Out of the Frying Pan And Into the Antipodes--
Recipes & reminiscences from 70-plus years of New Zealand & Australian food; with some of the loves, some of the lovers, and some of the culinary & social history.
(A few names & places have been changed to protect the guilty)

Carrots


Carrots


It’s the mid-1950s. My little brother looks at the sliced boiled carrots on his plate with loathing. Mum tries to insist he eats them up. N.B.G. Dad tries to insist he eats them up. N.B.G.
    Stalemate.

Carrots were a fixture on our dinner plates in New Zealand at that era. Meat and three veg was the norm, scarcely varied unless you were Catholic, when you might luck out and get chips with your fish on a Friday. Carrots were plentiful and cheap, which is why they were a staple. Ours weren’t always boiled: Mum acquired a handy two-layer pot fairly early on: the potatoes sat in the bottom in very large chunks and were boiled for about forty minutes, while the sliced carrots and one or two other vegetables, all too often cabbage, sat in the dinky perforated containers that went into the top part, and steamed for forty minutes. Gee, you reckon that’d result in dead carrots? You’re right.
    Unfortunately boiling or steaming to death were the standard ways to cook carrots for most of the 20th century in the countries that had inherited the British approach to food. Otherwise, you diced them and put them in a stew, a casserole or a soup. The vegetables and meat were perfectly acceptable but the home cooks of Australia and New Zealand, faithfully following the tradition they’d inherited, avoided the use of herbs almost entirely. The results were nourishing but not exciting.

Good For Your Eyesight? The Great Carrot Myth


Carrots were not only cheap and plentiful, they were good for your eyesight. We all believed this, back then. Is it true? Well, only sort of. Most of the online gurus quote, whether or not directly, from an excellent article on Smithsonian.com.
    It tells us that carrots do contain a lot of Vitamin A (in the form of beta carotene), and this is good for eye health. But they won’t help you see in the dark, which was the full version of the popular myth when I was a kid in the later 1940s and 1950s. Our suburban street lighting was pretty poor, so it was a pity that it wasn’t true!
    The big carrot myth that they improve night-sight dates in fact from a British propaganda campaign during World War II. The British developed a form of radar early in the war (there’s an episode of Foyle’s War based around it, if you want an easy introduction!) and to hide the real reason why British RAF pilots were having such success shooting down German planes during the blackouts of the Blitz, the Ministry of Information put about a story that this was down to eating carrots.
    Because there was a huge food shortage in Britain during the War, any story that could promote the consumption of something that was home-grown and easy to grow was good news. The Ministry of Food leapt on this one:

    “Whether or not the Germans bought it, the British public generally believed that eating carrots would help them see better during the citywide blackouts. Advertisements with the slogan ‘Carrots keep you healthy and help you see in the blackout’ (…)  appeared everywhere.
    “But the carrot craze didn’t stop there—according to the Food Ministry … the war could be won on the ‘Kitchen Front’ if people changed what they ate and how they prepared it. In 1941, Lord Woolton, the Minister of Food, emphasized the call for self-sustainability in the garden:
    “‘This is a food war. Every extra row of vegetables in allotments saves shipping. The battle on the kitchen front cannot be won without help from the kitchen garden. Isn’t an hour in the garden better than an hour in the queue?’
    “That same year, the British Ministry of Food launched a Dig For Victory Campaign which introduced the cartoons ‘Dr. Carrot’ and ‘Potato Pete’, to get people to eat more of the vegetables (bread and vegetables were never on the ration during the war). Advertisements encouraged families to start ‘Victory Gardens’ and to try new recipes using surplus foods as substitutes for those less available.”
(K. Annabelle Smith. “A WWII Propaganda Campaign Popularized the Myth That Carrots Help You See in the Dark”, smithsonian.com, August 13, 2013)

    The myth endured.
    Though I have to add, my little brother didn’t appear to believe a word of it! A blank look was all poor old Dad got when he tried urging the despised carrots on him as sure to make him see in the dark.
    Things have improved on the carrots scene since we ate them very dead believing they’d help our eyesight tremendously. Let’s look at a bit of the history of the invaluable carrot through the recipes.


Carrot Salads and Dips
Modern recipes for dips and salads using carrots are generally lovely. But they’re mostly not from the British tradition that New Zealanders and Australians grew up with throughout most of the 20th century. This first recipe suggests why!

How bad could it get? The nadir of the British cookery tradition
Just to show you how bad it could get, here’s what an early Australian cookbook presents as a salad. It’s based almost entirely on leftovers, including leftover carrot.

