Trending Now ... Carrots!

What’s cooking? Cumin- and Honey-Roasted Carrots, Burnt Carrots with Brie, and Carrot-Onion-Ricotta Tart

Live longer! Stay healthier!! Look younger!!! It’s all about the carrots, folks.

When you read enough about the benefits of eating carrots, at some point you start to wonder what kind of Kool-Aid these people are drinking. Turns out, it’s not Kool-Aid. Carrots are truly one of the most beneficial foods you can eat.

But that’s not why we’re featuring carrots in today’s blog post. As you know, the Kitchen Goddess is all about keeping her readers at the forefront of food trends. Well, my recent sitings of carrots in food journals, culinary newsletters, and restaurant menus tell me that carrots are riding a wave that is just now building. You heard it here.

And just to remind you of what a swell friend I am, today’s post contains THREE fabulous dishes starring carrots. So you could say this is...[drum roll] a 24-carrot post.

I’ve cooked with carrots for years, mostly diced as part of the flavor base for literally hundreds of soups. Known as mirepoix – pronounced meer-PWAH – it consists of onions, carrots, and celery, in a ratio of 2:1:1. I’ve also sliced them long for crudite platters and short into coins for salads. I’ve cut them in jewel shapes and sautéed them for Thanksgiving, and puréed cooked carrots for twice-baked potatoes. But for all those dishes, I’ve used the kind that come in 1- or 2-pound bags at the grocery store.

Then last summer, I started buying carrots at the farmers’ market. The small carrots in bunches with huge handfuls of greenery. I don’t know why I hadn’t paid them much attention before – they always looked pretty with their feathery green crowns and the delicate orange taproots – but I hadn’t really discovered a way to use them in that small form. They’re more expensive than the bagged kind, so it’s a shame to buy them if, in the cooking process, they’re just going to end up looking like their overgrown brothers.

But I discovered this burrata salad recipe, and couldn’t resist trying it. I served it to friends visiting from Texas, and the dish not only looked gorgeous, it tasted the same way. Also, the accompanying pesto made use of the fronds. Just the sort of miracle that gets the Kitchen Goddess jazzed up. For that post, click here.

photo by Stephen Ausmus

So this year, with those carrot sitings tickling my food antennae, I’ve become obsessed with other ways to serve these orange beauties. And their purple cousins. In fact, carrots apparently come in lots of colors, though I’ve only seen orange and purple.

A couple of other nerdy carrot facts:

1. Long after purple, red, yellow, and white carrots became popular, the orange carrot was developed by the Dutch (my people!).

2. Orange carrots taste the sweetest, but the darker colors have more antioxidants.

3. A few carrot sticks a day can help strengthen and clean children’s teeth and may also help encourage lower-jaw development.

4. The vitamin A in carrots helps prevent vision loss; the vitamin C helps boost the immune system; and beta-carotene and carotinoids are linked to lower risk of lung cancer, colorectal cancer, prostate cancer, and leukemia. OMG – hand me a carrot, please.

5. Carrots store well in water! KG did not know this, but she will continue to store hers in resealable plastic bags.

Kitchen Goddess note on buying and storing carrots: Look for carrot roots that are firm, smooth, relatively straight, with bright color. Color is directly related to the amount of beta-carotene in the carrot, so more color equals more nutrition. Avoid carrots that are limp or have big cracks or forks in the root. If the tops have been removed, look at the stem end and go for the ones lightest in color (darker stem end is a sign of age). If the green tops are attached, they should be brightly colored, feathery, and not wilted. Since the sugars are concentrated in the carrots’ core, you’ll find that those with larger diameters will be sweeter.

Store carrots in the fridge for up to a month. If you buy carrots with attached green tops, cut the tops off before storing, as the tops will draw moisture from the roots. Best is to cut the greens off 1-2 inches above the crown, wrap the greens and carrots separately in paper towels (dampen the paper for the greens) and keep in separate resealable plastic bags. Tops will last a week this way. Store carrots with other veggies, as the ethylene gas from fruits will speed the aging process.

Carrots can also be peeled, cut up, blanched, and kept in the freezer for a year.

Three Ways to Love Your Carrots

1.  Cumin- and Honey-Roasted Carrots

The KG found this first dish posted at a delightful blog called The Bojon Gourmet, with photos that will knock your socks off. At least, they knocked mine off, and so, dazed and barefoot, I wandered into the kitchen and started cooking.

This dish was a celebration of all I had found at the farmers’ market that day: the carrots, the fresh herbs, and the fresh ricotta (its first appearance at the market, plus it saved me from making my own – which if you want, you can do HERE).

