Carrot salad and other recipes

For Nic 😉

No recipe, really, but a few guidelines.
1. Grate lots of carrot.
2. Make a dressing. I usually use olive oil as a base, but any vegetable oil or sunflower oil is fine really, then add about half as much vinegar and/or lemon juice as you have oil (I used both for the one at the weekend) and mix well. Add lots of garlic, peeled and crushed, and a good sprinkling of salt and pepper, then stir in the grated carrot. You want to have enough dressing to coat it all without it swimming in oil – less than you’d think but more than for a green salad, if that helps at all.
3. If possible, leave overnight to soak up all the garlic and oil. If not, just leave it as long as you can in a cool place or fridge.
4. Toast a good handful of pine nuts in a dry pan until they pop, shaking occasionally to avoid burning. Stir these into the salad at the last minute for a bit of extra crunch. If you don’t have pine nuts then sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds make quite a good substitute.

While I’m at it, white carrot cake recipe is here. I reduced the granulated and omitted the brown sugar entirely, however, as the parsnip is pretty sweet already and the total amount the recipe called for seemed excessive. Oh, and I just used vegetable oil instead of canola. In fact, maybe I should just rewrite the recipe here with my amendments:

– 2 cups (500 mL) raw parsnips (about 2 parsnips) peeled and sliced 1/4-inch thick, then roasted in a covered dish until soft and sweet – about 1 hour

– 1 cup (250 mL) lightly toasted pecans, coarsely chopped

– 3/4 cup (150 mL) finely chopped tinned pears in their own juice, drained, reserving 1/4 cup (50 mL) liquid

– 11/4 cups (300 mL) granulated sugar (or a little less)

– 2 cups (500 mL) SR flour

– 1 teaspoon (5 mL) baking powder (or 2 cups plain flour and 1 tab BP)

– 1/2 teaspoon (2 mL) salt

– 1 teaspoon (5 mL) ground cinnamon

– 1/2 teaspoon (2 mL) freshly ground nutmeg

– 3 large eggs

– 1 cup (250 mL) vegetable or sunflower oil

– 2 teaspoons (10 mL) pure vanilla extract

– 1 cup (250 mL) shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 175 C/Gas mark 4.

Grease two 9-inch cake pans and line the bottoms.

Blend the parsnips and pears, or whizz with a soup wand, using the extra juice to moisten and make a puree.

In a large bowl, combine sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg and stir to blend thoroughly. In a separate bowl, lightly beat the eggs, then add the oil and vanilla, whisking until the mixture is homogeneous. Pour wet ingredients into the flour/sugar mixture and stir until just moistened. (or just chuck them all in a mixer together 😉 )

Now fold in the parsnip and pear puree. Finally, fold in the chopped pecans and coconut.

Divide the batter evenly between the pans. Smooth the tops with a spatula. Bake on the middle rack of the preheated oven, 35 to 45 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the centre comes out clean and the cakes are golden and just beginning to pull away from the sides of the pans. Allow cakes to cool in the pans on wire racks for 15 minutes, then invert onto the racks, peel off the parchment circles and cool completely. (The cake layers can be made one day ahead and stored at room temperature, well wrapped in plastic wrap. They also freeze well, wrapped securely, for up to 3 months.

The icing we used for the party was Seven Minute icing, which is basically an egg white (I use reconstituted dried egg white to save mess and worrying about uncooked egg), 1/4 cup of golden or maple syrup, 3/4 cup granulated sugar, 1/2 tsp cream of tartar (hard to come by round here so I omitted, but I think it might help the texture and longevity of the icing; we had saggy sides to our cake!) and 1/2 cup of boiling water, all mixed together and then beaten until light and fluffy and looking like meringue mix – this takes about seven minutes at high speed, hence the name. You could also use a cream cheese type frosting (think carrot cake) or just a buttercream, perhaps flavoured with mixed spices.

Then there’s the Lazy Lentils, not quite as served at Melrose…
(Nic – better stop reading now 😉 )

For 4 people you need:
2 onions, chopped,
at least 1 clove of garlic, peeled and crushed or chopped,
6 oz red lentils,
3 1/2 oz grated cheddar cheese,
1 tsp Marmite or equivalent,
1 tsp dried mixed herbs.

First fry the onion and garlic in a little oil until soft. Add any other veg you fancy – at Melrose we added peppers, carrot and courgette; celery would also go well, but most things would work. Adding nothing works just as well too, but it’s a good place to use up odds and ends – or hide a bit of extra veg.

Mix everything else together in a bowl, then stir in onion mix and spoon it all into a greased casserole dish. Level the top off and pour over 1/2 pint water. Cover with foil or lid and cook at 180C/ GM 4 until lentils are soft – about 1 – 1 1/2 hours (or 5 if at Melrose!).