As I'm working through "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" I've tended to not prepare the basic "master recipe" for different types of food. Instead, I've been more adventurous and used one of Julia's follow on variations. Why? Because I can! That being said, it hasn't been fair to the cookbook to ignore the basic recipes and, besides, I need to cook them and serve without modification just to say I've done it. So, while roasting my first chicken I decided I wanted some color and at the store both the string beans and carrots loo good. After debating in my mind for a few minutes I decided to call my sweet sous chef, Elizabeth, and see what she wanted with her dinner -- she chose carrots. Now I have to ponder whether she really wanted carrots or just didn't like my previous preparations of beans...
Since I was already roasting a chicken for the first time, it seemed like it might be a smart move to make a side dish that was pretty straightforward. That, and Elizabeth's choice, is why I ended up making "Carottes Etuvees Au Beurre (Carrots Braised in Butter)." Pretty cool sounding name, right? "What's so special about Carottes Etuvees Au Beurre" you ask? Well, to be completely honest, not much. These were tasty cooked carrots and were a great dish to make without a lot of heroic effort but not what you'd want to cook on a night when you're trying to impress someone important like the President of the United States or your mother. That being said, these were nice and tasty and brought out the carrot flavor.
Here's the quick version of how to make these. First the carrots were peeled, washed, and then sliced. They all went into a pan with water, a couple tablespoons of butter (remember, French cooking = butter), some sugar, and a little salt and pepper. All of that was brought to a boil and left to simmer for about 30 minutes. Easy peasy, right? Some parsely flakes were springled over at the end (sorry Julia, I didn't use my fresh parsley.
Quick and tasty! This really was a nice side dish that didn't take a ton of time to prepare and is definitely something I'll use again, especially if I'm doing something like deboning a duck or some other complicated recipe Using fresh carrots instead of frozen ones definitely made this a refreshing and straightforward side dish. This dish also let me have a couple of other major accomplishments -- dinner was ready on time, with no injuries, and I managed to prepare this using only one pan, one cuttting board, and one knife! Your turn!
Bon appetit!
Comments