Carrots and Gnocchi
I have to admit it… I totally Sandra-Lee our gnocchi. Why? It’s certainly not hard to make and not very time consuming either. But with a 3 minute cooking tim and a hungry 2-year-old, having this pre-packaged can be a blessing. Also, our grocery store carries a few “dried” organic brands and a couple brands that are made fresh every day. From my limited sampling, the quality is about 95% of what I can make at home and some of the ‘made fresh’ is actually better. Also, way expensive, but better.
So on to the carrot, one of the staple work-horses of the kitchen in place firmly behind the onion and the tomato. I’m constantly looking for new things to do with carrots because I love them so — raw, blanched, braised, roasted, mashed, marinated, stewed, you name it — and I thought that instead of making them play a background or foreground role, I’d try and feature them in a sauce.
As with all new recipes, however, I’m not quite done with this dish yet. It’s just not all ‘there’.
But the 4,000 foot view is pretty simple: Saute a diced shallot in a little butter in a small pot until translucent. Add 2 sliced garlic cloves and saute for another minute or so. Add 2 very large carrots, peeled, with a medium dice. Just cover the carrots with a mixture of 50% milk and 50% heavy cream. A bit of salt and white pepper, a bay leaf, about 4 sprigs of parsley (stems and leaves) and let it poach for 15 minutes or so or until the carrots are tender. Do not boil and, because it’s cream and milk, do watch it constantly.
After the carrots are tender, remove and discard the bay leaf. Put the whole mess through a blender and blend thoroughly. As with all hot things to be blended, do not fill the blender more than half full and hold a towel firmly over the lid when running, lest the walls be repainted with molten carrots. After it’s done blending, season to taste and add about 2 tablespoons of butter. The sauce should be very smooth and might, if the blender doesn’t do its job too well, need a bit of straining before being used.
The first results (pictured above) were pretty tasty. I liked them; the daughter loved them. I think the final dish will add black trumpet mushrooms and bacon as this was missing that ’something’ that makes it a whole dish rather than an experiment.