Also, the Kitchen Goddess is a sucker for cumin and honey, so... The flavors in this dish are so clean that I recommend searching out the freshest ingredients – you won’t be sorry. And with the extra carrot tops – you won’t use it all in the gremolata – you can make carrot top pesto, from this LINK.

Ms. Taylor-Tobin recommends preparing the gremolata (a chopped herb condiment, used as a garnish here) right before you serve the dish, as she claims the mint will blacken. The KG made hers while the carrots were in their initial roast and didn’t have that problem with the mint. But I squeezed a bit of the lemon juice on them, so that may be a factor. Also, I knew that if I waited one minute longer to serve Grumpy, he’d have a hissy fit.

Important Kitchen Goddess note: The lemon zest goes in the gremolata, and the juice goes on the finished dish. Be sure to zest your lemon half before juicing it, or you’ll be really sorry. Zesting a juiced lemon is an activity fraught with slips and the occasional bit of human flesh. And cursing.

Cumin- and Honey-Roasted Carrots with Ricotta and Gremolata

Adapted from Alanna Taylor-Tobin at The Bojon Gourmet (bojongourmet.com)*
*Check out the website for links to Ms. Taylor-Tobin’s new cookbook on gluten-free baking.

Serves 4-6 as a first course, 2-3 as a main course

Ingredients
For the carrots:
1 pound carrots (maximum 6 inches long for best results; cut larger ones in half lengthwise)
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon Aleppo pepper, or substitute ¼ teaspoon red chile flakes
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons honey
12 ounces good quality, whole milk ricotta
½ lemon
finishing salt, such as Maldon flake (If you don’t have finishing salt, use kosher salt.)
freshly ground black pepper

For the gremolata:
¼ cup mint leaves (no stems), chopped
¼ cup carrot greens (thin stems only), chopped
1 small garlic clove, finely grated
zest of half a lemon, finely grated

Directions
Preheat the oven to 375º. Position a rack in the center of the oven. Line a rimmed baking sheet with baker’s parchment.

Trim and scrub the carrots (no peeling, please!), reserving the greens. If any of your carrots are fat, slice them in half lengthwise; if any are longer than about 6 inches, cut them in half crosswise.

In a small bowl, combine the cumin, Aleppo (or chile flakes), and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, toss the carrots with the olive oil and honey, then sprinkle the spice mix on them and toss again. Spread the carrots on the prepared baking sheet (use a spatula to make sure you capture all the spices from the bowl) and roast in the center of the oven for 20-30 minutes, shaking the pan once or twice to get them evenly roasted. (Don’t turn off the oven.) The carrots are done when they’re golden and lightly shriveled. If you’re unsure, test with a fork for tenderness.

While the carrots are baking, make the gremolata. Toss together the herbs in a small bowl along with the finely grated garlic and the finely grated zest. Squeeze a few drops of the lemon juice to keep the colors fresh.

Spread the ricotta in the bottom of a medium-sized casserole dish. Top with the roasted carrots and any of the fond that’s stuck to the baking parchment. Bake another 8-10 minutes, until the ricotta is warmed through.

When the ricotta and carrots are done, squeeze the lemon half over the dish and sprinkle the gremolata (you may not need all of it) on top. Season with a couple of pinches of finishing salt and a few fresh grinds of black pepper. Serve warm or at room temperature.

2. Burnt Carrots with Brie
 

The Kitchen Goddess experimented a couple of years ago with a trend that chefs all over the world were embracing: burning vegetables in order to achieve the ultimate in rustic, earthy flavors. And I know that technique is still in vogue, because I came across this dish in another of my regular readings, an email newsletter called Tasting Table. The recipe is the brainchild of Chef Tim Love, a Fort Worth-area restaurateur best known for urban western cuisine. And my prince, whose list of faves in the veggie world is rather limited, pronounced it “Very good.”

Kitchen Goddess note: Astute readers may have noticed by now that the KG likes to leave a couple of inches of the tops on her carrots. This is a pure indulgence on her part, as she thinks they look more “natural” that way, and make a nice presentation. If you are not similarly obsessed, do what you want with those tops.

On the other hand, the use of red carrots is less superficial. The red carrots have a little less sugar in them, so the use of both red and orange carrots in this dish and the next gives both dishes a little more nuance in flavor. When pressed, the KG will confess that it’s also a presentation thing...

The Kitchen Goddess served hers with sauteed scallops and a salad.

Burnt Carrots with Brie

Adapted from Chef Tim Love and Tasting Table (tastingtable.com)

Serves 4 as a side dish.

