Once upon a time, not so long ago, ok I lie fifty or so years ago, eschewing a hot meal, I would spend dinner time, separating carrot pieces from their veggie sidekick, peas. This duo was so dynamic back then that peas and carrots showed up in everything, including an oft used saying that getting along like peas and carrots meant that you were best friends forever.
School dinner peas and carrots were particularly offensive. These sweet little veg, that spent weeks of their energy striving for a good life in the warm sun, would end up vacuum packed inside dark metal dungeons for years on end. Once freed from their tin can prison cells, their meaningful lives full of promise would be snuffed out in the garbage, as kids like my younger picky miss self, screwed up their faces and flicked them across the table. Back then, when I thought of carrots, I thought of overcooked, mushy, tasteless cubes. Only once I joined my Gramps on his veg patch did I realize carrots could be crunchy, delicious and did not grow square.
As I got older, my favorite part of a Sunday roast, apart from the crispy chicken skin was my Pop’s roast carrots, perfectly caramelized and bathed in salty chicken jus. They were the highlight of my week. It even made going to Sunday mass worthy, my reward afterwards shards of orange hued goodness straight from the oven. Later on, I worked at the London vegetarian, whole food Mecca, Cranks, with its brown rice, mashed yeast Hippie vibe, it’s fresh pressed carrot, orange, ginger juice is what truly hooked me on this root.
These days, living in sunny southern California, I’m beyond spoiled by the abundance of fresh produce, especially its bevy of carrot cultivars, with their array of colors. My particular favorite is named after a Hendrix song, purple haze, as it’s name suggests a deep merlot purple, with a striped golden center, it makes for a stunning addition to salads, cakes and cocktails. Bonus, a bunch of juicy, sweet and fragrant carrots, even the fancy pants purple version, can be picked up for a bargain $3 or so. Pick those with the freshest looking fronds and you’ll never wonder again what to do with it’s rabbit feed greens, carrot tops make the tastiest pesto.
In fact, the humble carrot is one of the most versatile ingredients you can have in your pantry. Cooked properly, instead of assassinated by too much heat, carrots enhance everything from stews, roasts and pot pies, to cakes, cookies, smoothies and ice creams. It is the basis of most soups and sauces with its cohorts onion and celery in a mirepoix, or an Italian soffritto. It’s particularly tasty, move over peas, with the unexpected coconut, which I learned working with Chef Michael Voltaggio. His carrots with pea shoots and coconut snow was insane! My job as his bar mixtress was to create cocktails that would complement his dishes, this pairing was a no brainer, my first attempt was a winner, carrot juice, aperol, gin, cardamom, ginger, and lemon.
carrot top pesto
I’ve long lamented the waste of carrot greens, supermarkets ask at check out if you want them removed, instead I throw them into my morning juice blend in place of parsley when I run out. Not till recently though, I discovered carrot tops made the best pesto, their vibrant, fresh botanical flavors mingle perfectly with lemon zest and my drug of choice, pecorino cheese. If you’ve got dry pasta and this inexpensive veggie scrap “pesto” you’ve got dinner in mere minutes. My recipe below is not a traditional pesto in that it does not include nuts, they can be pricey. I will add, when ive got extra coinage a 1/4 cup of toasted pumpkin seeds, they’re perfection with carrot tops.
ingredients
1 cup of carrot tops, chopped roughly
1 large-ish garlic clove
4 tablespoons good quality extra virgin olive oil ( don’t skimp, the peppery notes of a good oil mean the difference between delish and passable )
grated zest of half a lemon
1/4 cup or about 1 ounce of grated pecorino romano
optional veggie bits, such as past their prime asparagus, or flowering broccoli
S+P to taste
Method
If using asparagus or broccoli, trim off the woodier ends and roughly chop
add carrot tops and veg ( if using ) into a food processor with garlic and blitz to a fine mince
drizzle in olive oil with the machine running
add pecorino and pulse a couple of times
transfer to a bowl and mix in the lemon zest and salt and pepper to taste
Note: I like a creamy pesto so once pasta is boiled and drained, I throw back into the pot with some pasta water, the pesto and a spoonful of creme fraiche ( again not an expensive ingredient even though it sounds posh ) finish off with toasted bread crumbs and more grated pecorino for a heavenly meal.
carrot gnocchi
My college days back in London were fueled by copious amounts of martini bianco over ice ( with a slice of orange ) and either gnocchi or when I was I was flush, béchamel topped lasagna, its not lasagna without béchamel, go on, fight me!
I don’t even remember where my recipe for gnocchi came from, possibly from the kitchens at Heals restaurant where I worked lunches and served Sade her white wine spritzes. Regardless, I’ve been making gnocchi on and off for over thirty years, always with an egg for its bondage qualities and always with potato, often left overs. Since potatoes are a root veg I started venturing into unfamiliar territory by exploring with other roots, yams, parsnips, beets didn’t quite work as expected and of course carrots.
