It is easy to forget that many of the ingredients we use today are not native to Europe. I recall, in my youth, a teacher pointing out the artistic inaccuracy of an illustration of a medieval banquet complete with turkey and potatoes! Yes, the potato (and the turkey) is now an essential part of modern European cooking, but it was not always the case. In Britain, before the potato the parsnip played an important role. It has many characteristics that are similar to a potato but looks like a white carrot.

 

For blog visitors from outside the UK I am including a photo above. When I lived in Germany I never saw parsnips for sale. My sister in law in the Netherlands says that a number of TV programs there have said that it is a very healthy vegetable but she cannot find it in her local greengrocers.

Apparently it was more widely used in Western Europe during the Middle Ages. In my lifetime it has been a typical British winter vegetable and in my experience mainly served as part of a roast dinner. I have always liked roast parsnips but have little experience of using them otherwise.

I have been interested to see a number of food writers like Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall or Nigel Slater advocate other ways of using parsnips in their books and indeed a better use of winter roots generally. However while there is a huge body written on how to do potatoes right the references to parsnip are fairly light.

I have previously tried doing a parsnip-based pan haggerty which was a real success. However, when last winter I tried occasionally to use parsnips as if they were potatoes I hit some problems. For example, I have often thinly sliced raw potaotes and deep fried them; the results were pleasing to my family. I figured that since less time was needed for roasting parsnips than for roasting potatoes the same should work with thinly sliced parsnips. Not so! The parsnips fried at about 180 Celsius were a lovely golden brown on the outside and a bit raw and fibrous on the inside.

I concluded that either I needed to parboil the parsnips or try a different oil temperature. Today I decided to experiment a bit with parsnips now that they are coming into season and tried parboiling. Parboiling for 10 minutes seems to do the trick.

 

I tried both shredding the parboiled parsnips with my mandolin to creat chips (left) and did 3 mm thick slices as crisps. Both fried very rapidly and were both golden coloured and crisp on the outside but with a good texture inside. My sons said they would definitely be happy to eat them again which is a seal of approval in my family!