Carrot Salad
    2 or 3 Cold Boiled Carrots;  1/2 lb. Cold Boiled Mutton;
    1 stalk Celery;  6 Capers;  Half a teaspoonful Parsley;
    Salad Dressing
Cut up some cold boiled mutton into small pieces and lay them in a salad bowl. Mince up the celery and capers and strew over it, then pour over the dressing. Slice up the cold carrots and lay them on top; garnish with the chopped parsley, and serve.
(Philip E. Muskett and Mrs H. Wicken. The Art of Living in Australia, by Philip E. Muskett; Together With Three Hundred Australian Cookery Recipes and Accessory Kitchen Information by Mrs. H. Wicken. London, Eyre and Spottiswoode, [1894])

I’d call this dead food. More or less the nadir of British cooking, yep, though I’ll concede that Mrs Wicken does her best by adding the capers. Unfortunately it represents an attitude that was to prevail for over half a century thereafter. It was very cheap, though: Mrs Wicken costs it at “5 1/2d.”, fivepence halfpenny. It’s all too easy to envisage the desperate housewives of the time pouncing on this recipe and serving it up without the capers because their store cupboard didn’t provide such luxuries.

Okay, things have got a lot better, and here are some really nice recipes.

Carrot Dip (Yoghurtlu Havuc)
A Turkish recipe.
    6 or 7 carrots;  1 clove garlic;
    200g creamy Greek style yoghurt;
    2 teaspoons olive oil;  pinch of salt
    [To garnish]: black olives;  extra olive oil
1. Coarsely grate the carrots and cook in a pan with olive oil until just softened. Remove from pan and set aside to cool.
2. Meanwhile, grate the garlic into the yoghurt, add salt and mix well.
(By Esma Koroglu, SBS)

This is one of the easiest Middle Eastern dips but also one of the nicest. Lots of variations exist: some just boil and mash the carrots instead of cooking them in oil. Another variation is to add the garlic to the carrot mixture after it has started cooking, and cook them gently together. This avoids a raw garlic taste.

I’ve got lots of recipes for carrot salads but the ones below appeal the most. They’re in roughly chronological order:

From France in the 1970s:
This is my version of a classic French carrot salad I had in Paris in 1973. The dressing is very basic; if you like, add some Dijon mustard and make a proper vinaigrette.

Salade de carottes râpées
(Grated Carrot Salad)
    4 large carrots;  1 tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar;
    3 tablespoons olive oil; pinch of salt;
    coarsely ground black pepper
Wash, peel and grate carrots. Add oil and lemon juice or vinegar.
Toss salad lightly. Season to taste with salt and plenty of coarsely ground black pepper and toss again.
 –Serves 4.

1980s Downunder: things are improving
By the later 1980s a limpish carrot salad dotted with sultanas and dressed with goodness-knew-what out of a bottle had become a staple for large gatherings, family restaurants and foodcourts.
    If you make this tasty salad from 1980, especially if you give it the zing of fresh mint, you’ll see what those rather sad offerings were meant to be!

Carrot Salad
    500 g prepared carrots;  150 g raisins [or sultanas];
    1 orange;  1 tsp finely-chopped marjoram or mint;
    8 even-sized lettuce leaves
    Dressing:
    2 tb lemon juice;  2 tb salad oil;  1/2 tsp sugar;
    1/2 tsp salt;  freshly-ground black pepper
Pour boiling water over the raisins. Drain. Squeeze the juice from the orange. Pour over the raisins and leave for an hour.
Grate carrots into a bowl. Add the marjoram, raisins and orange juice. Mix well. Combine dressing ingredients and pour over the salad. Toss. Fill each lettuce leaf with the carrot salad and arrange on a platter.
 –Serves 8
(Mary Browne, Helen Leach & Nancy Tichborne. The Cook’s Garden: For Cooks Who Garden and Gardeners Who Cook. Wellington, [N.Z.], A.H. & A.W. Reed, 1980)

Getting there: 1990s: tangy ingredients
This one is an American offering, where the presence of lime juice and coriander probably indicates the growing Mexican influence on local cuisine, as ingredients that were typically only Tex-Mex began to be used in other recipes:

Carrot Salad with Lime and Cilantro
4 medium carrots; 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice;
1/8 teaspoon finely grated fresh lime zest;
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro [coriander] leaves;
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
Garnish: fresh cilantro sprigs
Finely shred carrots and in a bowl toss together with remaining ingredients and salt and pepper to taste.
Serve salad garnished with cilantro.
 –Serves 4
(from Gourmet magazine, April 1999, Epicurious.com)

Into the 21st century…
A huge range of carrot salads is now available to the home cook. You can combine them with almost anything to make a tasty salad.

Carrots with capsicums:
I’ve used both fresh and cooked yoghurt in my Middle-Eastern-inspired carrots and capsicum salad, which combines a spicy and tangy undertaste with sweet vegetables. It will keep well in the fridge overnight.

