This amazing method of cooking carrots comes from the fantastic Lucky Peach Magazine, a quarterly journal of food and writing. It’s a recipe by David Chang and comes from an article in the latest ‘Chefs Edition‘ where he challenges a few cooking techniques.
I’ll get to the carrots in a bit, but in this article, which is superbly written by Peter Meehan, Chang says ‘We’ve got to talk about it in the Chefs Issue. About not always blindly following culinary dogma. Especially blanching. And stocks. Boiling stocks is so stupid. And olive oil is a scam for idiots.’
He puts forward a great argument for all of the above with Mark Bittman, and it’s an excellent read. I knew immediately that I wanted to test this technique as I really get the notion that blanching vegetables in water before finishing them off in the pan is weird. Im not sure if I totally agree with Chang’s philosophy about never blanching vegetables, because a quick blanch for some dishes can take the much needed raw edge off, but cooking carrots (or vegetables in general) in their own juice makes so much sense. The flavour intensifies and they are completely delicious. David cooks up these carrots in fresh carrot juice which has been fortified with kombu to add fantastic umami flavour. He’s very big into adding umami.
- 1 cup carrot juice
- 1 sheet kombu
- 1 - 2 T butter
- 4 carrots scrubbed and roughly sliced on the bias
- salt to taste
- In a small pot, heat the carrot juice with the kombu (lowest setting and allow it to steep for 20 - 40 mins.
- Melt the butter in a wide pan with a lid and once the butter has stopped bubbling add your carrots. Add a large pinch of sea salt and toss it all around to coat the carrots. Add the carrot juice and cover the pan.
- Continue to cook the carrots until done to your preference, giving the pan a shake now and again or stirring. They should be cooked around 6 - 8 minutes - or longer if you prefer softer. The goal is to be left with a reduction of juice that acts as a glaze to coat the carrots.
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