Twelve minutes. Yes, in a skillet, in twelve short minutes, you can roast elegant-looking sweet-tasting fork-tender baby carrots and potato medallions. I roast all sorts of vegetables in the oven when I'm cooking for a crowd (if one is serving roasted meat, poultry and gravy, one can never roast too many vegetables), but, when I'm only cooking for Joe and myself, I turn to my skillet on my stovetop instead of my oven. It's a super-speedy method with a super-delicious outcome.
While you can successfully roast all sorts of vegetables in a skillet on the stovetop, you can only combine them if their textures and water content are similar. Even size helps, but, there is no way to skillet-roast delicate asparagus with any type of potato; a sweet potato takes longer to roast in a skillet than a red, gold or Russet potato does; all squash is not created equal; and, while adding celery, onion or garlic adds flavor, they also exude a lot of water when they cook, which slows down the process and affects the end result. The list goes on and it's very long.
The long, thin baby carrot & the Russet potato.
The long, thin baby carrot and the Russet potato. This is my favorite combination because the carrots and the potatoes, both root vegetables of similar texture, when sized and sliced properly, cook perfectly, in one skillet, in exactly the same amount of time every time. Twelve minutes.
Trim, rinse but don't peel, &, pat dry 8 carrots. Rinse, don't peel, &, pat dry 2 potatoes. Slice each potato into 6, 1/2"-thick medallions:
Place about 1/8" oil (peanut or vegetable) in a 12" skillet. Season oil w/sea salt & peppercorn blend. Heat oil over medium-high:
Add carrots & potato medallions to hot oil in skillet. Lightly season tops of all w/sea salt & peppercorn blend:
Sauté until vegetables are golden on both sides, turning only once, about 6 minutes per side -- heat varies from stove to stove:
Remove from heat, transfer to a platter or portion onto plates & serve immediately w/your favorite meat or poultry:
Skillet-Roasted Baby Carrots & Potato Medallions: Recipe yields 4 servings of 2 carrots and 3 potato medallions per person.
Special Equipment List: cutting board; chef's knife; 12" non-stick skillet; nonstick spatula
Cook's Note: One of my favorite dinners to serve my skillet-roasted baby carrots and potato medallions with is: ~ Oh My Goddess of the Hunt: Divine Steak Diane ~. You can find my version of this decadent retro recipe by clicking into Categories 3, 21 or 26.
"We are all in this food world together." ~ Melanie Preschutti
(Recipe, Commentary and Photos courtesy of Melanie's Kitchen/Copyright 2016)
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