recipe « (y)our food choices™

The carrot: full of vitamins, delightfully crunchy and, when picked at its best, oh so sweet. It can also be incredibly boring. Those pre-peeled and perfectly shaped “baby” carrots we find in the grocery store, for example, make for a miserable snack. Volumes could be written about this ubiquitous veggie, but we’ll cut to the chase here with our take on a root that seems to have limitless culinary applications.

Carrots are loaded with beta-carotene, a precursor to Vitamin A, and several other vitamins and minerals as well as dietary fiber. However, our bodies have a tough time getting at those vitamins when we eat a raw carrot in its unprocessed form. The vitamins and minerals are locked up in tough, fibrous mass. We can get at more of those vitamins by breaking the carrots down through shredding, grinding or juicing. And cooking carrot makes the beta-carotene more readily available to our bodies.

We now find carrots of many colors on the stands of our local farmers markets – orange, red, white and purple. While generally a cool weather veggie, their year-round availability makes it easy to cook them at peak freshness throughout the year. And the greens? They’re edible! Sure, they’re a little bitter, but they offer a nice foil to the root’s sweetness when added to a dish or salad in small amounts. The greens make a great substitute for parsley in a pinch.

An essential member of the mirepoix trinity (with onion and celery), carrot is used as a sweet/savory flavoring agent in countless recipes for soups, sauces, stocks, sweets, pastries, and more. They’re delicious on their own, glazed in stock, butter and sugar. As a substitute for mashed potatoes, they can’t be beat. They make a comforting blended soup when accented with curry spices. And what self-respecting pot roast would be caught without an accompanying roasted carrot smothered in all those pan juices? And when the meal is complete, there’s always carrot cake for dessert.

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Carrot, Apple, and Ginger Juice

Makes 2-3 servings

2-3 medium to large organic carrots, scrubbed well and tops removed
2-4 medium to large organic apples
1/2 – 1 inch fresh ginger peeled (Hawaiian ginger, preferably)

To clean the carrots and apples: In a large bowl filled with fresh cool water add the carrots and apples with a couple tablespoons of white distilled vinegar. Allow to sit for a few minutes and then scrub the carrots and apples.

Cut the apples and carrots to fit the feed shoot of your high powered juicer. Juice all of the carrots first and set the carrot pulp aside. Add the ginger, and then add the apples. Drink Immediately.

Carrot Almond Salad

2-3 medium to large organic carrots, scrubbed well and tops removed
Alternately, use the carrot pulp from the carrot, apple and ginger juice from the recipe above
2-4 tablespoons rice vinegar
2-4 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons almond oil
1/4 cup raw almonds, chopped
salt and pepper

Grate the carrots using a food processor or a box grater, or use the carrot pulp from the juice recipe. Add the carrots to a large mixing bowl. If using the grated carrots, add 2 tablespoons of the rice vinegar, olive and almond oils to the carrots (use 4 tablespoons of the rice vinegar and olive oil if using the carrot pulp). Add the chopped raw almonds, and salt and pepper to taste. Add more rice vinegar and olive oil if needed.

Pickled Carrots and Radishes

Adapted from Kelly Geary’s “Tart and Sweet”

Original recipe can be found at Whole Living

1 1/4 cups apple cider vinegar
2 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt
2 1/4 teaspoons coconut sugar or brown sugar
3 cloves garlic
1 hot pepper, such as habanero
1 small cinnamon stick
1 fresh bay leaf
1 tablespoon fenugreek seed
1 tablespoon brown mustard seed
1 tablespoon fennel seed
1 tablespoon caraway seed
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 tablespoon red pepper flakes
1/2 pound thin organic carrots, tops removed and scrubbed well
1/2 pound whole radishes, scrubbed well

Directions:

Bring the vinegar, 3/4 cup water, salt, and coconut sugar or brown sugar to a boil in a medium stainless steel saucepan. Stir, dissolving the salt and sugar.

Heat a 1-quart jar: Fill it with hot water and let it sit a couple minutes before pouring out. (The heat will prevent shattering when you pour in the boiling brine.) Add garlic, hot pepper, and spices.

Pack the jars tightly with carrots and radishes. Pour in hot brine. Cover and let cool overnight before eating. Store in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.

Paneer is a fresh cow milk cheese that is made from adding an acid like lemon juice, citric acid, or vinegar (buttermilk works as well) to heated milk. The milk forms curds (curdles) that separate from the whey when the acid is introduced. The curds are then skimmed from the whey to drain and then pressed to remove any excess liquid. Paneer is a non-melting cheese that is used primarily in South Asian cuisine, especially in Indian cooking. Since paneer does not melt, it can be grilled or coated with flour or wrapped in dough and then deep-fried.

We recently took the Cheese Making 101 class taught by Mary Karlin, author of Artisan Cheese Making at Home, from The Cheese School of San Francisco. Paneer was one of the first cheeses we finished, and it was a lot easier than one might think. The magic of the cheese making was all in the patience it takes to heat milk slowly and a little chemistry. And like most culinary adventures, learning to adjust to unforeseen circumstances (such as a cool breeze from an open window) is all part of the learning process.

While we are novices to Indian cooking, like cheese making, we were excited to jump into another experiment. One of our favorite Indian dishes is Palak Paneer (Spinach Paneer). It’s a creamy spinach curry dish with cubes of paneer cheese. If you have picky kids that love cheese but hate vegetables, this might be a good one to serve them. With a willingness to be adventurous and a sense of how to use what’s available to us in our pantry, we scoured the web for inspiration for our Palak Paneer. The result is an Indian dish at heart, but with a little creative flair from California. It’s not authentic, but it is mighty tasty.

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California Palak Paneer

8 ounces paneer, cubed
2 teaspoons dry turmeric (divided)
3 tablespoons butter (divided)
1 large onion, minced
1 small cinnamon stick
2 bay leaves
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 14 ounce can tomatoes, drained
1 tablespoon cumin (preferably freshly ground)
2 pounds fresh spinach, cleaned and stemmed, leaves only

In a large non-stick sauté pan, over medium heat, melt 1 tablespoon butter until bubbles subside. Toss the paneer with 1 teaspoon turmeric, coating all sides. Add the paneer to the pan and brown on all sides, about 1-2 minutes per side. Remove the cheese from the pan and set aside.

Add I tablespoon butter to the pan. When bubbles subside add the minced onion, cinnamon stick and bay leaves and sauté until translucent, about 6-8 minutes. Add cumin and remaining dry turmeric to the pan and sauté for another couple of minutes until spices are fragrant. In a small hot spot in the pan, add the minced garlic and cook for another 30 seconds, until fragrant. Add the canned tomatoes and cook for a few more minutes to allow the flavors to marry. Remove the cinnamon stick and bay leaves.

In batches, add the fresh spinach leaves to the onions and tomatoes. Using tongs, flip the vegetables, and continue to add more spinach as it wilts, flipping until all the spinach has been added. Once the spinach has wilted, take off the heat and pour into a food processor. With the processor running, add the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and process for 10 -20 seconds or until all the butter is incorporated.

Return the spinach mixture to the sauté pan and place back on the stove over low heat. Add the paneer to the spinach mixture and keep warm until ready to serve, or present the Paleek Paneer family style with the fried paneer on top of the spinach.