What's Up Doc?

Carottes Glacees -- Glazed Carrots

These glazed carrots were actually made as the vegetable side dish to accompany the Boeuf Bourguignon and were quite tasty and easy to make. The most difficult part of the recipe is cutting and quartering the carrots before they are cooked. Hey, if that's the hardest part you know this is an easy one to make.

After cutting up the carrots, it is simply a matter of combining and boiling the ingredients -- beef stock, sugar, and seasonings -- together with the sliced carrots and letting them cook for about 40 minutes. During that time the carrots cook and the liquid reduces to a wonderful syrupy glaze. These carrots gave me a new hope for French cooking in that they didn't take a long time to make, were simple to prepare, only used one pan, and tasted great! Perhaps French cooking can actually be done for a simple and "practical" meal and doesn't always need to be a major production? I also managed to make these without injuring myself at all!

The French have another fun habit of making what seems to be a minor change to a recipe and giving the result a fancy sounding new name. Take these carrots as an example: If you using bottled Vichy water ("or plain bottled water with a pinch of soda) in place of the beef broth, the carrots are then called "Carrottes Vichy." Hmmmm, I'm curious if my discerning palate will be able to tell the difference. We'll find out when I'm in the mood to make carrots again and I'll let you know.

I wonder if the French would have a different name for cornflakes if I ate them with a teaspoon instead of a tablespoon - "Petit Cerial?"

So much to learn. In the meantime, here's a simple side dish you can try when your in the mood for some carrots.

Bon Appetit!