Tangy Capsicum and Carrot Salad
2 large red capsicums;  2 large carrots;
1 teaspoon garlic paste;  1/2 cup yoghurt or more;
1 teaspoon cumin powder;  1 1/2 teaspoons coriander powder;
2 tablespoons water;  2 tablespoons olive oil
(1) Peel the carrots and slice them about 5 mm thick. Wash and deseed the capsicums; slice into pieces about 4 cm long and 2 wide.
(2) Heat a lidded frying pan or electric frypan to medium.
(3) Add the olive oil and spices and stir to combine; then add the vegetables. Stir gently to coat with the spices and fry for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
(4) Add the garlic paste. Cook, stirring, for half a minute.
(5) Turn the heat down to medium-low and add half of the yoghurt. Stir in well and add the water.
(6) Cover and cook for 5 to 8 minutes or until the carrots are just tender.
(7) Remove the lid, turn to high and cook, stirring, until the liquid has dried up.
(8) Remove from the heat and stir in the remaining 1/4 cup of the yoghurt. Quickly turn into a serving dish before the second lot of yoghurt can start to split. Add a little more yoghurt if it needs more dressing.
(9) Allow to cool (in the refrigerator, if liked) before serving at room temperature.
Enough for 4 as a side dish, or for 2 as a lunch dish with Lebanese bread.

Part of the secret of the dish is the garlic paste. However, it has a tendency to burn, so watch it carefully when you add it. You will see that the cooked yoghurt “splits” (separates). This gives the dish a slight cheesy taste and a grainier texture than if you just added all the yoghurt after cooking. You could do it that way if you prefer: it’s still nice, but rather different.

Carrots with coriander:
Here is my translation of a French version of a Moroccan recipe for a cooked carrot salad. The instructions say to put it in the fridge until you’re ready to serve it, but this doesn’t mean it should be left overnight, it’s not a keeper.

Salade de carottes à la marocaine
    4 carrots;  1 tablespoon coriander leaves;
    1 teaspoon cumin powder;  1 or 2 cloves garlic;
    juice 1/2 lemon or 1 tablespoon vinegar;
    olive oil;  salt & pepper
1. Peel the carrots and slice into rounds.
2. Cook in salted water for 15 minutes.
3. Drain and put in a serving dish. Mix together the olive oil, lemon juice (or vinegar), add salt and pepper.
4. Sprinkle this dressing over the carrots and add the garlic, finely chopped or grated, sprinkle with cumin powder and chopped coriander.
6. Mix well and put in the fridge until ready to serve.
 (Cuisine marocaine),

Carrots with potatoes:
The next is my cumin-flavoured adaptation of a recipe from Better Homes and Gardens (television programme). The original used caraway seeds and boiled them with the vegetables. It also used finely sliced radishes, capers (added with the olives), and hard-boiled eggs as a garnish.

Tunisian-Style Potato & Carrot Salad
    5 medium-sized waxy potatoes;  2 or 3 large carrots;
    1/4 cup black olives;  1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin;
    freshly ground black pepper;
    3-4 tablespoons vinaigrette dressing
Wash the potatoes and chop into chunks about 1-1/2 cm square. Peel the carrots and chop into pieces about the same size. Boil or steam together until tender.
Drain the vegetables. While still hot, mix them and cumin powder together in the salad bowl. Add the vinaigrette with a good grinding of black peppercorns and mix gently. Then allow to cool.
Add about 1/4 cup well drained, pitted Spanish black olives. Mix gently.
The top may be decorated with a little “smokey” paprika & more ground cumin if liked.
 –Serves 4. Note: Use Spanish black olives, not Kalamata. There is no need to add salt, as the vinaigrette dressing contains salt.

Carrots with quinoa:
This Australian salad which combines carrots with quinoa comes from a recipe for “Dukkah Chicken and Quinoa Salad”.

Quinoa Salad
1 cup quinoa, rinsed;  2 medium carrots, peeled, diced;
2 green [i.e. spring] onions, finely sliced;
1/3 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves;
1/4 cup shredded fresh mint leaves;
1/3 cup orange juice;  2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
Place quinoa and 2 cups cold water in a saucepan over high heat. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low. Simmer, covered, for 10 minutes or until water has absorbed and quinoa is tender. Rinse. Drain.
Meanwhile, lightly spray a frying pan with oil. Heat over medium-high heat. Cook carrot, stirring, for 5 minutes or until just tender. Transfer to a bowl.
Combine quinoa, orange juice, parsley, mint, onion, oil and carrot in a bowl. Season with pepper. Toss to combine.
(Taste.com.au)

Carrots with vinegar and hot oil:
Sounds weird? Well, its history certainly is. You can read all about how “Morchovka” or “Korean Carrots” became a staple in the former Soviet bloc countries in the Gastro Obscura article “Morkovcha”, by Susie Armitage.
   Although it was invented by expatriate Koreans, it is not in fact a dish originating in Korea!

