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larryhammerDespite our best efforts, we continue to lose ground to our CSA when it comes to carrots. They are delicious, but we cannot dispose of them all with our usual cooking methods, not when we get a new large bunch every. single. week. The backlog has gone way past Condition Orange or even Condition Red. I am considering declaring it Condition Actinic.
In short, we need help.
Can anyone suggest recipes that use large amounts of carrots?
Bonus points for dishes tasty and interesting enough to keep us from getting sick of the taste.
---L.
In short, we need help.
Can anyone suggest recipes that use large amounts of carrots?
Bonus points for dishes tasty and interesting enough to keep us from getting sick of the taste.
---L.
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no subject
Date: 19 May 2011 03:34 pm (UTC)Ingredients:
lots of carrots, cut into very thin matchsticks
oil (2 tbsp)
sugar (2 tbsp)
soy sauce (3 (tbsp)
sake (3 tbsp)
dried red chili pepper (2 long thin ones, broken into pieces)
sesame seeds and sesame oil for garnish
Directions
heat oil in skillet with the dried red chili pepper, add the carrots, and when they've gotten all good and oily, add the sake. When it starts to bubble, add the sugar, stir for a few minutes, then add the soy sauce. Top with a dash of sesame oil and sesame seeds.
It's delicious!
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Date: 19 May 2011 04:10 pm (UTC)---L.
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Date: 19 May 2011 04:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 21 May 2011 02:54 am (UTC)---L.
Carrot mung
Date: 19 May 2011 04:41 pm (UTC)Julienne carrots into roughly matchsticks. Julienne ginger root (roughly 1/5th the volume of carrots, give or take), identical size.
Wilt in butter. Salt to taste. Cook over low heat until caramelized; the carrots will be shriveled and limp.
DEVOUR.
Re: Carrot mung
Date: 19 May 2011 04:54 pm (UTC)Re: Carrot mung
Date: 19 May 2011 05:00 pm (UTC)Depending on how you feel about texture, carrot puree flavored with ginger is also very good. I've been at restaurants that served two puddles of puree on the plate, one carrot and one winter squash. Nice contrast.
Re: Carrot mung
Date: 19 May 2011 05:38 pm (UTC)---L.
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Date: 19 May 2011 04:48 pm (UTC)Really, my only way of dealing with carrots is to wash them, wrap them in foil with butter and salt and pepper, and roast. It gets rid of most of them in one go, but it certainly does taste like carrot.
Oh, and I love carrot halwa. Love, love, love:
http://www.food.com/recipe/carrot-halva-17035
But it has the same problem with definitely tasting like carrot. Really if you're already in danger of getting sick of them? I'd start giving them away.
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Date: 19 May 2011 04:53 pm (UTC)Halva sounds gooooood.
---L.
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Date: 19 May 2011 06:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 19 May 2011 06:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 19 May 2011 06:40 pm (UTC)http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/firecrackers-recipe/index.html
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Date: 19 May 2011 07:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 19 May 2011 07:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 19 May 2011 05:03 pm (UTC)http://www.indianfoodforever.com/desserts/gajjar-ka-halwa.html
Though I find most halwa recipes waaay too sweet, so I'd add maybe half the sugar, then modify to taste.
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Date: 19 May 2011 05:37 pm (UTC)(Hmm -- I wonder where the nearest source of ghee is. There's several east Asian markets within a few miles of us, but no south Asian that I know of ... )
---L.
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Date: 19 May 2011 05:48 pm (UTC)Put butter in a saucepan, heat it on meadium-low & let it bubble for a while -- basically you want the water to evaporate but you don't want to burn the fat. It should go from opaque butter-yellow to more of a golden tone.
Once you've done that, either let it settle & pour off the top, or strain it -- this is to get rid of the brown residue.
Poof! Ghee.
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Date: 19 May 2011 06:07 pm (UTC)---L.
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Date: 19 May 2011 06:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 19 May 2011 05:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 19 May 2011 05:33 pm (UTC)---L.
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Date: 19 May 2011 05:16 pm (UTC)Have you asked your CSA to hold off with the carrots for a while? (Do they have an option to do that? Not all of them will...)
