Early Fall Vegetables
An assortment of raw, roasted, and simmered vegetables: carrots, green beans, kabocha squash and radish with black bean sauce

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

  • 6 baby beets, assorted colours (red, golden, chiogga)
  • 3 assorted baby radish
  • 6 baby carrots, assorted colours
  • 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 pinches kosher salt
  • 1 small pinch freshly cracked black pepper
  • 1 small handful baby green beans
  • simmered kabocha squash, recipe to follow
  • 4 tbsp black bean sauce, recipe to follow
  • 12 pieces celery leaves

 

Simmered Kabocha Squash

  • ¼ small kabocha squash, cut into small cubes
  • ¼ cup water
  • 1 tbsp white soy sauce (you can use regular soy sauce if you do not have white)
  • 1 tsp mirin
  • 1 tsp sake
  • ¼ tsp rice vinegar

 

Black Bean Sauce

  • 1 garlic clove, chopped fine
  • ½ shallot, chopped fine
  • 1 tbsp vegetable oil
  • ¼ inch piece of ginger, julieneed
  • 1 tbsp Chinese fermented black beans, chopped finely or crushed in a mortar and pestle
  • 1 tsp Xiaoxing cooking wine
  • 1 tsp mirin
  • 2 tbsp rice vinegar
  • 4 tbsp water or vegetable stock

 

Method

  1. With a mandolin shave thinly one of each of the following vegetables: beet, carrot, radish. Put the shaved vegetables in a container of iced water and keep in the fridge until ready to use.
     
  2. Roast the remaining beets in a tinfoil package at 375F for one hour or until tender. Cool to room temperature and peel. Cut beets into assorted shapes - halves, quarters, and slices. Set aside
     
  3. Cut remaining carrots in half lengthwise. Set half of the carrots aside.
     
  4. Cut remaining radish into halves and quarters
     
  5. Toss carrots and radish with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast on a baking tray in a 375F oven until golden brown and tender. Set aside
     
  6. Trim the ends off the green beans. Blanch in a small pot of boiling water just until tender. Remove from the pot and shock in ice water. Once cool, remove from the ice water and cut in half on the bias.
     
  7. Put 1 tbsp of black bean sauce on each plate.
     
  8. Artfully arrange equal amounts of the following on each plate: raw carrots, roasted beets, roasted carrots and radish, blanched green beans, simmered squash.
     
  9. Garnish with the shaved vegetables and celery leaves

 

Simmered Kabocha Squash:

  1. Bring water, soy sauce, mirin, sake, and rice vinegar to a boil in a small saucepan
     
  2. Add kabocha squash and turn the heat down to a simmer, cover pot with a lid
     
  3. Cook just until squash is tender
     
  4. Remove squash from the liquid and cool

 

Black Bean Sauce:

  1. Heat oil in a small sautee pan over medium heat
     
  2. Add garlic and shallot and cook until soft
     
  3. Add ginger and cook just until fragrant
     
  4. Add black beans, cooking wine, mirin, and rice vinegar, cook until the liquid has reduced
     
  5. Add vegetable stock or water and cook until reduced by half