Soviet-Korean Carrot Salad - “Morkovcha”
Morkovcha is essentially a type of kimchi made with ingredients that were readily available in Central Asia: carrots, vinegar, onions, and garlic. It’s a crisp, refreshing salad that goes well with Central Asian food, and is popular all across the former Soviet Union. It’s also very easy to make.
This recipe is from Natalia Kim’s website za100le.ru. Her Youtube channel has lots of Russian and Central Asian video recipes.
    Carrots;  Vinegar;  Onions;  Garlic;  Salt;
    Coriander powder;  Black pepper;  Red pepper;
    Sesame seeds
1. Cut the carrots into long, thin slices. I use a julienne slicer for this purpose. Salt the carrots, add vinegar, mix well, and let this sit for about half an hour.
2. The carrots will have given off juices. Drain the juice from the carrots, then add the other spices to taste. Make sure not to add too much coriander powder, as it can give the resulting salad a gritty texture. Mix well.
3. Chop up some garlic and put it in a pile on top of the salad.
4. Dice a small onion, fry until brown in oil, then pour the onion and hot oil over the garlic. Many Russian-influenced salads have this last step of pouring hot oil over the salad. You should hear a sizzling noise as the oil hits. Mix everything well.
The salad is complete! Enjoy!
(Silk Road Chef, January 13, 2015)

The Gastro Obscura article suggests coriander leaves to garnish, as in the picture. You could also use parsley or another green herb such as mint.
    As you can see, the “Silk Road Chef” hasn’t given quantities, but it doesn’t really matter, as the carrots are to be drained. I’d say try 1-2 tablespoons of vinegar per carrot until they are well soaked but not floating in liquid.

Carrot Soups
Most carrot soups are served hot, but here is a cold one for the summer:

Iced Carrot And Orange Soup
Simple but sophisticated.
    500 g new, prepared carrots;   4 oranges;
    1 small onion;  600 ml chicken stock;
    1 tsp sugar;  2 tb butter;  salt to taste
Slice carrots thinly. Peel onion and chop finely. Melt the butter in a saucepan and sauté the carrots and onions until soft but not brown.
Stir in the stock and sugar and simmer until the carrots are very tender.
Put soup through a blender or fine sieve.
Add the strained juice of 4 oranges. Chill for several hours.
 –Serves 6.
(Mary Browne, Helen Leach & Nancy Tichborne. The Cook's Garden: For Cooks Who Garden and Gardeners Who Cook. Wellington, [N.Z.], A.H. & A.W. Reed, 1980)

    Now for the hot soups. The first one is a very early Australian recipe which is pretty much the basic recipe that would have been followed by home cooks for over half a century. But you’ll note that the soup has a good stock base and does not eke the carrots out with potato or, worse, pumpkin, two amendments which crept in very quickly.
    Very typically of what was to prevail as standard British-based home cooking, there is a noticeable absence of herbs. Some thyme and a bit of sage would improve the mixture greatly, I feel:

Carrot Soup
    6 Carrots;  1 oz. Butter; Sugar, Salt, and Pepper;
    3 quarts Bone Stock
    Time—One Hour.
Scrape and slice up the carrots and put them into a saucepan with the butter.
Sprinkle over a teaspoonful each of salt and sugar and a quarter of a teaspoonful of pepper; turn them about in butter for five minutes, pour over the boiling stock and boil for an hour.
Rub through a sieve, return to the saucepan and boil up, season to taste, and serve very hot.
(Philip E. Muskett and Mrs H. Wicken. The Art of Living in Australia, by Philip E. Muskett; Together With Three Hundred Australian Cookery Recipes and Accessory Kitchen Information by Mrs. H. Wicken. London, Eyre and Spottiswoode, [1894])

Mrs Wicken gives its total cost as 3 1/2d. (threepence-halfpenny), which makes it a very cheap soup indeed. The home cook in those days made her own stock (the quantity here is costed at a halfpenny); but even if we have to buy our stock in a packet today, it’s still a cheap and tasty soup.

    I was amused to find a very similar recipe, dated 2006, on the big Australian cookery website, BestRecipes.com. Here it is, for interest, though I rather think the changes are those we’d all make, these days!

