There’s a bit more to Carrots….
For this month’s collection of recipes, we thought that we’d post a some recipes of a much underrated vegetable. Carrots normally form part of mirepoix, purees & soups, but as our blog will demonstrate they are just a bit more versatile than that. Although the most common colour for carrots is orange, they actually do come in a wide variety of colours including purple, yellow & white. As ever all the following recipes have been tested and used in professional kitchens.
The first two recipes are to be used together for a twist on a classic risotto.
Carrot essence for risotto
4 large Shallots, finely chopped
1kg Carrot, peeled and finely chopped
800ml Water
4 Tarragon sprigs
20g Butter
- Sweat the shallots in butter until soft no colour.
- Add the carrot and sweat for 5 mins.
- Just cover with water, add tarragon and simmer for 4 mins.
- Press through a chinois and reduce by half .
Carrot risotto
200g Aborio Rice 50g Diced Onion, Confit
40g White Wine 8g Salt
500g Carrot Essence 2 Thyme sprigs
50g Butter 100g Parmesan, grated
- Add onion confit to a heavy based pan.
- Add the rice and coat with the onion confit oil. Stir for 1 minute.
- Add white wine and coat each grain. Reduce until sticky. Ensure it does not stick to the base of pan.
- Regular stirring is required to enhance the final finish.
- Cover rice with the carrot essence and bring to a simmer, adding a little seasoning as you go and continue to stir.
- Continue to add all of the essence as the rice swells.
- Ensure the grains are completely covered with water to allow even cooking.
- Just before serving, add diced roasted carrots, the butter (stirring until dissolved) & the grated parmesan (don’t return to the heat once this is added)
THERE MUST BE ENOUGH LIQUID TO ENSURE EVEN COOKING.
IT MUST NEVER BOIL RAPIDLY OR BE ALLOWED TO SIT. IT SHOULD GENTLY TICK OVER (LIGHT SIMMER)
Just to show how versatile carrots really are, we’ve included a recipe for a classic carrot cake.
Carrot Cake
16 Egg yolks 450g Sugar
16 Egg whites 450g Sugar
625g Carrot, grated 350g Ground hazelnuts
350g Ground almonds 120g Flour
2 Orange zest
- Whisk egg yolks and sugar together until light and fluffy.
- Whisk up egg whites until fully peaked and add sugar.
- Fold in some ground almonds, hazelnuts, flour and grated carrot into the sabayon.
- Fold in some meringue followed by dry ingredients.
- Pour into a greaseproof paper lined baking tin.
- Bake at 180°C for 30-40mins or until a skewer comes out cleanly
Next is a blinis recipe which can be made in advance, rather than the usual last minute yeast & egg white traditional version
Carrot Blinis
1 Egg, Beaten 200ml Milk
75g Butter, melted ½ Tsp Salt
½ Tsp Baking powder 180g Plain flour
300g Grated carrot 1 Tablespn ground cardamom
1 Tablespn Coriander, chopped
- Combine milk, eggs and butter in bowl.
- Add salt, baking soda and flour. Fold in carrots, coriander and cardamom.
- Heat a blinis pan until hot but not smoking. Half fill with mix and reduce the heat straight away.
- Wait until bubbles start to appear before flipping over and continuing cooking for a further 1-2mins.
Lovely post, but how does “# Add salt, baking soda and flour. Fold in carrots, coriander and cardamom.” carry on? There surely is a little cooking? Is it ‘add some oil to an omelette pan, just when it starts to smoke, pour the mixture in and when the top gets to baveuse, flip over and cook for about 90 seconds?’ – pretty please?
Sorry Chumbles, you’re right. It was an error in copying & pasting from the original recipe archive. Would advise using a blinis pan as opposed to an omelette pan though.