The Secret to Great Vegetables

• Never put the veg into cold water - make sure it's at absolutely top boiling temperature every time.
• Never cover the pan - vegetables like air, they lose their colour if you stifle them.
• Never overcook - when the water in your open pan comes back to the boil and the veg starts floating to the surface, it's usually ready. You can leave it an extra minute if you don't like the almost-raw feel, but don't overdo it.

And there you have it - perfect vegetables that are not bland, or boring, or mushy, colourless and revoulting.

Some vegetables are born great:

• Eat local produce. Eat from the garden. If you don't have a garden, buy from a farmer. Get your produce from a farmer's market. Ask the farmer how he or she cooks whatever you're buying. If there is no farmer's market, buy from a produce specialty store. If you can, buy organic. Your last resort is a supermarket. Why? Because most supermarkets stock vegetables that have been bred for standardized appearance, shelf life, and hardiness in transportation, not flavor, and you can believe that they've traveled a long way to sit on the grocer's shelves.
• Eat seasonally. If it doesn't grow in your climate at this time of year, it's been transported hundreds or thousands of miles to get to your market, and bred to survive the trip.

And some vegetables have greatness thrust upon them:

• Steam instead of boiling. There is slightly less loss of vitamins.
• Stir fry:
  • Before you heat the oil in your wok (and you do want to use a wok), chop your vegetables into bite size pieces. Use a sharp knife and try and cut the vegetables into roughly uniform sizes. Bigger chunks will take longer to cook than tiny ones, and in stir fry, timing is everything.
  • Group the vegetables according to cooking times. You'll add the slower cooking ones to the wok first, and add in others. I'm indebted to Mollie Katzen's cookbook, The Enchanted Broccoli Forest for this list. I can't cook without it.
    Longest to cook: potato, celery, carrot, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, eggplant, winter squash, thick asparagus.
    Shorter to cook: mushrooms, bell peppers, zucchini, summer squash, thin asparagus.
    Very fast cooking: leafy greens, scallions, mung bean sprouts.
  • Heat the wok, then add oil, then add onion or ginger if you are using them (saute these first), then add your longest cooking veggies. When they are partially cooked, add the shorter cooking ones.
  • Things to remember about stir fry: high heat, stir constantly, don't crowd the wok (keep it to about five cups)