Carrot Soup
A thick vegetable soup that is nice and easy.
    6-8 large carrots, sliced;  3 large onions, chopped;
    1 teaspoon garlic, minced or chopped;
    2 cups stock (vegetable or chicken);  [oil];
    black pepper;  pinch of salt
    [Garnish]: Chopped parsley or coriander
Heat a small amount of oil in a large pot over medium heat.
Add onions, garlic and carrots. Cook until onions are soft and carrots are cooked (about 10-15 minutes).
Add stock and cook over low heat for about 40 minutes. Add pepper and salt to taste.
Puree in a food processor or blender (the soup should be quite thick).
To serve, garnish with parsley or coriander.
Recipe notes: You can make the soup less thick by adding more stock.
(By alisonhume, BestRecipes, 2006),

    This last soup is kind of the apotheosis of the carrot soup! Heidi Swanson, who writes the 101 Cookbooks website, is an inspirational modern vegetarian cook who makes use of all sorts of interesting things she has to hand. (Oddly enough, I never seem to have them to hand!) I love her recipes but I don’t always manage to get all the ingredients. However, this one is quite a simple recipe, as she claims, and the garnishes, usually a large feature of her dishes, are optional:

A Simple Carrot Soup
2 pounds carrots, peeled and chopped - 1/2-inch chunks;
1 lemon or lime [juice of];  1 onion, chopped;
1 14-ounce can full-fat coconut milk;
scant 1 tablespoon red curry paste, or to taste;
1 1/2 cups / 360 ml of water, or to cover;
2 tablespoons unsalted butter or extra-virgin coconut oil;
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt, or to taste;
To serve (topping ideas): micro greens; cilantro, chopped; toasted almonds; chile oil
In a large soup pan over medium-high heat add the butter and onion. Stir until the onions are well-coated, and allow to sauté until translucent, a few minutes.
Stir in the curry paste, and then the carrots. Allow to cook another minute or two, and then add the coconut milk, salt, and water, adding more water to cover if needed.
Allow to simmer until the carrots are tender, 10-15 minutes, and then puree using a blender or hand blender until the soup is completely silky smooth.
This next part is important (with any soup)—make any needed adjustments. Add more water if the consistency needs to be thinned out a bit. After that taste for salt, adding more if needed.
I also like to season this soup with a great big squeeze or lemon or lime juice.
Serve topped with whatever you have on hand—I like it with a little something crunchy (almonds), and a lot of something green (micro greens & cilantro [coriander leaves]).
 –Serves 4.
(Heidi Swanson. 101 Cookbooks: A Natural Foods Recipe Journal)

Carrot Sides and Mains
Many cuisines serve cooked carrot dishes as side dishes, but they can also be made into a main dish. Here are some that I like.

Simply carrots:
“Roasted” veggies are a fad at the moment. On the TV foodie programmes, they always seem to emerge from the oven burnt. You can keep ’em. Here’s a much nicer oven dish for carrots, which makes a simple but delicious side. It’s sad that the British didn't adopt some of the ideas from this recipe book, which was on the market in 1900!

Carote al forno
    2 lbs [1 kg] medium-sized carrots;  stock;
    thyme;  butter;  salt & pepper
Trim 2 lbs medium-sized carrots, scrape them and put in a pan of cold water to boil. Parboil for 10 mins, drain and lay in a buttered oven dish.
Half-cover with stock, sprinkle with salt, pepper, pinch of thyme and small pieces of butter.
Braise in a rather hot oven, basting from time to time, till cooked.
(Janet Ross (1842-1927). Leaves From Our Tuscan Kitchen, or How To Cook Vegetables. 2nd ed., London, J.M. Dent & Co., 1900)

    Eighty years later, three New Zealand cooks who had largely (though not wholly) liberated themselves from the British tradition of dead veg offer this nice way to glaze carrots:

Glazed Carrots
    500 g prepared carrots;  4 tablespoons butter;
    4 tablespoons chicken stock (or water);
    1 tablespoon sugar;  1/4-1/2 teaspoon salt
Leave carrots whole if tiny or cut into 1 cm slices. Simmer in melted butter, stock, sugar and salt until tender. Most of the liquid will be absorbed. Drain and serve.
–Serves 4-6
(Mary Browne, Helen Leach & Nancy Tichborne. The Cook's Garden: For Cooks Who Garden and Gardeners Who Cook. Wellington, [N.Z.], A.H. & A.W. Reed, 1980)

A simpler way to glaze is to boil or steam the carrots, cut to the desired size, then add a little honey or sugar, lemon juice and butter to the drained pan, and roll them around on a low heat until well covered.

    For a more self-indulgent but still simple side dish, here’s a French classic approach. It’s my translation of a recipe I cut out of Elle magazine in 1973:

Carottes à la crème
    2 kg carrots;  150 g thick cream;  80 g butter;
    parsley or chervil;  salt, pepper
Peel the carrots and shape them so as they’re all the same size.
Put the carrots into a fairly large oven dish, with just enough water to cover, the butter, salt and pepper.
Cook them uncovered and on a fairly high heat until the water has dried up, leaving just the butter.
The carrots should be cooked by this time.
Now add the cream, lower the heat, cover the dish and allow to simmer on a very low heat.
If the cream is still runny when the dish is ready to serve, turn the heat up so that the cream coats the carrots.
Serve scattered with finely chopped parsley or chervil.
 –Serves 6.
(Elle. 1973)

Many French recipes use chervil. It’s a much more delicate-tasting and sweeter herb than parsley, with a hint of aniseed. You hardly ever see it in Australasia, sadly.

