even though it was a ton of work. We started cooking at about 9:30am, and rang the dinner bell at just after 6pm. By 8pm, I was in bed, in the dark, half asleep. LOL… But what a day! Everyone loved the food, and I made both a 13 lb turkey and an 8 lb ham, both of which were stripped like locusts in a wheat field. LOL… There were plenty of successes, and a couple of partial failures, but overall I did well. People enjoyed it, and I’ve been asked if I’m willing to repeat it next year (spoiler alert: I am!). Of the side dishes I presented, though, Roots a la Creme was probably the group favorite. It just tasted GOOD. So here is the version I made:
Ingredients:
- 4 large carrots
- 4 medium parsnips
- 1 stick of butter/margarine
- 1 tbsp fresh parsley, minced
- 3 small scallions
- 1 clove of garlic
- 1 shallot about one inch round
- A small pinch of ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp dried basil
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp or so of flour for thickening
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground pepper
- 1 cup cashew yogurt OR sour cream OR heavy whipping cream
- 1 tsp white vinegar
- vegetable broth, if needed to thin it out a bit.
Peel your carrots and parsnips and cut them in large slices. Boil them until you can stick a fork in them easily (usually 15 to 20 minutes). Drain and transfer them to a stew pan. Add the butter, parsley, scallions, garlic, shallots, cloves and basil. Over a medium heat stir well to blend the butter and seasonings with the roots.
Add flour, salt pepper and broth. Boil quickly, stirring as you do, until it thickens to a sauce. Remove from heat and reduce your heat to medium. Add the yogurt to the roots. Stir over medium heat until well blended and smooth. Take care not to boil or scorch this. If your sauce breaks, take a few tablespoons out, add a bit of white vinegar to it, and whisk well. Slowly add that back to the sauce, and it should fix it. You can add broth if it’s too thick.
Serve.
