Cooking ponders.

[kiya]

So. While I was down visiting my father over Christmastide, I noticed that he had a jar of juniper berries in his spice rack. Unopened, but juniper berries. I asked Dad if I could have them, and he said I could, so now I have juniper berries.

So I have juniper berries, and am pondering at my recipe for wild-game style roast. Which looks quite good, though somewhat outside my normal experience of food, and like a lot of Polish food of my experience, very rich.

The roast is supposed to be marinated for two days. Mmm.

The marinade requires carrots (to which I am allergic) and celeriac (which I'm not sure if I'll be able to find). Anyone know of good substitutions for either of these? (teinedreugan thought maybe a small turnip for the carrot, perhaps, and I guess some celery might be usable for the celeriac if I can't find it, but I appeal to the more experienced.) alhandra, thoughts? Anyone else?

Comments

[redbird]

If you aren't allergic to them, parsnips might do instead of carrots. Failing that, extra onion maybe, since they're both sweet.

[kiya]

Hm. I don't know that I've ever had parsnips. (My mind wants to say 'root vegetable of some sort', though.)

[wcg.livejournal.com]

I also recommend parsnips. They're carrot shaped turnips without the beta-carotine. One of my great aunts used to mash potatoes and parsnips together into a most enjoyable dish.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Redbird just said exactly what I was going to, parsnips for carrot, if you're OK with parsnips. There's celeriac in the market around here, it might be easier than you think.

Other thing to do with juniper berries, if you drink spirits, is to put them in a sealed bottle with twice the amount of sloes and cover them with plain vodka, leave them for three months and drink cautiously. Sloe gin.

[pameladean]

What I usually substitute for carrots is sweet potatoes or yams. But that's mostly been in vegetarian cooking.

Pamela

[keshwyn]

I've done turnips for carrots for your allergy before - in my schtew. ;) Parsnips are carrot-shaped turnips (make sure to cook them long enough so that they don't go bitter or they're very nasty) or you might try daikon radishes which have an interesting (I like it) taste that might do neat things in your roast.

[leanne-opaskar.livejournal.com]

You're allergic to carrots? Bummer! ):

The carrot substitute depends on what goes on with the carrots. If they're just part of the marinade, it's easy -- use what you like. If they're supposed to be served as veggies along side the roast, I think I concur with either regular turnips or parsnips as your carrot alternative, if you're not allergic to them. Sweet potatoes could work, but I suspect that their cooking time is different and would require you to watch them more carefully than turnips or parsnips. You might want to add them slightly later, or they could fall apart. I'm not 100% sure about that, though, because I've never tried them in with a roast. They may be just fine. That said, I believe the turnips or parsnips would require about the same cooking time as the carrots, so if you don't want to fuss, that's the easy way to go.

Celeriac is a bulb root that tastes like celery. I haven't used it myself, but it appears to me that it takes longer to cook than celery. I suspect that it would take equal cooking time as carrots and/or potatoes. Most of the recipes for it that I have pulled up on Sherlock pair it with potatoes in the same dish for an equal cooking time. If it's just for the marinade, that should be fine. If it's supposed to be included with the roast, though, I'd think about adding it a little later so it wouldn't get too soggy.

Take all of this advice with a grain of salt ... as I haven't seen your recipe, I'm not sure what cooking methods are used on the vegetables. (: I hope some of this helps!

[kiya]

The marinade has . . . ah, botheration, let me go get the book. As written, carrot, celeriac, onions, lemon juice, parsley root, a bay leaf, pepper and allspice, thyme, and juniper berries, and an optional glassful of red wine. It's heated up and poured over the meat, marinated for a couple of days, and then added to the roast once the meat has been browned.

Does that clarify what I'm looking to do with it? :}

[leanne-opaskar.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think so. My guess is that the veggies are chopped or cut into small dice or somesuch for the marinade, then? In that case, substitute to your heart's content. (:

The trick here is really the size of the pieces. Smaller pieces cook quicker, that's all, so if they're all small, it's all good. If they are all large, then you get into the weirdness of different timings for different veggies. (:

[leanne-opaskar.livejournal.com]

Oop. Small clarification: I think you can substitute *celery* ... forgot that all important word there ... for celeriac in the marinade just fine, but if it's supposed to be a side veggie served with the roast too, I'd think about adding it later in the cooking cycle.

Hope that makes more sense. (:

[nex0s.livejournal.com]

celary for the celaric.

are you allergic to parsnips? if not: parsnips. if so, try yam, it's a sweet root vegatable too. i wouldn't use turnip because i've had difficulty finding sweet turnips. and carrots are most definitely sweet.