“Eggah” with carrots:
The term “eggah” comes from Middle Eastern cuisine, but the technique appears in several cuisines, under various names.

“An eggah is firm and sound, rather like an egg cake. It is usually an inch or more thick … with a filling of vegetables, or meat, or chicken and noodles… The egg is used as a binding for the filling, rather than the filling being an adornment of the egg. For serving, the eggah is turned out on to a serving dish and cut into slices, as one would cut a cake. It is sometimes cooked in a rectangular dish, especially if baked in the oven. In this case, it is usually served cut into rectangular or square pieces.”
(Claudia Roden. A Book of Middle Eastern Food. Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1970)

    The recipe below is very typical of the later 1970s, when we started to get vegetarian cookbooks that were mainstream, not just for the weirdos who favoured Roman sandals and nudism along with their vegetarianism. It isn’t called an eggah, but that’s what it is:

Baked Carrot Pudding [Eggah]
    12 oz (350g) carrots;  6 eggs;
    3 oz (75g) granary or wholemeal breadcrumbs;
    1 medium onion and 1 clove garlic, finely chopped;
    3 tablespoons dry white wine;
    2 tablespoons white wine vinegar;
    2 tablespoons chopped parsley; [1/4 teaspoon] nutmeg;
    2 oz butter, melted;  salt
Preheat oven to Reg 6 (400°F/200°C). Grease a piedish or fairly deep oven dish with butter.
Grate carrots and put into a vegetable steamer with onion and garlic. Steam for 20 mins, turning over several times. [Allow to cool.]
Beat eggs, mix in crumbs, melted butter, wine and vinegar. Then add carrot mixture, nutmeg, parsley and salt.
Turn mixture into piedish and bake for 30 mins.
–Serves 4.
(Gail Duff. Gail Duff's Vegetarian Cookbook. London, Macmillan, 1978)

    More on eggahs in Is There An Egg In The house?

Lamb with carrots:
First, here’s a modern New Zealand lamb casserole. Carrots usually went into your stew or casserole in New Zealand, but back in the bad old days we never added wine or garlic—let alone zizzing the dish up with gremolata!

One-Pot Lamb with Winter Roots
Tip: make a gremolata** and sprinkle over the cooked lamb, or simply finely grate a little lemon or lime zest over the lamb.
    500 g lamb shoulder, diced;
    1 large carrot, peeled and diced;
    1 large parsnip, peeled and diced;
    1/2 swede, (about 150g), peeled and diced;
    1 leek, trimmed and finely sliced;
    2 garlic cloves, crushed;  1/2 cup dry white wine;
    2 cups chicken stock;  3 Tbsp seasoned flour;
    2 Tbsp olive oil
1. Heat the oven to 170C.
2. Roll the diced lamb in the seasoned flour. Heat a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon oil and when hot, brown the lamb on both sides, in batches, placing in a casserole dish as you go. Wipe out the pan if necessary with kitchen paper.
3. Reduce the heat to low, add the remaining oil then add the leek and garlic.
4. Cook gently until the leek begins to soften, then add the carrot, parsnip and swede. Mix in any remaining flour.
5. Pour in the wine and allow to bubble up. Add the stock and mix well, bring up to the boil then pour over the lamb. The liquid should just cover the lamb and vegetables. If not, add more stock.
6. Place baking paper, cut to fit, on top of the liquid to protect the meat and reduce evaporation. Cover with the lid, then place in the oven and cook for 2 hours until the lamb is very tender. Serve hot.
–Serves 4.
(By Kathy Paterson, Eat Well with Bite)

** Gremolata is just a mixture of lemon zest, finely-chopped parsley and garlic, sometimes with toasted breadcrumbs. There’s a nice example of its use in a vegetarian dish on GourmetSleuth.com: “Pan Fried Sweet Potatoes with Gremolata”.

    A much more exotic approach to lamb with carrots is offered by this next recipe, from Afghanistan. In the original the directions and list of ingredients didn’t match up, so I’ve sorted them out as best I could. This is pretty much a version of the pulao, found all over northern India, but it is also reminiscent of the more elaborate biriyani, which combines rice and lamb and bakes them. NB: It won’t be yellow if you don’t add the saffron or at least turmeric.

