Pan-Roasted Carrots

Intrigued by the title, I was browsing through Think Like a Chef byTom Colicchio the other day and came across his recipe for pan-roasted carrots. The sheer simplicity of this dish inspired me to do my own version.

Chef Colicchio calls for 16 peeled and trimmed carrots, salt and pepper, 4 sprigs of rosemary, 1 tablespoon of butter, and 4 teaspoons of honey. Sounds delicious, but I want a little less sweetness, so I use balsamic vinegar, and less of it. I also object to peeling the carrots, because I don’t want to lose all the flavor and nutrients in the peel. I also skipped the pepper, but freshly ground white pepper would be a nice addition.

Start with nice carrots, by which I mean carrots that are of about the same size, are straight, and hopefully are fresh from a garden. Wash them, and optionally peel them. Make sure to dry the carrots to avoid splattering.

Preheat a large fry or sauté pan over medium heat with a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil. When the pan is ready, add the carrots. Every so often over the next twenty minutes or so, turn the carrots so that the whole carrot is roasted.

When the carrots look like they’re done, add a spear or two of fresh rosemary. Continue cooking and turning the carrots for another five minutes or so. Then add a tablespoon of butter and drizzle them with balsamic vinegar.

As the butter melts, turn the carrots to coat all the way around with butter and balsamic. Much of the butter will remain in the pan, and the rosemary is really only there to perfume the carrots. The balsamic darkens the caramelization and adds its own sweetness. Remove the carrots from the pan to a serving dish and sprinkle liberally with Fleur de Sel.

These things are so good I eat them as a snack!

Ricotta-Stuffed Tomatoes

I’d just finished making ricotta. It was so soft and creamy that I just had to use it for supper. Ravioli would have been nice, but I didn’t have the time or energy. Then I remembered the roma tomatoes sitting in the produce basket.

The tomatoes were easy enough to prepare. After washing them, I sliced them in half, then used a melon baller to scoop out the seeds. I sprinkled some sel gris on the inside, then turned them over on a paper towel to let them dry out a bit.

The refrigerator yielded garlic confit and caramelized onions. The herb garden provided greek oregano, basil, flat-leaf parsley, and rosemary. I chopped everything up and added the mixture to some ricotta. After tasting I added a pinch of Fleur de Sel, then covered it to let the flavors get acquainted for about half an hour.

To finish the dish, I stuffed the tomatoes with the herbed ricotta, which I topped with crushed garlic-parmesan crostini.  Then I baked them at 400°F (205°C) for 20 minutes. Roasted beets and a green salad completed a very satisfying meatless dinner.

I served this as a main course, so allowed one tomato per person. As a side dish, I would serve a single half.

Beets Two Ways

Beets are magical. The tuber is sweet, especially when it’s roasted, and the greens are a tangy and nutritious addition to any meal.

When I have beets to roast I don’t mess about. I drizzle them with extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle some sel gris or kosher salt on top, cover them with foil, and put them into the oven (350°F/175°C). After about 2-3 hours (depending on the size of the beet) they should be ready. They won’t overcook if you leave them in the oven an extra quarter hour or so, they’ll just caramelize. I like to finish them with a drizzle of Villa Manodori Balsamic Vinegar.

The greens require a bit more work. A thorough cleaning is necessary, and I like to remove most of the stalk. You can braise them as-is with some onion, garlic, and maybe bacon. I used them as part of a skillet supper.

An inexpensive steak, like a round steak, is perfect for a simple skillet supper, and you can stretch a small steak to feed several people. Slice it rather thinly against the grain so that it’ll cook rapidly yet be tender. Be careful to clean it up by trimming excess fat and removing tendon and silver skin.

Chop up some aromatics–onion, sweet red pepper, some carrot if you like. Peel and dice a tomato or two, or cut some cherry tomatoes in half. Make a chiffonade from the greens, or at least tear them into smaller pieces. Get some garlic confit out of the refrigerator, or mince a clove or two of fresh garlic.

The actual ingredients really don’t matter that much, use whatever you have. The quantity doesn’t much matter either, just use more veggies than meat, and make enough for however many are eating plus one or two, because it’s mostly veggies, so you want to encourage a second helping.

Preheat your fry pan with some extra virgin olive oil–keep the heat down between medium-low and medium. Once the oil starts to shimmer, toss in the aromatics. Stir for a minute or so, then add the steak and garlic. Season lightly with salt and pepper. When the steak is mostly done, add the greens. After a couple more minutes the greens should be wilted and the steak should have given up some of its water. Now toss in the tomato and add a splash of wine. Give the tomatoes just enough time to soften, and it’s done.

