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skybirdforever

Alices carrot recipeexpanded!

Back in October when we had a bunch of recipe threads going, Alice posted this:

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Posted by aliceg8 co5 (My Page) on Tue, Oct 9, 07 at 15:22

Skybird, I love candied carrots too! My mother used to make them as a standard with her Swiss Steak recipe. One of my favorite meals.

Recently, I found this twist - and it's really good:

Melt butter in a medium sized skillet over medium-low heat. Add sliced carrots. Cover with a tight fitting lid. Cook over medium low, shaking pan from time to time. Carrots should steam in their own moisture, but not brown. Cook 15-20 minutes.

The recipe called for 2 TBLS unsalted butter to 1.5lbs of carrots, but I think it's a "you can tell" thing. The recipe also calls for dill, chives, chervil or tarragon to be added, but we skip the herbs.

These will be crispy and soooo sweet! We love this recipe.

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Well I tried that shortly after it was posted, and I LOVE it. The only problem Ive had is that they cook so quickly I overcook them if Im not watching closely. And I dont add any herbs either, but I do still add a little bit of honey and/or brown sugar after theyre done cooking. Ok, yeah! I like things SWEET! (I just add a little bit!) And I love salt too, but while I cant tell you exactly why, when theyre cooked this way I dont add any salt at alland I dont miss it at all either!

Fast forward!

Cheryl (from Paulinos) is coming over for dinner on Friday, and I told her I had just dug up some carrots and beets and parsnips from the garden and did she like one better than the otheror not like one of them. She likes carrots and beets, but isnt too familiar with the parsnips, so Ive decided Im going to make some of eachbut I dont really like parsnips just plain boiled or steamed. Since I had been wondering for some time now if the steaming/cooking-carrots-in-butter method would work for parsnips, I just tried it, and theyre to DIE FOR! (I cant believe I ate the whole thing!) And I didn't add anything at all to them. I did get them a little bit too done tooparsnips cook even faster than carrotswhich is surprising since they always seem so hardso Ill need to watch them really closely on Friday, but thats the way shes gonna get them. Oh, and I didnt miss the salt I didnt put on them either!

I just cut them in about 1/4" thick rounds, melt enough butter to just barely cover the bottom of the pan, and, since I never make very many at one time, I pretty much lay the rounds out in a single layer on the bottom of the pan. Put the (tight fitting) lid on, reduce the heat, and dont wait too long! The carrots dont do this, but the parsnips actually browned slightly on the bottomwhich made them even yummier. Oh, and the parsnips "soaked up" the butter, which the carrots dont do.

I think I might try this waterless method with some other things. I bet it would work for sweet potatoes or winter squash, and maybe even white potatoesand you could possibly use a good flavored olive oil for white potatoesand maybe add a bit of garlic or chives or something elsesome herbs might be good with white potatoes. Just dont know how well it would translate to making very big batches. I DO use real butter! Margarine is "structurally" different, and I don't know if it would work as well---and it also falls into the plastic (fake) food category as far as I'm concerned, so I rarely eat it!

I feel like making another parsnip to eat right nowbut I only dug up a couple of them, so Ill save them for Friday!

Thank you, Alice for the great suggestionand all the new possibilities,

Skybird

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