When vegetables are exposed to the right conditions, something extraordinary happens: The sugars and proteins break down and combine into new compounds, which in turn can break down and combine further, creating hundreds of new flavors for a time. This is called the Maillard reaction, and is often associated with the browning of foods. It is much more complex than caramelization, where only the sugars break down, and thus more difficult to achieve. I still wanted to try it.
Preparation
The vegetable most recommended for first attempts is the potato, but since I found that to be a bit boring, I decided to use carrots and sweet potatoes instead. While I was cutting them into uniform chunks, I realized that the carrots are much softer, so they would probably need less time in the oven. Also, their sheer volume suggested that there simply wouldn't be enough room to roast them at the same time. No worries, I'll just do two rounds of roasting.
Into the Oven
I set the oven to preheat to 200°C and set some water to boil for the sweet potatoes. That would soften them up a bit while the carrots were roasting. I prepared an oven pan with some baking paper, added a bit of olive oil, slat, pepper, and smoked paprika, rolled the carrot slices around in it until both sides were covered, then spread them out evenly.
The Conditions Must Be Right
One important requirement for the Maillard reaction, is that the heat must be dry. So try to avoid any steam, by keeping moisture to a minimum. The veggies need space between them. It is best if they don't even touch. The heat must be high, ideally with the pan preheated as well, and it requires time. A good 20 minutes at least, though depending on the vegetable, it may need to be flipped, and so 15 minutes before, and 10 minutes after turning is reasonable. Look for the browning! But then again, they should be taken out of the oven before they start to burn.
Drying the Pre-cooked Sweet Potatoes
After a few minutes in the boiling water, the sweet potatoes started to look tender. I took them out of the water, and patted them dry. Of course, this will never be 100%, but I tried to get as much moisture out of them as I could. By then the carrots were done, so I put them in a bowl and let the sweet potatoes take their place. While they were roasting in the oven, I prepared the meat on the stove top. (Beef with onions, seasoned with salt, pepper, rosemary, and cumin. Quite delicious, but this post is not about the meat!) Once the roasting was done, I added a tiny bit of balsamic vinegar and gave them a stir. Done!
Try This With Other Vegetables
Though carrots and sweet potatoes are pretty tasty on their own, I think I did get them to Maillard a bit. In the end it was an explosion of flavors! So I will try this method again. The most suitable veggies for roasting are of course tubers, and I'm curious what it would do to red beets and radishes. Otherwise, brassicas, such as broccoli or cauliflower, and alliums, such as onions or shallots are also known to work.
