This dish is a great way to breath some new life into carrots that brings out all kinds of hidden flavors waiting to entice the senses when cooked properly.
Category
Sides
Author:
Justin Smulski
This dish is a great way to breath some new life into carrots that brings out all kinds of hidden flavors waiting to entice the senses when cooked properly. Every ingredient here serves a purpose: the maple cumin glaze accentuates the sweetness of roasted carrots while the horseradish acts as a pungent balancing agent against the maple syrup. Lastly, Slack Tide’s Upta Camp smoked sea salt draws out the natural earthiness of carrots.
Best of all, this pan-roasting technique works wonders with just about all root vegetables—allowing for a quick sear and nice crust, plus plenty of time in the oven to soften up and finish cooking. Serve the horseradish sauce on the side, and don’t be afraid to drizzle it pretty much everything else on your plate, too.
We use whole tri-color small carrots, but this would work with just about any variety of carrot as long as they’re peeled, trimmed, and cut into equal-sized pieces. You could even use baby carrots in a pinch.
Ingredients
1 quart carrots—peeled, washed, trimmed, cut into equal size pieces about 3-5 inches long
6 tablespoons maple syrup
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
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Slack Tide Upta Camp Smoked Sea Salt—a few pinches
4 tablespoons mayonnaise—store-bought or homemade
1 tablespoon prepared creamy horseradish
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
dried herbs of your choosing (parsley, chervil, chives, etc)—a few pinches
fresh herbs for garnish—a few pinches
freshly ground black pepper—a few pinches
canola oil—for searing
Directions
Preheat oven to 325 F. 1. In a small sauce pan combine the butter, maple syrup, cumin, and a sprinkle of smoked salt over medium heat and stir occasionally until the butter is melted.
Lower the heat to medium low, and let reduce to just slightly thicker than maple syrup while you cook the carrots. Stir occasionally and turn down the heat if necessary.
Heat the cast iron to medium high and coat the bottom with a thin drizzle of canola oil—likely a tablespoon or so.
Add the carrots to the pan and let sit for a minute or so until some color begins developing on the carrots. Stir the carrots (so different pieces are touching the bottom of the pan) and repeat this process a few times until good color is present on all the carrots. They’ll still be quite hard. Add a sprinkle of Upta Camp smoked sea salt and some cracked pepper.
Remove from the burner, wait 30 seconds, then slowly add the maple cumin glaze while stirring the carrots. The hot pan bottom will caramelize the sauce and help it coat the carrots.
Place the cast iron with carrots in a preheated oven at 325 F to finish cooking until soft—this should take approximately ten minutes.
While the carrots are finishing in the oven, whisk together the mayonnaise, horseradish, and garlic powder to serve on the side as a sauce.
When the carrots are fork-tender, remove from the oven and stir carefully to redistribute the glaze. Garnish with dried herbs, Upta Camp smoked sea salt, and cracked pepper. Serve in the cast iron with a few sprinkles of fresh green herbs (we use nasturtium leaves but basil or parsley would be just as good!) and a small bowl of sauce on the side.
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