Friday, April 4, 2014

Frozen carrots

When I hear those words, I think of those tasteless baby carrots that come in a plastic bag from the supermarket freezer. I had never thought of freezing fresh carrots, until last weekend, when I dug up the remaining carrots that filled one of the raised garden beds this year. There were kilos and kilos of them. It took ages to sort and wash them all.

Out came the trusty Sally Wise preserving book to see what I could do with them. Turns out you can blanch and freeze them, so I now have several bags of them in the freezer. The small and sweet ones I have kept in the fridge for snacks. The dogs will get the oversized, damaged and deformed ones. The chooks got all the green carrot tops. They love them, as well as carrot peel when available. Now... any carrot recipe recommendations?

4 comments:

  1. I finely grate carrots into recipes like mince for Mexican tacos and even bolognaise. Unlike many veges, carrots' vitamins are not diminished by cooking. Additionally, unlike boiling, in this instance the carrots' nutrients "leach" into the sauce. The carrots also impart a naturally sweet flavour and they almost melt away into the sauce and become imperceptible to people who insist that they do not like veges.

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    1. Yes! I also like them finely chopped in bolognaise, grated in shepherds pie and in salads.

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  2. Hi Susan, I just discovered your blog and love your post about how to make friends in a country town. My mum is about to move to Hobart from Adelaide so I'll keep it up my sleeve to give to her for advice later. Now, on the matter of carrots - I am obsessed with Yotam Ottolenghi's recipes, he's completely changed the way I cook and eat vegetables. Check out this suggestion of "orange roasted carrots with rocket and ricotta" ... http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/mar/28/mothers-day-recipes-yotam-ottolenghi
    Cheers, Sally

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    1. Oh yum, I'll try that with one of the frozen batches. I even have all the ingredients, except the fresh basil at the moment. I hadn't heard of him before, thanks for the tip Sally. Hope your mum's move to Hobart goes well, it's a lovely place.

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