A fats bunch of late summer season carrots, lengthy, slim and with feathery plumes, is a sight to elevate the spirits. Within the kitchen, they grate with out turning to mush the best way the early spring varieties do, and are substantial sufficient to turn out to be, together with onions and celery, the spine of the primary slowly simmered dish of the autumn.
Uncooked or calmly steamed, the carrot’s inherent sweetness is tamed with one thing bitter – a splash of lemon juice, a spoonful of thick yoghurt or kefir, or a tangle of purple cabbage. Roasted they may soften whereas their edges turn out to be as chewy as toffee – a car for a pointy sauce or dressing with crème fraîche or lemon oil. To modernise a retro grated carrot salad I like so as to add pink, calmly pickled onions, chopped lemon thyme or Japanese pickles.
I moderately just like the multi-coloured carrots you discover in farm retailers and veg packing containers – roots the color of beaujolais or mustard, crisp and white like a younger turnip, others magenta or imperial yellow. The flavour isn’t any totally different from a bog-standard carrot, however to pile them on to a dish for crunching with a spicy dip, is enjoyable, particularly if they’ve spent an hour in iced water first.
I’ve grown carrots from seed in my very own backyard, fought off the dratted carrot fly and eaten my harvest of bent and knobbly roots straight from the bottom (too many stones and clay right here for them, they develop higher – if much less amusingly – in a effective, sandy soil). However I would want a whole allotment’s value of area to be self-sufficient.
This week, I made a sweetly spiced, cardamom, cashews and cream dish with my bunch of carrots, a recipe whose golden sauce we mopped up with steamed basmati. And later, a plate of roasted roots with a basil and crème fraîche sauce I’d be glad to eat with virtually something.
Carrots with cardamom, cream and cashews
Carrots reply to delicate, candy spicing – the kind of softness just like that of a korma. When it comes time to complete the dish, you possibly can efficiently add the cream whereas the stew is simmering, however it’s essential to take away it from the warmth earlier than stirring within the yoghurt. To take action whereas the dish is effervescent, even barely, dangers the sauce curdling. You would use small, new parsnips, too, if you want, substituting them for half the carrots. Serves 4 as a essential dish
onions 2, medium
vegetable oil or melted butter 3 tbsp
ginger 40g
garlic 2 cloves
carrots 1kg
cashews 75g, roasted and salted
inexperienced cardamoms 12
cumin seeds 2 tsp
coriander seeds 2 tsp
floor turmeric 1 tsp
floor delicate chilli powder ½ tsp
black pepper ¼ tsp
vegetable inventory 750ml
cinnamon 1 stick
coriander leaves 15g
double cream 3 tbsp
pure yoghurt 3 tbsp
rice steamed, to serve
Peel and roughly chop the onions. Heat the olive oil or butter in a big, deep pan over a average warmth – I take advantage of a heavy, enamelled pan, 24cm in diameter – then add the onions. Peel and grate the ginger on the coarse facet of a grater, then add to the pan. Peel and finely slice the garlic, then add to the onions and proceed cooking, stirring usually for 10-12 minutes, till the onions have softened, to a translucent, pale gold.
Whereas the onions prepare dinner, open the cardamom pods and scrape out the seeds, then, utilizing a spice mill or pestle and mortar, grind them to a gritty powder with the cumin and coriander seeds. Stir into the golden onions, then add the bottom turmeric, chilli and black pepper. Let the spices toast fragrantly for a minute or two, stirring often and taking care they don’t burn, then finely chop and add half of the salted, roasted cashews. Reserve the opposite half.
Halve the carrots lengthways, then chop into 4-5cm lengths. As soon as the onion, spice and nut combination is properly toasted, stir within the carrots and allow them to prepare dinner for a minute or two earlier than pouring within the inventory. Add the cinnamon stick, a beneficiant seasoning of salt and convey to the boil. Decrease the warmth, partially cowl with a lid, then simmer for 25 minutes or till the carrots are simply tender.
Roughly chop the coriander. Stir within the cream and, when the sauce is again as much as temperature take away from the warmth then stir within the yoghurt, reserved cashews and chopped coriander. Serve with rice.
Carrots with basil cream
A specific favorite of mine, for the best way the delicate tartness of the crème fraîche contrasts with the sweetness of the roasted carrots. The entire dish tastes of summer season. A superb facet dish, this manner with carrots can also be inviting as a essential dish, alongside steamed brown rice flecked with parsley with black pepper. Serves 4 as a facet dish
carrots 650g (weight with out tops)
olive oil 2 tbsp
For the basil cream:
blended parsley, basil and dill 15g (complete weight)
lemon juice 1 tbsp
olive oil 3 tbsp
crème fraîche 100ml
Get out a roasting tin or baking dish massive sufficient to carry the carrots and set the oven at 200C/gasoline mark 6.
Scrub the carrots – I solely peel them if their skins are thick, which is unlikely presently of yr – then slice them in half lengthways. Put them into the roasting tin, pour over the olive oil, grind over somewhat salt and black pepper, then tumble them collectively so the carrots are properly coated with oil and seasonings.
Roast within the preheated oven for 45-50 minutes, turning them over midway by means of. They’re achieved when they’re tender and their edges have caramelised somewhat.
Whereas the carrots are roasting, make the basil cream. Utilizing a meals processor, cut back the parsley and basil leaves, dill fronds and olive oil to a skinny, shiny inexperienced paste. Scrape right into a bowl with a rubber spatula then stir within the crème fraîche.
Take away the carrots from the oven and switch to a serving dish, then trickle the herb sauce over them and serve.
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