Carrots

This blog attracts an audience from all over this irksome planet of ours. Poland, Canada and Denmark are well represented and it's good to have you here. I imagine it's cold in those countries because I'm British and too lazy to look into another culture beyond what I've seen on a postcard. Other places sound much hotter, like Singapore and Brunei for instance. For those lovely readers in Singapore and Brunei, some of this post will garner little sympathy.


If you imagine a postcard of Britain, it'd be a less than exotic affair. A family, huddled in a car near a seaside town, windows thick with steam from soggy bags of fish and chips, an elbow wipe to the window revealing nothing but drizzle. No sun, no driving rain, just some half-arsed attempt at weather because Britain can't be bothered to do anything properly because we colonised India god-knows-how-long ago and somehow that makes us privileged.

However, we've had 28-30 degree temperatures recently and it's only just started to cool down. Singapore and Brunei - you're hardcore, because this has been fatiguing.

Off the subject of the weather and onto the subject of cooking - carrots! They're well worth cooking in a water bath, plus my girlfriend (now fiancée) had a £600 lens for her birthday and we were eager to try it out.

Vital statistics : 84 degrees for 1 hour

I'm keeping it simple for this post as there aren't going to be many surprises.

1. We put some carrots in a bag
2. That bag went into some water
3. We ate the carrots

What I would say is, if you're thinking of getting a new lens for your camera, I can recommend Tamron. This is coming from someone who thinks a flash is a sexual offence though. Or a hip hop DJ. My point is I'm desperately under qualified to back up that remark.

This is the angle you have to adopt if you're trying to cook while keeping out of the way of a lens.

And one hour later, what you get is something that looks like a carrot. Because it is.

I'd cooked them with some herbs and fennel as these go well with carrots and this is the liquid you get in the bag.

Whatever you do, don't lose this stuff. It's carroty, fennely and herby but above all that it's incredibly fresh and clear tasting. It's not a stewed carrot kinda taste, more like an essence and well worth putting back on the carrots when you serve them.

Cut one one open however and it still looks like a carrot.

So onto the taste and texture.

The taste is like someone turned up a carrot by 25% and that's fab.

The texture is something new though. I've been eating carrots for decades and you know what you're going to get - something a bit softer on the outside than the middle. But unless you cook hot and short, water baths give you an even temperature and therefore texture all the way through and for vegetables, that's a new experience for most of us. 84's good in this house but if that's a bit firm for you, dial it up a bit and you'll still get the same consistent texture.

For me personally, they're worth doing but maybe not every time. The flavour's great and you can't overcook them but maybe I'm not demanding enough to splash out on a vacuum bag for a carrot. If they're your favourite veg or you're a vegetarian and want to make the most of all your veggies, your opinion may be different but from where I'm sitting, possibly one for special occasions.