Produce trio: carrots

[mrissa]

I almost didn’t do carrots, because really, carrots! They go in things! There they are, in things! Almost nobody ever says, “Carrots, oh how I need more ways to eat them,” because raw will do, or in most salads, and there you have that: carrots! And you can put them in lemony chicken soup, and you can put them in lamb stew, and you can put them in all the soups I haven’t written down, more or less, and in potpie with or without actual pie crust, with or without meat…carrots!

But the other night I made a new carrot thing that felt lovely and festive, so I thought I would write it down here. It even looks mostly like a recipe, with quantities and everything!

5-Spiced Maple Glazed Carrots

1#ish of carrots, peeled and cut on the diagonal–you might do this with what the store attempts to pass off as “baby carrots,” but really the full-size ones mostly have more complex flavor, so I recommend bothering

2 T butter

1/4 c. maple syrup

1/3 c. water

1 T 5-spice powder

chopped chives if they’re still in season

Melt the butter in a pan with a cover. Throw the carrots in and toss them around a bit. Add the rest of the ingredients except the chives. Bring to a boil and lower to a simmer, covering. Check every 5 minutes or so and stir; should take 10-20 minutes depending on how high your simmer is. When the sauce has almost reduced itself to a glaze, throw the chives in and cook a tiny bit more. Hurrah carrots.

Originally published at Novel Gazing Redux

Comments

[arkessian.livejournal.com]

Oh yum.

It just so happens I have a bag of full-size carrots in need of a recipe. I've done roasting with maple syrup on its own (ah, Montreal.... yearns for a place I'll never go again) or with cumin or with honey.

And of course carrot goes into soup. And stew. And meat pie (I taught the lodger to make cottage pie topped with leeks and cheese just two days ago, and the veg inside the meat filling was carrots and onions of course. No swede. I am not fond of swede, even if the recipe calls for it.)

But a glaze of maple syrup and 5-spice.... As I said, oh yum.

[sheff-dogs.livejournal.com]

We love roast carrots, along with roast onions and roast parsnips. If you are wise you make far more than you can possibly eat and then you can make Roast Soup; simply all those left over roast veg whizzed up with some stock, but somehow the result is just magical. Not a word one often applies to root veg.

[vcmw]

Mmmm, carrots. And actually, this is a very useful recipe for me because I have a bunch of 5-spice powder I want to use up, and I always have maple syrup and carrots around.

Usually my carrots get honey and butter and ginger on them, and some varying amount of hot pepper, but this sounds tasty and I would probably never have randomly tried the 5-spice powder.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

We actually saw a similar dish advertised on a menu in a window in order to get this lightbulb, because otherwise I don't go around dousing things with five-spice either.

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

I put a very small amount of five-spice in an apple pie once, and it was awesome.