le sauce

sri lankan-spiced carrots

There are two things I need to say right off the bat. 

1. If you think carrots are boring, I don't really blame you, but please stick around for a moment.
2. If you're not new to my blog and have tried any of my family's Sri Lankan recipes, you'll notice that the ingredients in this are very similar to some other curries on this site. But I really don't think curry when I sit down to a serving of these carrots... 

What I think is, wow, carrots are awesome. Way more awesome than they're given credit for, and way more awesome cooked down, sweet and soft than all crunchy and raw, in my opinion, which I've expressed before. That sweetness mixed in with the richness of coconut milk are what you get from the first bite, somehow trumping the curry-aspect of this dish. The aroma from those fragrant spices are all there, so I'm referring to them simply as Sri Lankan-spiced carrots. But what's in a name, right? All you really need to know is that this is my favourite way to eat carrots, and why.

If you've had glazed carrots, you know how sweet carrots are when cooked and all those natural sugars come out. If you've had carrot ginger soup, you know how well their flavour stands up to strong spices. In this dish, you get that sweetness paired up with fenugreek, curry leaves, chilies, mellowed out in coconut milk. Carrots don't normally wow me, so if you're a little lukewarm toward them, I totally get it. But even if they usually only play a supporting role in your kitchen, this is the recipe that will show you that carrots can star on their own.

winter stew

The thing I love most about eating the food other people make, especially watching them make it, is when they do things totally differently than I might have. When James is in the kitchen, he'll take vegetables I'm used to eating and make them taste refreshing different to me. I love this stew he's been making this winter because the paprika and dijon mustard he throws in keeps it from being bland or expected, yet I'm not sure that I could really pick either of those ingredients out when I eat it. It's also made creamy with the addition of milk at the end.

He serves it over couscous and he always makes extra for lunch. As with most stews, the leftovers are even better, so make more than you need too.

spicy sauteed carrots and banana peppers

(photographed by james piper) 

well look who it is. february! back again, cold, bleak and reeking of pink candy hearts. instead of wishing away the next four weeks i've decided to embrace at least the part about it being the month of love. i'm not suddenly going to start celebrating valentine's day (or digress into the reasons i don't) but on this blog, i am going to make this the month that i celebrate the people i love. my family and friends are great cooks and i love everything they serve me. i've picked some signature dishes of theirs and asked if i could share those recipes here. for the most part, i'll even be making the recipes alongside them, which is (crazy, hectic! and) fun. 

james has also agreed to participate and he's even shooting some of the pictures for me while i get my hands dirty cooking with my mom, dad and aunt. one of his recipes is up first!

 

(photographed by james piper) 

this is one of probably only three carrot recipes that you'll ever see on my blog. i have nothing against carrots, but i never think of making them the star of anything i'm cooking. to me, they have their place in soups or stews but never crave them, i never snack on them, i never have them on hand. i like the carrot curry that my mom makes, and that was about it, until james worked his magic on them. with no more than garlic and banana peppers, he made them something that i devour every time they're in front of me, and ask for on a regular basis. 

the carrots are cooked till their sweetness comes through; the garlic and banana peppers are all the flavour needed at that point--and the heat of banana peppers is a lovely match. that's the common thread between this dish and my mom's curried carrots--heat. carrots love spice. if you've never experienced that--you must!

(photographed by james piper) 

spicy sauteed carrots and banana peppers  

2lbs carrots, peeled (if necessary), trimmed and sliced thinly on a bias
3 hot banana peppers, trimmed and sliced on a bias
2 large cloves of garlic, crushed
2 tbs vegetable oil
1/2 tsp salt, plus 1/4 tsp
1/4 tsp pepper

heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. add garlic and sautee, stirring, for 30 seconds. add carrots and cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally, then add 1/2 tsp salt and the pepper. cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. add the banana peppers and the remaining 1/4 tsp of salt and stir. cook for 8-10 more minutes until the carrots are softened and fully cooked. serve with rice as a main course or as a vegetable side.

makes 4 large servings (or a side for 6-8).

sweet and savoury vegetable stew with grilled bread

stew might not be exactly the right word to describe this, because it doesn't actually "stew" that long. in fact the preparation takes more time than the cooking--there are lots of delicious vegetables here that bring the sweet and the savoury to this...stew. but it's warm, rich, deep in flavour and body the way a stew is, so if it looks like a stew and it tastes like a stew, then i say even if it cooks in 20 minutes, it's a stew.

and i suppose the prep could take closer to 20 minutes if you drag someone into the kitchen with you, like i did. pour yourselves a glass of wine and chat while you chop. it's one of those meals. not, i confess, not, a meal that makes it onto the weeknight plan i discussed in a recent post. it's a sunday night supper to be spooned slowly onto bites of bread made fitting for such a satisfying stew...

 

a random bite of chickpea and carrot salad

 

i had some gorgeous carrots on hand in 4 or 5 colours--the kind i only find at markets, never at the grocery store. and although i'd cooked with them, i really wanted to make something that showed their raw beauty well. so naturally a salad came to mind. i had some fresh green lettuce and parsley on hand, and added chickpeas for a creamy element among all that crunch. 

 

i remembered watching jamie oliver's show "jamie at home" (one of my favourite food shows) and i think he took carrots of different colours, peeled them, and then just kept on peeling to get thin, long strips of carrot for his salad, and i thought i remembered a cumin based dressing too. i have had cumin and carrots many times, as cumin is a strong player in my mom's carrot "curry" recipe, but she also uses mustard seeds a lot, so i toasted both ground cumin and mustard seeds and then ground them in a mortar, and added chopped shallots, olive oil, lime juice, salt and pepper to make the dressing. tasty and even heartier than it looks.   

i later looked up that jamie oliver recipe and i'd remembered some parts correctly, but he served his salad over ground lamb. i may not eat lamb anymore but i know that would have been a delicious combo!