Namasu - Pickled Carrot & Daikon Salad

Asian flavors (and pickles) are both foods I like. If you don't, this probably isn't for you. A little serving of this on the side of any Asian dish adds a bright, zingy bite to the meal.

Ingredients

1 lg daikon, julienned (1/8 x 1/8 x 2 inches)*

     -- about 3½ cups

1 lg (3 medium) carrots, julienned*

2 tsp kosher salt

3 T rice vinegar

1 T sugar

1 T lime juice

1-2 T orange juice

Optional garnish: toasted sesame seeds

* I bought carrots that were pre-cut, and used a mandolin to prep the daikon. If you don't have a mandolin or a food processor to slice the veggies, you could shred them on the largest section of a hand-held grater. The texture isn't going to be quite the same, but it could save you a LOT of prep time! (and knife work, if you're not that efficient with practice)

Directions

Toss together the daikon and carrots; sprinkle with salt and gently toss again. Let sit (room temp) about 20 minutes. Veggies will soften a bit and release some water.

While veggies are resting, whisk together vinegar, sugar, lime and orange juices* until sugar is dissolved. (Ideally the lime and orange juices should be replaced with yuzu juice; it's not that hard to find but I rarely have it on hand and I usually have lime and orange which are a pretty good substitution.)

Drain liquid from carrot & daikon mixture.  Drizzle vinegar dressing over vegetables and toss to coat; let stand at least 15 minutes.

Serve at room temp or chilled, garnished with toasted sesame seeds.

Carrot - Scallion - Snow Pea Salad

Using up shoestring carrots from Carrot Fries a few days ago. Got this idea from FoodNetwork...

Ingredients
10 oz bag shredded carrots
2 C snow peas (or sugar snap peas)
4 scallions
Asian sesame dressing (¼ - ½ cup)
2 C crisp/dry chow mein noodles
1 T sesame seeds

Directions
Julienne the peas; slice the scallions very thinly (on the bias). Toss carrots, peas and scallions with dressing. Add chow mein noodles and toss just before serving. Garnish with sesame seeds.

This was crisp and fresh and, depending on the dressing you use...delicious! I think the same combination of veggies and crunchy noodles would be great with a honey-soy-rice vinegar dressing. And maybe some julienned red pepper for color and flavor...

Shoestring Carrot Fries

Ingredients

oil for frying (about 2 cups)

10 oz bag shoestring carrots

1 T apple cider vinegar

1 T fresh orange juice

1 T orange zest

2 T finely chopped fresh mint leaves

salt to taste

Directions

Lay paper towels (a couple layers) in a 9x13" pan or a over large plate. Spread shoestring carrots evenly over paper towels; allow them to dry and come to room temp (about ½ hour*).

* water/moisture makes the oil spatter, so letting the carrots dry first is helpful to reduce that; also, cold carrots quickly drop the temperature of the oil...which means they'll absorb more oil rather than fry up nice and crispy

While carrots are drying and coming to room temp...

Finely chop mint leaves; zest orange and squeeze enough of orange to produce 1 tablespoon juice. Mix cider vinegar and orange juice in a food-safe (clean!) spray bottle.

Place the oil in a deep pot/saucepan over medium high heat until it reaches 350° F. Add a handful of carrots; stir occasionally, frying about 3 minutes or until crispy. (Work in batches -- don't try to fry them all at once; the temperature will drop below 325° F, and your oil may boil up...or up and over the top of your pot!) Thicker cut carrots will take a little longer to fry...  Remove with a slotted spoon onto paper towel lined plate (or back into the 9x13" pan). Make sure temperature of oil returns to 350° F between batches. 

Spray carrots with vinegar & orange juice; sprinkle with salt, orange zest and mint leaves.

Honey-Rosemary-Sriracha Carrots

Using up an insane amount of baby carrots in my fridge right now, and a bottle of Sriracha I've had for... I don't even know how long. (I'm not much of a Sriracha fan, or anything too spicy for that matter -- I'm a wuss!) But, threw this together and really enjoyed it.

Ingredients:
1 T olive oil
1 T honey
¾ tsp Sriracha (go for more if you want it to really kick)
½ tsp rosemary
2 C baby carrots
generous pinch coarse salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400°F.

Stir together oil, honey, Sriracha and rosemary. Toss with carrots.

Spread in single layer in a baking dish. Season with salt.

Roast approx. 20 minutes, until fork tender.

Ginger-Ale Glazed Carrots

I'm not a huge fan of using soda pop in cooking. But I'm not a huge fan of cooked carrots, so if a little ginger ale may get me to eat my vegetables, it might be a worthwhile compromise.