Qaboli Palaw
(Yellow rice, lamb, carrots, and raisins)
    1 lb [450g] long grain rice, preferably basmati;
    1 1/2 lb [750 g] lamb on the bone;  2 large carrots;
    1 onion;  4 oz [125g] black seedless raisins [or sultanas];
    1 to 1-1/2 teaspoons each cinnamon, ground cumin, &
        ground cardamom
    4 fl oz [125 ml] vegetable oil;  1 teaspoon sugar;
    1/2 pint [300 ml] water plus 2 1/2 [990 ml] pints water;
    1/4 teaspoon saffron (optional);  salt & pepper
Brown 1 medium diced onion in oil. Fry until the onion is fairly dark. Add 1 lb lamb cut into 1in-2in [2- 5cm] cubes and brown lightly.
Add 2 cups of water, 1 tsp salt and 1 to 1-1/2 tsp each cinnamon, ground cumin and ground cardamom. Cover and simmer until meat is tender, about an hour.
Remove meat from the juice [i.e. liquid] and set juice aside.
Cut 3 carrots into match stick size pieces. Sauter carrots and 1 tsp sugar in about 1/4 cup of oil. Cook until they are lightly browned. Remove from oil.
Add 1 cup of raisins (or golden sultanas) to the oil and cook until they swell up.
Boil the meat juice and add 2 cups basmati (very long grained) rice, 1-1/2 tsp salt and enough boiling water to come 2 inches over the rice. Cook until the water is absorbed and the rice is tender—but NOT mushy.
Mix the meat, carrots, raisins and rice together. Place in a large oven-proof casserole, cover and bake at 300 degrees F [150 C] for up to an hour.
To serve—place on platter, making sure the carrots and raisins show on top.
(Afghan Online),

Carrots with nuts:
This recipe from northern India is one of my favourites:

Carrots With Cashew Nuts: Gajjar Bhajji
Cashew nuts themselves have a distinctive flavour and when  combined with carrots the result is quite a different dish. This should turn out to be a dry curry and is good for accompanying those meat dishes which contain a lot of curry sauce … This is a very nutty dish but it is authentic Indian cooking. If you prefer, use only 170 g/6 oz cashew nuts.
    225 g /1/2 lb cashew nuts;  500 g/1 lb carrots;
    2 tomatoes;  1 large onion;  1 x 5-cm/2-in fresh ginger;
    1 teaspoon garam masala;  1 teaspoon chilli powder;
    100 g/4 oz ghee or 120 ml/4 fl oz cooking oil;
    150 ml stock;  1 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon flour
Scrub the carrots and cut them lengthways into fairly thick strips. Peel and slice the onion.
Heat the ghee or cooking oil in a large saucepan and fry the onion and carrots.
Peel the ginger and cut into lengthways strips. Add the ginger, garam masala and chilli powder to the pan.
Continue to stir and add the flour. As the mixture thickens, add the cashew nuts, stock and salt.
Bring to the boil and simmer with the pan covered for about 20 minutes until the carrots are fully soft. If they soften sooner than this, they are ready.
Chop the tomatoes coarsely and add to the pan. Cook for a further 3-4 minutes and serve.
The curry should have a fairly thick sauce but if it is not thick enough, rapidly boil it to drive off any excess water
(Khalid Aziz. The Encyclopedia of Indian Cooking. London, Michael Joseph, 1983)

Carrots as Sweet Dishes
Carrots are naturally so sweet that in many countries cooks have incorporated them into confectionary, puddings and cakes. I’ve tried to pick out a few that are a bit different from the now-standard carrot cake.

Carrot jam? Carrot jam!
When desperate, make the jam from that carrot surplus. Mrs Beeton’s cook (I’d love to have met her, martyred woman!) was doubtless making this for the household in the mid-19th century, but without the brandy. It’s the sort of recipe that later cooks would only turn to when times were hard and fruit was scarce but they could at least get sugar. Those days have gone: yes, Veronica, there is no frugality.

Carrot Jam To Imitate Apricot Preserve.
Ingredients.—Carrots; to every lb. of carrot pulp allow 1 lb. of pounded sugar, the grated rind of 1 lemon, the strained juice of 2, 6 chopped bitter almonds, 2 tablespoonfuls of brandy.
Mode.—Select young carrots; wash and scrape them clean, cut them into round pieces, put them into a saucepan with sufficient water to cover them, and let them simmer until perfectly soft; then beat them through a sieve.
Weigh the pulp, and to every lb. allow the above ingredients. Put the pulp into a preserving-pan with the sugar, and let this boil for 5 minutes, stirring and skimming all the time.
When cold, add the lemon-rind and juice, almonds and brandy; mix these well with the jam; then put it into pots, which must be well covered and kept in a dry place. The brandy may be omitted, but the preserve will then not keep: with the brandy it will remain good for months.
(Isabella Beeton. The Book of Household Management. [London], S.O. Beeton, 1861.)