You can use any type of carrot, as mentioned above I have a penchant for the tie die purple variety and mixed them here with pink fleshed fingerling potatoes, I think they’re called Amarosa or Mountain Rose. Most recipes call for floury potatoes and to some it might be blasphemy that I use precious fingerlings, but they produce the most flavorful and light, melt in your mouth dumplings that I don’t care if I’m judged.
ingredients
1 pound potatoes, peeled
1/2 pound carrots, scrubbed, never peeled
1 egg
1 cup AP flour ( since I’m a glutard, I use King Arthur gluten free )
S+P to taste
Method
Pre-heat oven to 400
cut potatoes into even sized pieces, about 1 inch big or so and boil in salted water, drain once tender and leave in the pan over a small flame to dry them out. be careful here and make sure they don’t burn
take your scrubbed carrots and toss in olive oil with a pinch of salt, not too much salt since you’ll be adding more salt later to the gnocchi mix. Place on a sheet tray and pop in the oven to intensify their sweet flavors. Allow to cool before mashing.
add potatoes and carrots to a large bowl and mash together with a potato masher or a large fork.
add half of your flour and mix with a fork until its evenly distributed, the consistency should be similar to a crumble topping. Add salt and pepper if needed.
add egg and mix well with your hand until the egg is evenly incorporated, if you need more flour add another 1/4 cup or more if needed. You want the consistency of play dough but much lighter and less smelly. The dough should start to come away from the sides of the bowl leaving it clean.
dust lightly a board or your counter with flour.
take a handful of dough and roll out into a long sausage, adding more flour on the board if needed, you don’t want any stickiness.
chop the sausage/ log thingummy into inch pieces and set aside to cure slightly, about half an hour, before boiling or sauteeing.
to cook, bring a pot of salted water to a boil, toss in about 10-12 gnocchi per person and allow them to float to the top of the water, this is how you know they’re cooked. Alternatively you can sauté gnocchi in a skillet with olive oil, allow them to crisp on both sides before serving.
toss in your favorite sauce ( hmmmm pesto sounds mighty good )
carrot spritz
That first carrot cocktail back in 2013, spawned many offshoots. My favorite and the most popular seller behind any bar has been an aperitif style drink, inspired by the Aperol Spritz, I removed the gin from the mother recipe, added sparkling yuzu sake and a drop of vanilla for a glass of pure heaven. I wasn’t the only one that thought so, we had regulars that would trek across town for a couple of these cocktails, both on cocktail safari for their Instagram fans and to slurp on.
ingredients
1 1/2 oz fresh carrot juice
1 1/2 oz aperol
3/4 oz yuzu juice
1/2 oz simple syrup
1 1/2 oz banzai bunny sparkling yuzu sake
3 dashes scrappy’s cardamom bitters
1/16 oz vanilla extract ( real vanilla, not imitation )
Method
starting with the least expensive ingredient first ( in case you make a mistake ), add bitters, vanilla, simple, then aperol, carrot and yuzu juices to your Boston shaker
add 4 ice cubes ( preferably 1” x 1” and shake hard for 5 seconds
add the sparkling yuzu sake
strain into a chilled glass of choice and add ice ( if you add ice first especially when it comes to smaller cubes you often dont have enough room for the cocktail, so ice always last; plus if you add ice first it starts to melt so you always have a pool of water you need to get rid of before adding cocktail to the glass )
garnish with carrot curls and fronds. drink with a straw
carrot cake
My drug of choice I think I’ve mentioned is cheese, or chocolate depending on what day you ask me. Carrot cake however comes a close second, but I always find it way too sweet. Sure I love frosting, but only in small doses, for some reason American cream cheese frosting has far too much sugar so if I frost, there’s minimal sugar. I want to enjoy my slice of heaven without getting toothache or feeling guilty for sending my body into a near diabetic coma, hence the lack of frosting on this loaf style cake that’s perfect for breakfast or as an afternoon snack with a cuppa. This recipe that follows is inspired by my first carrot cocktail but taking my cue from Chef MV, I bring coconut into the mix for extra complexity, crunch as well as cardamom bitters for aroma.
ingredients
3/4 cup ( 180ml ) warmed to liquid unrefined coconut oil
1 cup ( 225 grams light brown sugar )
2 large eggs at room temp ( if you add cold eggs to the mix they will make the coconut oil solidify and the batter seize up )
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon grund nutmeg
1/2 oz scrappy’s cardamom bitters
1/2 oz orange oil ( or grated orange zest of half an orange )
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups ( 225 grams ) AP flour ( King Arthur gluten free works for me and my sensitive tum )
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups ( 165 grams ) grated carrots ( scrubbed and grated on the finest side of the grater )
1/4 cup ( 28 grams ) peeled and grated ginger root
3/4 cup ( 75 grams ) toasted shredded coconut
Method
pre-heat oven to 350
place shredded coconut on a sheet tray and pop in the oven once it’s hot. watch the coconut, it turns fast from virgin white to a foxy tan brown fast. Remove from oven and allow to cool
oil a 9 x 5 inch loaf tin with coconut oil and line it lengthways with a strip of parchment paper with the ends hanging over the edge so you can easily lift it out of the pan when cooked
add the eggs, sugar and vanilla to your mixing bowl and whisk until light yellow in color.
add the coconut oil, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom bitters and orange extract or zest, whisk until smooth
add the flour, baking soda and powder, again whisk till smooth
add carrots, ginger and toasted coconut and incorporate till you have an even batter
transfer cake batter to your lined loaf tin, tapping it to remove any air
place loaf tin onto a small sheet tray ( incase it overflows, it shouldn’t but I’d rather clean a sheet tray than a crusty oven )
bake for 60 minutes, test with a knife or skewer which should come out mostly clean, too much wet batter when you test means you need another 5 minutes or so.
once ready, allow to sit for 15 minutes or so before lifting the loaf ( via the paper ) out onto a rack to cool.
recipes always tell you to allow to cool fully before eating. nah, I can’t wait that long, I give it half an hour before I go into full on cake junky mode.
wrap the cake in plastic wrap, it should last up to 4 days, that’s if you can discipline yourself. want frosting? go ahead and knock yourself out, but this baby does not need it!