Monday, September 22, 2008

On the subject of food...

Last night, while playing a long, drawn out game of Scrabble with R, where he murdered me with the Q and the Z, and I was unable to find a place for a 7 letter word, even though I had an S, we watched Iron Chef American. That show is interesting sometimes, especially when there's an oddball ingredient and one is curious to see what the chefs will do with it.
This time it was carrots. Carrots are utilitarian vegetables. Everyone cooks with and eats them, but they seldom become the centerpiece of a meal. In these dishes though, the carrot featured prominently. There were some expected sorts of things, like desserts. Carrots make good quick breads and cakes, and apparently they can also be used to make ice cream, although I hadn't thought of it. Both chefs made soups out of them, and they seemed really really good. I want to try the one with smoked turkey wings and carrots. There were even dishes where carrots stood in for pasta or meat. All of them were really intriguing, and they gave me some ideas. I guess I need to buy some new carrots. The ones in the crisper look like an 80 year old's hairy flaccid gams.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm a sucker for any carrot cake.

Robbi N. said...

I've never really been crazy for it, perhaps because I am not a fan of cream cheese. One of the chefs on the show made a chocolate carrot cake. But the cakes were the least interesting thing they did with carrots.
I made the soup, sans recipe, and because my immersion blender was broken, it didn't turn out very well. I guess I need to buy another one of them, probably a better one than I bought last time.