Lots of the restaurants started a meal with optional dishes known as couvert - for one or two Euros, you are brought bread, olives and other nibbles. Many guide books tell you to avoid them to save money, but we found them to be very reasonably priced and a great addition to the meal. As well as the ubiquitous bread and olives, many places added other dishes such as thin slices of cheese with quince paste or little bowls of lightly cooked thinly sliced carrots.
We really fell in love with these carrots and since coming home I have researched several recipes and cobbled together ideas from them until I've produced a version we're happy with. They are great to serve with drinks and are far healthier than crisps or nuts.
They will keep in the fridge for several days (if they get chance) and are a great way to use up that bag of tired looking supermarket carrots that you thought was such a bargain at the time but is just cluttering up the fridge. I had such a bag this week - the loose carrots in the shop had been broken and scrappy ones, and the small bags were, strangely, more expensive than the huge ones, so although there are just the two of us it made sense to buy a huge bag. Not being a fan of waste, I made some of them into a batch of these delicious nibbles.
I used
250g carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
1 orange
3 cloves of garlic very finely sliced
2 bay leaves
¼ teaspoon dried chilli flakes
1 teaspoon honey
salt
75ml (approx.) water
Peel several large strips of rind from the orange and squeeze out the juice. Put the rind and juice, along with everything except the salt, into a small saucepan, add about 75 ml of water, cover and simmer for around 4 minutes until the carrots have started to cook but still have some crispness.
Taste and add salt if you wish, then allow to cool. Store in a covered container in the fridge. I store them complete with the liquid and all the flavourings, then lift out the carrots with a perforated spoon (intended for serving olives) shaking off the other ingredients. Actually if you can face eating it it, the garlic is rather delicious!
I am sharing this with Kitchen Clearout at Madhouse Family Reviews
Love.
ReplyDeleteOoh these sound great and, as you say, they're perfect for using up tired-looking carrots - I always have a few in the bottom of the fridge ! Thanks for linking up :)
ReplyDeleteOoh, I think Len would love these Jane! A recipe to try ASAP here.
ReplyDeleteHugs
Di xx
Sounds yummy, will have to give these a try x
ReplyDelete