Extreme Ginger Carrots

Old recipe, new method and new flavor angles:

1. peel and cut carrots  into shape you like. tonight i did them the way ed brown taught me.  slicing as i roll them to get some interesting shapes.  tonight i used 3 farmer's market sized bunches.

2. heat olive oil or preferred oil in a pan and brown the carrots.  i like them so the look like they were roasted.

3. while browning, finely grate a lot of ginger.  tonight i think i added too much, maybe close to 1/2 cup, but no one seemed to mind.

4. finely grate 2 oranges.  squeeze the juice from these two oranges.

5. mix orange juice with some tamari soy sauce, maple syrup and cayenne to taste.  proportions depend on your desired taste.

6. once carrots are browned to your liking, stir in the ginger. then eventually add the juice mixture.  allow to come to a boil, then turn heat way down, cover and let simmer on low until desired softness of carrots has been reached.  usually about 45 minutes or so.

7. tonight the balance of ginger and cayenne was a little intense, so i added a smidge more maple syrup.  also, the sauce was super potent.  to tone down, i might have added a little water to the juice mixture.

8. in the past, i have minced up shallots and added with the ginger.  tonight i fried up the shallots separately like in Vietnamese cooking. then to serve, stir in a little of the fresh orange rind.  chop up some mint and scatter on top with fried shallots.

Ginger Carrots

I was fretting about this dish.  I had not made it in a while and was not quite sure how I used to do it.  So i approached it with some angst,  but it seemed to turn out okay.  Even Lia liked it.

Peel and cut too many carrots from your favorite farmer to be as closely the same size as possible.  Heat olive oil or other favorite oil in a big saute pan and brown in batches if necessary, removing to a bowl.

Add more oil to pan and saute too many minced shallots and too much minced ginger.  De glaze a bit with some orange juice.

Throw carrots back into pan.  Add a mixture of Orange juice, honey, soy sauce, black pepper and water back to pan.  Bring to a boil.  Then lower heat as much as possible.  Cover with wax paper and lid if necessary.  Braise for up to an hour until carrots are as you like them.

Stir in fresh chopped mint and a little salt to taste if necessary.

Carrot Ginger Scallion Pancakes

The trick here is adding barely enough egg and flour to hold the carrots together. Uschi and I went through a few batches before it seemed to gel. Simultaneously, the pans seemed to take a little bit to find their heat.

I have never measured the ingredients and have always winged this visually and by taste.
We made enough for a party of 21. There was not one pancake left.

1. Mix together:
- Grated Carrots
- Minced or Grated Ginger
- Thinly Sliced Scallions
- Thinly Sliced Shallots
- Grated Meyer Lemon Rind

2. Add:
- Ground Cinnamon
- Ground Cardamon
- Cumin Seed
- Freshly Ground Pepper
- Salt
- A little sugar to taste

You will need to taste and tweak to your liking.

3. Then add:
- Lemon Juice

4. Separate 4 to 5 eggs. Beat the egg whites till stiff peaks form.

5. Turn oven to 200 degrees or so.

6. Mix egg yolks into carrot mixture and very little flour. I usually start with about 1/4 cup and then add from there. Add enough egg whites to get desired consistency.

7. Heat a non-stick skillet. Usually I use a little olive or vegetable oil, but tonight the pancakes did better without any oil, so that was new. Spoon out about a tablespoon or more of the carrot mixture onto pan and flatten out. Depending on the size of your pan, add as many pancakes as you can fit without crowding. Allow to brown on one side before flipping. If they fall apart, you will need to add more flour or egg, tweaking until you get the right balance. (One day I will write the proportions down).

8. Keep pancakes in oven till all are done. Serve with Creme Fresh and Smoked Salmon.

Carrots and Kale in Orange Ginger Sauce with Spiced Rice

As I mentioned before, I am trying to hone easy vegan cooking. So, these next several months I am going to see if I can pull it off by choosing to eat light and less and find out what I start to crave.

Today I used Ghee, cuz I am gearing up for a PK with my pal Jackie Parker and I am supposed to be drinking ghee daily. Ghee is obviously not vegan.

1. Basmati Rice with Spices
Heat up some fat (today I used ghee). Once hot, add some spices. Today I used mustard seed, cumin seed and coriander seed. Add soaked basmati rice. Stir and toast rice a bit. Add the right amount of water. Bring to a boil. Cover and lower heat. About 10 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, peel and slice up some carrots. Mince up some ginger. Slice up some kale.

3. Heat some fat in a pan. Add the ginger and stir for about 30 seconds, and then add the carrots. Allow carrots to cook in the fat, stirring every so often, until they start to brown a little. Add 1/2 a squeezed Orange, cover and allow carrots to steam and soften.

4. When rice is done, remove from heat and let sit.

5. Add kale to the carrots, stir and cover for only about a minute to wilt the kale.

6. Today I added the rice into the pan with the carrots and kale to stir it all up and soak up the extra orange ginger sauce.

7. I put it in a bowl, added a little salt and ate the whole thing.

Beet Leaves Stuffed with Root Vegetables

Serves 20 as part of a buffet.

This is a concept that is usually more successful with larger leaves like Chard. But the leaves on the Beets were so Beautiful, they demanded attention. You could use almost any proportion and variety of vegetables and herbs for the stuffing. This receipe is inspired by one of the Greats of Vegetarian cooking, Deborah Madison.

Dice or finely chop:
1/2 white onion
6 of the beet stems
3 peeled carrots
1 yam (or is it a sweet potato?)
3 peeled parsnips
1 center of a celery root
1 clove garlic

In a wide skillet, heat some olive oil.
Add about a tbl. of brown mustard seed, allow to get fragrant
Add the onions and saute for about 2 minutes and then add the rest of the vegetables.
Stir and saute uncovered for a bit and then cover and let saute/steam until soft, about 20+ minutes, checking and adding water to pan if it gets too dry.

Meanwhile, prepare the leaves.
Bring a pot of water to boil.
Wash well.
In batches, boil leaves in water for 4 minutes and remove carefully to some paper towels with tongs.

To assemble, spread a leaf out with rough side up. Scoop about a tbl. of the veggies on the low wide part of the leaf. Tuck and roll it up into a little package. If leaf breaks, you can use a piece of another leaf to patch it, or sometimes we wrapped with two.

Because we made these hours before the party, we put them in an oven proof dish, dotted the beet leaf packages with butter and covered them with tinfoil. When it was time to serve, we put them in a 350 oven for about 10 minutes.

Alana and Uschi made a tahini sauce with tahini, miso paste, tamari, orange juice, water and salt. Delicious. We will have to get them to give up the proportions.