Ingredients
15-20 small-to-medium sized carrots, greens cut 2-3 inches from the root
2 tablespoons peanut oil or canola oil
1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper (or ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes)
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
4 ounces triple-cream Brie (rind mostly removed), cut in ½-inch dice
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Directions
Preheat your broiler to 500º.

Lay the carrots out in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Using a basting brush, cover the carrots with a thin layer of oil. Sprinkle on the Aleppo pepper (or red pepper flakes), as well as the salt and pepper.

Cook at 500º for 10-12 minutes, until the exposed side of the carrots is beginning to char. (Because you’re not turning the carrots, the underside won’t char, so they won’t taste burnt.)

While the carrots are cooking, mix the honey and lemon juice well in a large bowl, and toss the Brie with it. When the carrots have finished cooking, immediately add them to the bowl, and let them sit for 1½-2 minutes – to let the Brie melt – then toss the whole mixture well. Serve immediately.

3. Carrot-Onion-Ricotta Tart

The Kitchen Goddess has never been what you’d call adept at pie dough. Cookies, sure – even the kind that need rolling out. But pie dough, not so much. Then I spent a day in a dessert class at the Culinary Institute in San Antonio, where I learned about rustic tarts, which don’t require a beautiful, crimped crust and whose beauty is in the “natural” look, which is to say a bit haphazard, maybe even sloppy. And the dough can be made in a food processor, so I didn’t have to get my hands dirty. Eureka! It was a seminal moment in my evolution as a cook. So much so that now I look for every opportunity to make more rustic tarts. And here’s another one.

The original recipe called for puff pastry. Not a chance, said I. Then I realized the ingredients lent themselves perfectly to another rustic tart, and off I went. Now, you can make this with puff pastry – even the frozen, store-bought stuff. But I didn’t have that. If you want the puff pastry version, know that the original called for baking the crust 10-15 minutes before piling in the filling and baking another 30-35 minutes. My method takes less time.

Carrot-Onion-Ricotta Tart

Inspired by Alison Roman in Bon Appétit, April 2015


Ingredients
For the pie dough:
1⅓ cup all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
½ teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons shortening (Crisco)
3 tablespoons ice water, more as needed
1 tablespoon vodka

For the tart:
12 ounces ricotta (Get the freshest you can buy, or make your own)
¼ cup heavy cream
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 small onion, thinly sliced
9-10 ounces medium-sized carrots, scrubbed and sliced into coins ⅛-inch thick
2-3 tablespoons milk (whole, 2%, or skim)

For the garnish:
¼ cup coarsely chopped fresh mint
¼ cup coarsely chopped fresh dill
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped carrot tops
zest of ½ lemon
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Directions
For the pie dough:
Start by dicing the shortening and the butter into teaspoon sized bits, and put it into the freezer for 15-20 minutes.

Once the fats are chilled, combine the flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, and pulse 4-5 times to blend. Add the cold butter and shortening to the flour and pulse 12-15 times, or enough to get the butter down to the size of small peas. Drizzle the water and vodka over the mixture and pulse just until the mixture holds together when you squeeze a handful of it. (This should be plenty of water; if not, add water no more than a teaspoon at a time.) Gather and press the dough into a disk, wrap well in cellophane wrap, and chill at least 20 minutes.

Lay out a sheet of parchment paper and dust it with flour. Roll the dough on it to a thickness of ⅛ inch and trim the dough (if necessary) to about a 10-inch round. Move the parchment (with the circle of dough) to a baking sheet and refrigerate it again for 10-15 minutes.

While the rolled dough is chilling, preheat the oven to 350º. In a small bowl, whisk the ricotta with the cream and season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

For the tart: 
To a large skillet over medium/medium-high heat, add 2 tablespoons of the oil. Sauté the onion for 5 minutes – long enough that it begins to brown. Add the carrots and cook, stirring occasionally, for 2-3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Spoon the ricotta mix into the center of the dough, leaving free a 2-inch border around the edge of the dough. Spoon the carrots and onion on top of the ricotta.

Carefully fold the edges of the dough toward the center, pinching and folding to create a pleated border. Brush the border with the milk to encourage the crust to brown. Bake in the upper third of the oven for 30-35 minutes, or until the pastry is golden brown. Cool the tart in the pan set on a wire rack for about 15 minutes before slicing.

For the garnish:
While the tart is baking, toss the herbs with the lemon juice, the zest, and the remaining oil in a small bowl. Just before serving, sprinkle the garnish mix over the tart.

You can bake this tart up to several hours ahead. Once it cools, store it tightly wrapped in cellophane at room temperature. Add the herb garnish right before serving.

So what are you waiting for? Go buy some carrots!