Wednesday, July 12, 2006

And you thought rice pilaf was boring



Quick-Braised Carrots with Butter
How To Cook Everything: Quick Cooking Copyright 2003

1 pound carrots, peeled and cut into ¼-inch-thick slices I used petite baby carrots
2 tablespoons butter or 1 tablespoon canola or other neutral oil I used butter
¼ cup water
1 teaspoon sugar or 1 tablespoon maple syrup I used sugar
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
minced fresh parsley, mint, chervil, or cilantro leaves for garnish I omitted this

1. Place the carrots, butter or oil, water, sugar, salt and pepper in a medium saucepan over high heat; bring to a boil and cover. Turn the heat to medium-low and cook for 5 minutes.
2. Uncover and raise the heat a bit. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid had evaporated and the carrots are cooking in butter or oil. Lower the heat and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, a couple of minutes longer.
3. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary, then garnish and serve.

Makes 4 servings.
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I warned you it was going to a lame week, didn't I? Next week should be better. I'm still trying to clean out my freezer and I came up with some (hopefully) good recipes for next week but right now all you get is carrots. But hey, they were good carrots. This is a good technique. In the past I've boied or steamed carrots then added brown sugar and butter but cooking them this way seems lighter (definitely much less sugar) and the flavor was cooked right in. I had this with the Easy Italian Spiced Pork and Rice Pilaf the other night. Last night we had Ham and Egg Enchiladas again - one of the recipes I've made most often since starting this blog. I used whole wheat tortillas.

I'm still overwhelmed. The biggest issue I have right now is that I can't make everything I'd like to make because I don't have the time to make it all and we just can't eat it all. It's okay to bring in brownies or cupcakes to work but I'm not sure if they're up to anything fancier.

My pantry is overflowing. It wasn't that long ago that all-purpose flour was the only flour I ever used. Now I have all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, whole wheat pastry flour, bread flour and cake flour. At one point I had self-rising flour too. I also have cornmeal, two types of oatmeal, oat bran, unprocessed wheat bran and wheat germ. I really need to work with what I have for the next couple of weeks.

Question of the Day: How many different types of flour do you use?

7 comments:

Heather said...

Whoa that is a lot of flour. I am starting to build my collection too since I want to make breads. I have AP, whole wheat, cake and bread.

You are not having a lame week. I think sometime it is the simple recipes that help me. I am not too good with sides except potatoes, so I appreciate your daily posts.

DancesInGarden said...

My regulars are whole wheat and unbleached white. But lately I have been testing some recipes so now have some cake and pastry flour (what the heck am I going to do with it???). Oh, and some hemp flour somebody gave me LOL. I used it once or twice but find it salty, and I don't like the colour it adds to foods. It's probably rancid now and needs tossing.

I've run out of oatmeal, and need to get more because it is part of Ruby's meal recipe. Yes. My dog eats healthier than the rest of us LOL.

The carrots look great!

Sara said...

Only 2 - whole wheat, which I try to use the most, and all purpose white.

Unknown said...

I use All-Purpose, Wheat, Bread, and Cake. I'm going to try and find some wheat pastry flour as well and try that.

ThursdayNext said...

yoI have a small bag of all-purpose in my pantry. I dont really bake, so the last time I used it was for gnocci.

Carrots were the only veggie I ate as a kid; the sounds yum.

Anonymous said...

I use all-purpose (unbleached), cake, and bread and I finally found some "self-rising cake flour" which I have only seen in Nigella's recipes but hey why not.

My co-workers adore me and my baking...cookies are always a big hit and you have the "individual serving" thing going for them. I work in a small photgraphy business (sometimes there are 5-7 present) and I bring pies too.

Annie said...

I use AP, Whole Wheat and Bread. I keep the Whole Wheat flour in the fridge since it has more of a chance of going rancid.
The carrots sound good!