Ingredients:
1 lb carrots
2 Tbls butter
pinch salt
1 C ginger ale 
½ tsp chili powder
1 Tbls chopped fresh parsley leaves

Directions:
Peel carrots, slice ¼" thick on the bias. Combine the carrots, butter, salt and ginger ale in a saute pan over medium heat. Cover; bring to a simmer. Once simmering, remove lid, stir, and reduce heat to low. Cover again and cook 5 minutes. Remove the lid, add the chili powder. Increase eat to high. Cook, tossing occasionally, until ginger ale is reduced to a glaze (about 4 or 5 minutes). Serve immediately, sprinkled with chopped parsley.

Rainbow Coleslaw

I'm not a big coleslaw fan, mostly because of the mayonnaise-y, creamy dressing. This recipe has no mayonnaise (or sour cream, buttermilk, etc.) but is dressed with a simple vinaigrette/pickling-brine. Maybe for some, that is NOT a coleslaw. It is, however, more to my personal liking. 

Ingredients: 
½ head green cabbage, finely sliced 
½ head red cabbage, finely sliced
4 carrots, shredded or finely julienned
2 bell peppers*, julienned
1 C chopped parsley 
½ C white wine vinegar 
½ C olive oil
1 tsp salt 
½ tsp pepper
2 Tbls sugar

* You can use any color bell peppers you want, but a yellow and red add more color variety since there's already green cabbage and parsley, and orange carrots in the mix.

Directions:
In a small bowl, whisk together vinegar, oil, salt, pepper and sugar. Toss with remaining ingredients in a larger bowl. Refrigerate at least an hour before serving, to chill and allow vinaigrette to pickle the salad.

Asian Pickled Cabbage

Ingredients:
1 head green cabbage
1 large carrot
2 red chili peppers
1 C rice vinegar 
½ C sugar
1  1½" knob fresh ginger
1 Tbls kosher salt

Directions:
Peel and thinly slice ginger. In medium saucepan, bring the rice wine vinegar, sugar, sliced ginger, and salt to a boil over medium-high heat. Once it comes to a boil, turn off heat and set aside.

Slice or chop the cabbage, discarding the core. Peel carrot; using vegetable peeler, shave remaining carrot into long slivers, then cut slivers in 2" lengths. Seed and dice the chili peppers. Combine cabbage, carrots, and peppers in a large bowl. Using a mesh strainer, pour the warm vinegar mixture over cabbage salad, straining out ginger; toss until thoroughly coated. Refrigerate at least 4 hours, tossing occasionally, or overnight.

The cabbage will wilt and release liquid in the process of chilling. Use a slotted spoon when serving.

Dijon Glazed Carrots

This glaze has a nice balance -- the sweetness of the brown sugar and the spicy kick from the Dijon and ginger. I'm still savoring the Herb Roasted Carrots I made recently, and thinking if I make this glaze again, I might prepare the glaze, coat the carrots and then roast them, reserving a little extra of the glaze to drizzle just before serving. (There was plenty of glaze.)

Ingredients
1 lb carrots
3 Tbls butter
2 Tbls brown sugar
1½ tsp Dijon mustard
 ¼ tsp ground ginger
salt

Directions
Wash/peel and cut carrots as needed for uniform size. Place carrots in a saucepan and cover with water. Boil 10-12 minutes until tender. Drain, and place carrots on a serving dish.
Melt butter, brown sugar, Dijon, and ginger in the saucepan, stirring until brown sugar is completely dissolved. Pour glaze over carrots and toss to coat. Season to taste with salt.

Herb Roasted Carrots

The original recipe I was working from called for dill or parsley. However, pretty much any herb could be used. I had fresh rosemary (left from a couple of the most recently posted recipes), so I used that.

Ingredients
 1 lb carrots
2 Tbls olive oil
1 tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
2 Tbls fresh rosemary/dill/parsley/etc.

Directions
Preheat oven to 400° F.

Cut and/or slice carrots. If they're thick, slice them in half; then cut them into 2-3" lengths. They'll shrink some as they roast, so cut them fairly thick.

Toss the carrots in a bowl with the olive oil, salt and pepper. Place them on a sheet pan in a single layer and roast in the oven for 20-30 minutes (depending on the thickness of your slices) until they're browned and tender.

Toss carrots with herb(s), and season if needed with additional salt and/or pepper. (Coarse ground sea salt and fresh ground pepper is a nice touch.)

Roasted Root Vegetables with Rosemary and Garlic

Ingredients
2 Tbls butter
2 pound root vegetables, large dice/sliced
   (carrots, parsnips, potatoes, red onion, etc.*)
2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
3 cloves garlic, peeled and halved

 * I had some zucchini I needed to use up as well. It'll cook up much softer than firmer root vegetables cooked the same amount of time...unless you add it in later. Do as you please. :)

Directions
Preheat oven to 425° F.

Melt butter.In a shallow roasting pan or glass baking dish, stir together melted butter, rosemary, garlic and cut vegetables.Roast, stirring occasionally until vegetables are golden brown (about 50 minutes).