This looks good; I’ll give it a try. I am always looking for good carrot recipes. For some reason I find carrots difficult to prepare. It is not that I can’t prepare them, but I often find the outcome underwhelming. They either lack flavor or are too sweet with most conventional preparation.
A few days ago I had a little leftover butternut squash. I cut it up, cut up 3 large carrots and a leek, and made a squash/carrot/leek pureed soup. For various reasons it had Ras el Hanout and saffron in it, and it was really tasty. Of course cumin is one of the major ingredients in Ras el Hanout – but I would suggest that the variation with Moroccan spice would be worth trying. Ras el Hanout is a mixture of perhaps six or eight spices, the recipe is variable.
Sigh, I did both the duck and the carrot recipe. Unfortunately when prepping the spice mixtures beforehand I poured the spices for the duck into the carrots. Noticed it before pouring the carrot spices onto the duck.
Anyway, both were very good (though the carrots took longer to cook than 20 minutes) but I look forward to trying it again with the correct spices. Also, was the sauce for the duck really intended to contain all the rendered duck fat? I poured most of it off, couldn’t believe that was the intent.
coincidentally, I ran across a cumin carrots dish at a restaurant last night; it was delicious, and therefore made me even more excited to try Martin’s preparation.
I’ve cooked this a few times now. I also add some glugs of bourbon when I want. For me, it always takes longer than the time indicated, and I end up adding more liquid.
I’ve used Raz el Hanout for a while to spice my carrots. I serve them as a starter/apéritif.
Here’s what I use:
Carrots (boiled a while to reach desired softness)
Raz el Hanout, cumin (just a little bit since already there in raz el hanout), paprika (for color), garlic (powder if I don’t have fresh), herbes de provence (not too much), salt, pepper, Espelette piment
And of course you drown them in olive oil. The mix needs to sit 1-2 hours in the fridge so that the carrots absorb a bit of the marinade (stir once or twice).
Slight aside, I use cumin on sweet potatoes, peeled (obviously), then cut into about 2" chunks, sprinkle with olive oil and cumin (plus salt) and roast at about 375 for an hour and half, or until they are browning and caramelizing. Toss in the pan once or twice during cooking. It’s the only way I cook sweet potatoes any more.