Carrots for pudding:
Even more frugal than Mrs Beeton’s recipe is this Australian one dating from the 1940s. The recipe could be even earlier (this very popular cookbook was published in innumerable editions for decades), but it’s highly likely it’s one of the many Australian and New Zealand wartime recipes copied from the British: the sort of pudding recommended during World War II by the British Ministry of Food:

    “Advertisements encouraged families to start ‘Victory Gardens’ and to try new recipes using surplus foods as substitutes for those less available. Carrots were promoted as a sweetener in desserts in the absence of sugar, which was rationed to eight ounces per adult per week. The Ministry’s ‘War Cookery Leaflet 4’ was filled with recipes for carrot pudding, carrot cake, carrot marmalade and carrot flan. Concoctions like ‘Carrolade’ made from rutabagas [swedes] and carrots emerged from other similar sources.”
(K. Annabelle Smith. “A WWII Propaganda Campaign Popularized the Myth That Carrots Help You See in the Dark”, smithsonian.com, August 13, 2013)

Carrot Pudding
Half pound bread crumbs, 4 oz. suet, 1/4 lb. raisins, 3/4 lb. carrot, 1/3 lb currants, 3 oz. sugar, three eggs, quarter nutmeg, milk.
Mode.—Boil carrot until tender enough to mash to a pulp. Add remaining ingredients, and sufficient milk to make the consistency of thick butter. Time—Two and a half hours to boil or one hour to bake.
Strew sifted sugar over before serving, and have white sauce or boiled custard with it.
 –Mrs. E. R. Ingham, Highgate.
(Green and Gold Cookery Book: Containing Many Good and Proved Recipes. 15th ed. (rev.), Adelaide, R.M. Osborne, [1949?])

Before the now hugely popular carrot cake came in, the sorts of recipes promoted during the War would in all likelihood be the only appearance carrots would make in sweet dishes on the tables of the British Commonwealth.

Carrot cake for the modern time-poor cook:
Most keen home bakers have their own favourite carrot cake recipe. But if you’ve got a slow cooker (crock pot), you might like to give this modern Australian recipe a go:

Slow Cooker Carrot Cake
Preparation time: 15 to 30 minutes
Irresistibly moist, all of the family will love this scrumptious cake.
2 cups peeled and grated carrots;  2 eggs;
3/4 cup large raisins;  1/2 cup sunflower seeds;
2 cups self-raising flour;  1/2 teaspoon baking powder;
3/4 cup brown sugar;  1/2 cup white sugar;
3/4 cup near melted butter;  1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon;
1/2 teaspoon salt
Place all of the ingredients into a bowl and stir with a wooden spoon or fork.
Tip into a well-greased cake tin, then place cake tin into slow cooker.
Cover the cake tin with paper towels.
Cook on low for approximately 2 hours or until cooked.
Recipe notes: Serve with passionfruit icing. It is also enjoyable eaten with a dollop of cream and a hot chocolate [drink].
Serves: 12
(By: Cupcakekaty, January 9, 2011, BestRecipes),

Note that slow-cooker-cakes don’t brown like oven-baked ones.

Carrot sweets:
The recipe below is an early version of the Indian sweets often called halwa. Carrot sweets are an Indian standard. This version, an Anglo-Indian one collected by an American missionary who worked in India in the second half of the 19th century, is a much clearer recipe than any of the modern ones I’ve read. She calls it a “cheese”, which at the period was a standard name for a very thick, coagulated mixture. The usage survives today in the variant “Lemon Cheese” sometimes used for “Lemon Curd”. But this isn’t a runny mixture: the aim here, as with barfis, is to set the mixture so as it can be cut up into small pieces. There is no other English word, unless you want to use “fudge.” Note that like all fudge-type recipes it requires slow cooking and a lot of stirring.

Carrot Cheese.
Boil a pound of carrots until very tender. Then mash them perfectly smooth.
Mix with them a pound of sugar, a tablespoonful of butter, and the juice of a large lemon. Also add a few cardamom seeds.
Cook over a slow fire [stirring well] until the mixture hardens into a paste.
Add a little more butter just before removing from the fire.
Press into shallow pans and cut in neat squares or diamonds like fudge.
(Mary Kennedy Core. The Khaki Kook Book: A Collection of a Hundred Cheap and Practical Recipes Mostly from Hindustan. [New York], Abingdon Press, [1917])

The picture below, from Khalid Aziz’s The Encyclopedia of Indian Cooking (London, Michael Joseph, 1983) shows a dish of typical Indian halwas and barfis: clockwise from top, Suji halwa (semolina), Gajjar ka halwa (carrots), and Pista barfi (pistachios). –I can’t tell the difference, actually. Never mind, all are yummy!


    … And the kids’ll never guess the sweets are made from carrots.

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