Carrots I feel are too often the mundane and bland side dish or the overcooked mush in your winter stew when they could be so much more! I love when chefs treat them as the stars they are and come up with simple ways to make them shine on their own, like in this simple recipe from Richard Blais for Food & Wine magazine.
Their color itself is an uplifting sight on the plate, and if you look carefully in your grocery store or farmers market, you’re likely to find jewel-like colors of purple or bright yellow. Even better yet, baby carrots with their green tops on are by far the prettiest and tastiest.
After a little blanching (you want to keep some crispiness), a quick sautéing with ginger and cinnamon will give them some zing before adding in some chicken stock and finishing the sauce with butter, Sriracha sauce and lime juice.
It’s an addictive sweet-spicy-sour-salty combo that I’m sure could lift up a whole lot of other vegetables, but here it feels just right.
The final topping of seaweed and sesame seeds (from a Japanese seasoning called furikake) adds a wonderful flavor and one more visually attractive element to these beauties on a plate. They’ll make any dish you decide to share them with that much more special.
So easy to prepare, it’s high time we give carrots the limelight they deserve.
- 24 baby carrots, tops trimmed to 2 inches
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/2 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
- Pinch of cinnamon
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
- 1/4 teaspoon Sriracha
- Salt
- 1 tablespoon furikake (available at Asian markets and many specialty food stores)
- In a large saucepan of boiling salted water, cook the carrots until crisp-tender, about 2 minutes. Drain the carrots.
- In a large skillet, heat the olive oil. Add the carrots, ginger and cinnamon and cook over moderate heat, tossing occasionally, until the ginger is fragrant, about 3 minutes. Add the chicken stock and boil over moderately high heat until reduced by half, about 3 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat and let cool for 30 seconds. Swirl in the butter, lime juice and Sriracha and season with salt. Arrange the carrots on a platter and spoon the ginger-lime sauce on top. Sprinkle with the furikake and serve.
