Carrot Surprise…

Since last week I’ve been toying with various elements of a Thanksgiving Dinner – as a transplanted American, I usually do something simple (generally making something involving gravy) to remind myself of the holiday that my relatives on the other side of the ocean are sharing together. It is, after all, one of our nicest traditions – it’s about togetherness and appreciating what we have. Okay, it’s also about food and football – but these are things that people enjoy sharing together and no matter what brings us together, it’s worth appreciating. This year, however, we decided that a more elaborate Thanksgiving meal on this side of the ocean was in order. We’ve gathered a rag tag bunch of assorted nationalities to feast the occasion and we’ve completed all the negotiations about how to make things gluten and/or dairy free (which are my issues) and just how much bird the vegetarians are happy to share the table with (there will be bird but not too much) and very importantly, which wine should we drink with our meal. I’ll happily report on the success of the wine in another post next week…

To prepare, I have spent the past couple of weekends fine-tuning some of my recipes. I’ve been working on the perfect gluten free brownies with dried cranberries, been gradually baking the gluten free cornbread that will be the basis of the stuffing, practicing my turkey gravy and practicing roasting turkey thighs. I think I’m happy with most of my efforts and roasted my final trial run turkey thigh last night. My other half has been more than happy to enjoy these experiments over the past few weeks and has been very pleased to have been the recipient of gravy numerous times. Last night, when asked about his choice of vegetable to go with sliced turkey, gravy and a baked potato – he said he wanted carrots.

Nothing exciting about this request and I didn’t think too hard about it until after they were in the pan (4 large carrots, thick sliced, bias cut), lid on, with a bit of water (2/3 cup) for a light steam (5 minutes or so). Once I lifted the lid to let the water evaporate and the carrots start to brown (adding a splash of oil), I had to make a quick decision - and then one of those amazing things happened, a little light went off in my head and we had a very delicious carrot side dish. Once the carrots started to brown and were nearly cooked through, I added a spoonful of Chinese chili-garlic sauce (comes in a jar, available from pretty much any Chinese grocery) and tossed this with the carrots along with some salt and pepper. I used about a tablespoon of chili-garlic and they were just spicy enough to not overwhelm the other flavours on the plate but still to stand out – chili heat is a very personal decision though so this ingredient is definitely to taste. I tossed these periodically for another few minutes and then added some orange juice to the plan to give a sweet glaze to the carrots, probably not more than ½ to ¾ of a cup is necessary – but again, depends on how much chili you’ve used and how sweet you like your glaze to be. It’s just so wonderful when something so simple turns out to be so delightful. I think we are having carrots again tonight!