They can also be made into pickles.
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Date: 19 May 2011 05:33 pm (UTC)ditchingexchanging other things.---L.
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Date: 19 May 2011 06:18 pm (UTC)Get some carrots and chunk them into chunks. I always eyeball this, and it depends how big of carrots you're talking about, but I'd go somewhere from 4-6 carrots per person.
Optional: If you have the time/energy and you feel like it, you can roast them to develop their flavor (drizzle with a smidge of oil and bake about half an hour at 400F, stirring once at the halfway point). But about half the time I don't bother.
Mince some onion--say about half an onion per 2 people. If you have some celery hanging around, mince about a stalk of that per 2 people; if you don't, skip it.
Dump the carrots, onion, and optional celery in a soup pot. Add some kind of broth (I've used both chicken and vegetable, and packaged is fine) such that the total volume gets to about the amount of soup you want to eat. Salt to taste.
This is the point at which you can get creative. Garlic rarely goes amiss. I've made a nice soup with carrots and about an inch per person of fresh ginger (grated). Cumin is good. Chiles of all kinds are good (I am partial to chipotles). An apple, peeled and cut into quarters, gives a nice taste. So does chunks of squash. Nutmeg is good. Rosemary, too. Various curry-type spices are excellent. Oh, and I've made a nice miso-carrot soup before. Frankly, any seasoning that would go with carrots should go just fine here, and this is a soup that is ripe for experimentation. (Although if you're going to add lemon or lime juice, save it until after the cooking, so its flavor doesn't get dulled.)
If you want to start with basics, though, a nice way to start is a bit of garlic, a fairly generous amount of ginger, and a bit of dairy at the end.
Simmer until the carrots are falling-apart tender. Puree (or, for that matter, mash enthusiastically with a potato masher). This is the point at which you would add lemon or lime juice, if you so desire. Also, if you like soups creamy, you can add a bit of yogurt, or sour cream, or half-and-half. Taste and adjust seasonings.
I like it equally well cold or hot.
This is a pretty difficult recipe to mess up; about the only thing you can do to it is put in too much salt or something, and even then you can just increase the number of carrots/amount of broth to dilute it (and hey, leftovers). It's also pretty easy to fine-tune: if it's coming out too thick, add more broth; too thin, add more carrots.
It also keeps well, and freezes well, if you want to make a big batch and save it for later. If you do that and plan to eat it hot, don't add dairy (if you want to put dairy in it) until after you thaw and reheat it, so that the dairy won't curdle during reheating.
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Date: 19 May 2011 07:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 19 May 2011 07:47 pm (UTC)---L.
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Date: 19 May 2011 07:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 19 May 2011 07:27 pm (UTC)I also have a great recipe for carrot and beet soup which I can send you, but I bet you're not getting any beets right now.
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Date: 19 May 2011 07:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 19 May 2011 07:48 pm (UTC)---L.
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Date: 20 May 2011 04:19 am (UTC)I've made it a few times (I, too, get a lot of carrots) and it's been delicious every time.
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Date: 20 May 2011 02:17 pm (UTC)The recipe too, I expect.
---L.
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Date: 20 May 2011 01:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 20 May 2011 02:18 pm (UTC)---L.
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Date: 20 May 2011 01:42 am (UTC)Fine-julienne the carrots, if possible using a mandolin blade (or chopper or cuisinart or whatever you have) that makes them thin like hair. Sprinkle with a lot of good olive oil. Add salt and coarsely ground or cracked black pepper pepper. Let sit until wilted.
That's it. Some variants:
Add capers (and use less salt)
and/or
Add juice of tart oranges (ideally, blood oranges)
and/or
Add finely julienned purple onion
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Date: 20 May 2011 02:20 pm (UTC)---L.
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Date: 20 May 2011 03:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 20 May 2011 01:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 20 May 2011 02:19 pm (UTC)For the record, if we had a goat, we'd be setting it to munch on the weeds.
---L.
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Date: 20 May 2011 08:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 20 May 2011 02:19 pm (UTC)---L.