Tag: Carrots

Carrots with Tahini Sauce + Hazelnuts

Carrots with Tahini Sauce + Hazelnuts | Serious Crust by Annie Fassler

Carrots with Tahini Sauce + Hazelnuts | Serious Crust by Annie Fassler
Carrots with Tahini Sauce + Hazelnuts | Serious Crust by Annie Fassler
Carrots with Tahini Sauce + Hazelnuts | Serious Crust by Annie Fassler
Disney dinner | Serious Crust by Annie Fassler
Disney dinner | Serious Crust by Annie Fassler

It was a mashup. A mashup of colors: neon orange, sunset purple, creamy yellow. A mashup of recipes: lots of research, a few ideas, a smattering of ingredients already in the fridge. And a mashup of an event: bachelorette party meets Disney princess themed meets actual edible meal. My best friend’s bachelorette weekend was a whirlwind of events and cocktails (coming soon to the blog, don’t worry), celebrating this wonderful woman and her marriage to another one of my best friends. I’ll get all sappy about them in the next post though. I was tasked with throwing a Disney princess themed dinner party at my house – we dressed as Disney princesses, there was a photobooth, lots of Cinderella-blue (her favorite princess), pumpkins, and more. Above you can see the table and some of the princesses with Cinderella herself at the head of the table, plus the wonderful Moana using her oar to keep all the bees off our fish.

In my effort to create a feast that was edible and kind of went together, I fudged a little bit – Arial probably wouldn’t normally eat salmon, she’d be friends with the salmon. So this was my riff on Rapunzel’s carrots and hazelnuts (in the movie she eats parsnip and hazelnut soup) topped with Jasmine’s tahini sauce. It was my favorite dish at the dinner, and I was happy to find some of the tahini sauce leftover in my fridge a few days later. So I recreated it here – there may be less Disney flare, but there is just as much flavor.

Continue reading “Carrots with Tahini Sauce + Hazelnuts” →

Thai-Style Steak Salad

Salad

Salad

Life has been crazy busy. I know I keep saying that, but then it keeps getting busier. Maybe I’m jinxing it. Anyway, cooking has definitely been put on the back burner, which is a bummer. Mostly because I love good food and I love cooking it. But it’s hard when you come home and you’re tired and you have to look for recipes and then go to the store, etc. Lately, Jonah and I have been all for quick, light meals. I found a bunch of delicious looking main dish salads on Martha Stewart’s website. This is the Thai-Style Steak Salad. We halved it but I’ll give you the original recipe, which serves 4.

Thai-Style Steak Salad

Ingredients

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon red-pepper flakes
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 boneless rib-eye steaks (each 8 ounces and 3/4 inch thick)
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1/2 pound carrots (3 to 4 medium)
1 medium head romaine lettuce, cut crosswise into 1-inch ribbons
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves
1/3 cup salted peanuts, chopped (optional)
Peanut sauce (optional)

Instructions

First, make the marinade by whisking the lime juice, soy sauce, sugar, red pepper flakes, and oil in a bowl. Season the steaks with a bit of salt and pepper, place them in a dish, and pour 1/4 of the marinade over the steaks (save the rest of the marinade in a bowl). Turn the steaks to coat and let them marinate for 30 minutes.

In a large skillet, cook the steaks on medium-high heat. Cook it 2-3 minutes per side for it to be medium-rare. Cook it more if you want. Transfer the meat to a cutting board, tent it with aluminum foil, and let it rest for 5-10 minutes. Slice the steaks nice and thin, preferably 1/4 inch-thick. If they’re too long, you can halve the slices crosswise. Transfer the meat back to the bowl with the marinade and toss it to coat.

While the meat is resting (or marinating, for that matter), peel the carrots into ribbons with a peeler. Chop the peanuts too, while you’re at it. Add the carrots to the bowl with the steak, as well as the lettuce and the mint, and toss to combine. Divide evenly into shallow bowls, sprinkle with the peanuts (and peanut sauce if you want), and serve!

Carrot Miso Soup

Carrot Soup

Carrot Soup

Last week Jonah and I were feeling like soup. I had seen a carrot soup with miso recipe on Smitten Kitchen and decided that we should make it because a) it’s healthy and b) I love miso. It’s always nice to find recipes where you either don’t have to go to the store at all because you have everything or you only need to buy one or two things to make it. That was the case, so I was happy.

I’m going to be honest with you guys. I didn’t really like this soup. I liked the taste and everything fine, but I had a lot of trouble with the texture. Kind of reminded me of baby food, which isn’t so great when you’re not a baby. But I’m going to give you the recipe anyway because I think with a little adjusting here and there, the texture problem could be fixed. Whether the solution is more broth or cooking the carrots longer or having a better blender, I’m not really sure, but next time I might even try all of the above.

Carrot Miso Soup

Ingredients

2 Tbl olive oil
2 lbs carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
1 large onion, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves (6 if they’re small), peeled and chopped
1 Tbl finely chopped ginger
4 cups vegetable broth
1/4 cup white miso paste
Toasted sesame oil
2 scallions, thinly sliced

Instructions

Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the carrots, onion, and garlic and cook for about 10 minutes, or until the onion is translucent. Add the ginger and the broth, cover the pot, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the carrots are tender when poked with a fork, about 30 minutes.

Now, it’s time to puree the soup. You can either do this in batches in a blender or with an immersion blender. I used an immersion blender, which worked pretty well, but as I said above, maybe not well enough. In a small bowl , whisk the miso together with about a cup of the soup, and stir the mixture back into the pot of soup. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Spoon into shallow bowls and top it all off with a drizzle of sesame oil and a sprinkle of the scallions. We also added a slice of bread. Enjoy!

Roasted Carrots

Roasted Carrots
Roasted Carrots

I love roasting vegetables. It makes them a wonderful texture, a little crispy on the edges, condenses the flavors, often makes them a little sweeter. Oh man, it’s just so good. One of my favorite veggies to roast is carrots. I love to toss them with a little olive oil, honey, and salt. It brings out the sweetness and makes them caramelize a little more.

Roasted Carrots

Ingredients

Carrots
Honey
Oil (preferably olive, but vegetable oil is fine)
Salt

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees (or 400, depending on how quickly you want them to cook). Peel and cut your carrots into bite size pieces (see picture below to see about how big I cut mine). Toss them in oil, honey, and sprinkle with salt. Measurements of each kind of depend on how you want them to taste. You want them to be evenly covered in oil. If you think you might want them sweeter, do quite a bit of honey, or not if you don’t. I know it’s kind of vague, but I promise you’ll just be able to tell depending on how many carrots you’re cooking and what you want them to taste like.

How long you cook them for is another guessing game. Firstly, it depends on how crispy/burnt you want them. I like mine to be fairly dark at the edges, so I roast them for about an hour at 375. But sometimes more and sometimes less. Second, it depends on how many carrots you’re roasting. You don’t want them too crowded on the pan otherwise they’ll do more of a steaming kind of thing. Also, you want to toss them about halfway through your cook time.

So this posting was really more of a “carrots tossed in this stuff and roasted are good” than an exact recipe, but it’s worth it just for anyone to discover the joys of this dish. Experiment a little and find the right amounts, temperature, and cook time for you! I promise, it’s worth it.