If you're looking for a sunny side dish for your spring table, I've got one here that I think you'll enjoy! ,
Cooked carrots don't always have a great reputation - they tend to be overdone, bland, and leached of all the flavor that makes a carrot such a sweet pleasure to eat. It really is a matter of cooking properly and seasoning well to take them from sad to celebratory!
These started on a whim - somehow, I'd managed to have far too many carrots for my husband and I to eat raw, and needed to use some of them as a side dish rather than being a minor player in stews or salads. My husband tends to be in the 'no cooked carrots' camp, although he is polite about pushing them around the plate and nibbling at a few, so I wasn't expecting him to like this. Which means it was all about pleasing myself!
We had some ginger beer on hand which, unlike Ginger Ale, tends to be on the spicy ginger side rather than sweet - I thought it might result in something interesting here. I pulled these little golden gems together, to go along with some chicken thighs and wild and mixed rice pilaf.
Ginger Beer Glazed Carrots
serves 4
7-8 carrots, peeled, and sliced into thin coins
2 Tablespoons butter
12 oz. Ginger Beer
1 Tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon Hungarian Paprika
salt and pepper to taste
Heat pan with half the butter, and lightly saute the carrots until they are slightly softened.
Add ginger beer, remaining butter, honey, and seasonings, and simmer on medium, stirring occasionally, until the liquid cooks down. The honey will help create a glazed effect.
Taste, and adjust seasonings as needed.
The surprising verdict from my husband: he liked these, and even helped himself to extras! The leftovers had a bright, gingery taste that reheated well, too. We will certainly be doing these again, and I think they'd be a perfect side dish for St. Patricks Day (Leprechaun Coins, anyway), Ostara or Easter.
Ginger Ale would work instead of Ginger Beer (though you may wish to avoid adding honey, since Ginger Ale is plenty sweet already), but I encourage you to find some Ginger Beer - it has a much spicier gingery taste to that really made these carrots sparkle!
(originally posted March 2016)