A simple dish like this will be successful if you follow a few guidelines. Use lots of fresh veggies of as many colors as you can manage; you need to eat all the colors for complete nutrition, and the color makes it more appetizing. Use an inexpensive protein–no need for porterhouse here. Remember the wine! Some alcohol is vital if you want to access all the flavors and nutrients, and it’ll cook out by the time the pan is deglazed.

Finally, the most important thing to remember is that there’s no recipe, and there are no recipe police looking over your shoulder to make sure you used exactly the same things I did in exactly the same proportions. Just get into the kitchen, use what you have, and create your own skillet supper. It’ll be great!

Candy Cap Carrot Purée

Lactarius rubidus at MykoWeb.com (Photo: © Michael Wood)

This is Lactarius rubidus, commonly known as the candy cap. These amazing fungi, when dried, are very strongly fragrant, hinting of maple syrup, butterscotch, and butter pecan ice cream. Don’t believe me? Visit the folks at MykoWeb and see what they’ve written. Better yet, do like I did and buy some from Oregon Mushrooms.

Candy caps are rather small mushrooms, but don’t let the small size fool you. They pack a powerful aromatic punch similar in strength to a fresh truffle. When my packet of ‘shrooms arrived, I could smell them through the plastic bag they were sealed into, and the aroma lingered on my hands.

I purchased them to make gelato as the challenge ingredient for my annual ice cream class. But the first time I actually used them was in one of my favorite vegetable dishes, carrot purée.

Candy Cap Carrot Purée

1 quart water
¼ ounce dried candy cap mushrooms
8 medium carrots
½ teaspoon kosher or sea salt
½ cup diced pineapple
¼-½ cup crème fraîche (optional)
fleur de sel and white pepper to taste

Bring the water and mushrooms to a boil. If you are concerned about grittiness from the dried mushrooms, let the mushrooms infuse the hot water for at least 30 minutes, then strain. I wanted the mushrooms in the purée, so I proceeded without waiting.

This is not a refined dish, so I left the carrots unpeeled; you can peel them if you want a lighter texture and color, and don’t mind losing a significant portion of the nutrient value. Add the carrots to the water and simmer for about twenty minutes. Then add the pineapple and continue simmering until the carrots are done.

Once the carrots are done, carefully transfer everything to the work bowl of a food processor and purée. Adjust the seasoning, and add some crème fraîche to smooth out the rough edges of the flavor. I suspect some silken tofu would do nicely in place of the dairy, but I haven’t tried it.

I could easily have used maple syrup to achieve approximately the same flavor, but by using candy caps, I got maple flavor without the added sugars and calories in the syrup. Now that I’ve tasted them, I can hardly wait for butternut squash soup perfumed with candy caps for Thanksgiving or Christmas!

Simple Sides: Potato Gratin

Simple yet elegant, and always a hit, gratin is a dish that every cook should know how to make. There’s nothing difficult about making a gratin, and once you understand how to make one, you’ll be able to make a gratin any time you want using whatever you have at hand.

A gratin is sliced food layered with optional cheese and seasonings, topped with cream and optional bread crumbs, then baked at 350°F/175°C until done. The only thing special you’ll need is a good porcelain gratin in which to make it.

For this gratin simply wash and peel some russet potatoes, then slice them into a bowl of slightly acidified cold water; I used the juice from a quarter of a lemon. The particular thickness of the potato slices isn’t important so long as all the slices are the same; thicker slices takes longer to cook. Let the potatoes rest in the water for a few minutes to get the surface starch off.

To assemble the gratin, begin by brushing some clarified butter or olive oil into the baking dish. Pat the potato slices dry with paper towels, then lay them into the dish, add shredded or grated cheese, add a few cloves of garlic confit if you wish, then season with salt. I shaved some parmigiano reggiano for the cheese, and used  Casina Rossa Truffle and Salt for the salt; truffle and potato is a classic combination. You can see the bits of truffle below.

To finish the dish, add another layer of ingredients, leaving out the garlic confit if you’re using it, and a third layer if you’re using a deep dish. Finish by adding cream to fill the baking dish about two-thirds full or so, being certain to wet the entire surface with the cream. Place in a 350°F/175°C oven and bake until done. It’s going to boil over during cooking, so putting the gratin dish on a baking sheet to catch the spillage will save some oven cleaning.

You could easily substitute or add other vegetables, or fruits for that matter, change the cheese or leave it out, even add some sugar for a sweet gratin. Just layer whatever you slice with seasonings, finish with cream, and bake until done. In the unlikely event you have some left over, just reheat it in the microwave, or if you used vegetables, consider a frittata.