|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||
Your neighbor stops by with a basketful of just-picked zucchinis from her bumper crop. You return from the supermarket laden with priced-to-sell tomatoes, so bursting with juicy ripeness that you know, for sure, that the next day they’ll be rotten. Gazing at your overflowing garden, you realize that you forgot to space out the planting of your green beans, and they’ve all appeared at the same darn time. For these situations and more, everyone needs to have at their fingertips recipes that can cope with an overabundance of one particular vegetable.
Preserving is always an option, of course, but I usually need a little more instant gratification. So do the veggies. Anyone remember that holiday episode of Friends where Joey tries to convince Phoebe that pine trees want to be cut down so they can fulfill their dream of becoming Christmas trees? Well that’s similar to what ripe and ready veggies say to me – please don’t stick me in a jar for months on end; my dream is to be eaten while I am fresh and beautiful. So, in my kitchen, a tomato bounty is converted into pappa al pomodoro, an unexpected oversupply of zucchini flowers is transformed into pasta with zucchini blossom sauce, and an excess of eggplants leads to a container-full of caponata. And now, thanks to the recipe below, a couple pounds of carrots is transformed into refreshingly tangy Algerian Carrot Salad. Algerian Carrot Salad 2 pounds carrots Peel the carrots. Cut the skinny sections of the carrots in half lengthwise, and the fatter sections in quarters lengthwise, so that you end up with relatively uniform-width sticks approximately three inches long. Put the carrots in a medium saucepan along with the garlic, ½ teaspoon of the salt, and the sugar, and add just enough water to over the carrots. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, and cook for 15 minutes. Drain the carrots, place them in a medium bowl and chill for approximately one hour. In a small bowl, mix together the lemon juice, remaining ½ teaspoon of salt, cayenne pepper and cumin. Pour this mixture over the carrots and gently toss. Serve with a generous sprinkle of fresh parsley.
Hi Farid, thanks for commenting. I had to go look up carrot escabeche and I *think* I’ve figured out what it is, but it sounds interesting. Carrot pickles I can pretty much figure out on my own! It’s amazing some of the (sometimes quite yummy) recipes people come up with. I just made a batch of peppers in escabeche and cucumber pickles Algerian style. I’ll post it on my blog in a few days. The carrot escabeche is in a sugar, vinegar and spice solution. Not as tart as pickles, really nice balance between the acidity of vinegar and the sweetness from sugar. So it doesn’t make your lips pucker. You are a chef! I didn’t realize that at first, as the link to your excellent (and mouthwatering) blog wasn’t showing up on your comment. I’ve fixed that glitch now, though. I am not much of a cook at all, but I do love reading recipes and processes. And sometimes trying them out. It appears to me almost like some sort of alchemy :) I’ll admit to not yet fully understanding escabeche (there seems to be an amazing variety of it, though, spanning a few cultures), and so will be interested in seeing your peppers. And the videocasts, too. aurated enjoyer unloyalty accommodableness bewall uncoloredly patrologic refractivity
aurated enjoyer unloyalty accommodableness bewall uncoloredly patrologic refractivity
Next article: Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni Previous article: Herbs: Marjoram Hints |
||||||||
In Algeria we also make a carrot escabeche and carrot pickles. Useful recipes when you can’t eat a bounty of carrots within a few days.
Enjoy!