You're Just Going to Have to Trust Me on This One, Part 3: Carrots. And Chocolate. Really.

We’ve eaten a lot of very ordinary food lately. The school year has been kicking our collective butts and we’ve gone back to many of our usual weeknight favorites, even though I’m continuing to moon over my recipe file and daydream about the amazing dinners I would cook if only I had more time (Really? Who am I kidding? I have the day off work and I just ate EasyMac for lunch). But then a recipe like this pops up and reminds me that fabulous doesn’t have to mean a lot of work, even if that’s how it usually works out around here.

I first discovered Mindo Chocolate Makers at a tasting event at Michigan by the Bottle, and Cortney posted this recipe on the MbtB website at some point. We’d been buying a lot of multi-colored carrots from Trader Joe’s that month and I had some fresh mint laying around from a batch of mojitos I never got around to making (isn’t that sad? August was clearly far too busy), so this was just the right combination to jazz up a weeknight grill dinner. Miel de Cacao is a really fantastic ingredient in all sorts of ways – it’s ended up whisked into salad dressings and drizzled over fruit, and it’s made more than one appearance in a couple of outstanding martini-ish things, and really it makes itself at home anywhere you put it.  

By all means, follow the link to the original blog post overat Earthy Delights, which is so much more beautiful and well-written and well-photographed than mine. The shortened cheater’s version is here.

Carrots! Chocolate! (Really!)

1 lb carrots (the multi-colored pack you get at Trader Joe’s or the organic food section at Western Market look really nifty in this)

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

2 tbsp miel de cacoa (So. Amazing. Go buy some right now.) 

Handful of fresh mint leaves, sliced very thinly (chiffonade, if you’re feeling technical)  

Fire up your grill for whatever else you’re having for dinner. Scrub the carrots, trim off the tops if needed, and toss with a little olive oil and some salt and pepper.

When the grill is ready and/or the rest of dinner is about 20 minutes from being done, put the carrots on the grill (do I even need to point out that these should go crossways?) and cook. Turn them fairly often so they cook evenly; they’ll be a little bit brown and nicely tender when they’re done. (Grilled carrots are really excellent even without the miel de cacao and mint, btw.)

Arrange on a serving platter. Drizzle the miel de cacoa across the carrots and sprinkle with the mint. Tell your carrot-loving kids you’re serving them chocolate with their vegetables  and enjoy the mixed reactions. This would also be a very glamorous thing to serve guests with a mixed grill dinner. 

You’re Just Going to Have to Trust Me on This One, Part 2: Everyone Loves Okra

Okra has a bad reputation, even for a vegetable. “Slimy.” “Ropy.” “Gelatinous.” “Eeeew, what is that?!” Okra’s heard it all (the technical term is “mucilaginous,” btw). Wondering what those slimy grayish-green rounds in your gumbo could be? It’s okra, exuding all that ropy gelatinous goodness so that your gumbo isn’t soup instead. Expecting a hush puppy on the buffet? Ha ha ha – it’s deep-fried OKRA, cut into deceptively hush-puppy-shaped pieces just to make you sad.

If you’ve eaten it, you have an opinion – love it or hate it, nobody feels “meh” about okra. I once took a huge gamble and served it to a dinner guest without clearing it first. Luckily he was originally from Texas and was completely delighted that I’d somehow figured out he loved and missed the okra his mom used to make. This is not a gamble I’d usually recommend taking. Except….

Except for this recipe. It’s good, and it’s simple, and it’s practically foolproof. I’ve only messed it up once in 6 years, and that was because I overcrowded the pan. Even then it was still good, just not as sublimely, supremely tender as I’d become accustomed to. There are never leftovers, no matter how much we make. It’s an Indian recipe but it goes with all sorts of things, especially things from the grill, because the spices aren’t overwhelming. Trust me on this – you love okra.

Adapted from Madhur Jaffrey Indian Cooking, my first Indian cookbook (and still one of my favorites; thank you, Donna!). Use a big cast iron skillet for this and cleanup will be much easier.

Indian Okra with Onions

Canola or other neutral oil
1 tsp whole cumin seeds
1 lb. okra, cut into ½-inch rounds
1 medium onion, chopped
½ tsp salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1-2 tsp lemon juice

Heat at least 6 tablespoons of the oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, add the cumin seeds and let sizzle for a few seconds, until the seeds turn dark and start to smell fragrant. Add the okra and onions and spread out in an even layer in the pan. Cook for about 10 minutes, turning the okra carefully every few minutes. Once the onions start to brown, turn the heat down to medium and cook for another 5 minutes or so. Add the salt and spices, stir carefully, and cook for another 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. The onions should be very soft and golden brown and the okra will be tender and toothsome (not at all slimy!).

You can hold this for about 10 minutes on the stove before serving, but don’t let it sit too long. You can also double the recipe, but make sure that you’re using a large skillet; crowding the pan will give you slimy okra and then you won’t trust me anymore.

You’re Just Going to Have to Trust Me on This, Volume 1: Fish Pilaf

I’m going to admit up front that there’s just no way to make this dish sound even remotely tempting when you talk about it. I’ve mentioned it to several people and, depending on how well they know me, they’ve made the yuck face with varying degrees of politeness. I asked someone for a wine recommendation recently and his first response was, “Wait – what?!” So I’m going to ask you to take a leap of faith and try this, because it is so very tasty and fish is good for your brain.

According to Wikipedia, “Pilaf….is a dish in which rice is cooked in a seasoned broth.” Spices and vegetables and some kind of protein are often assumed or implied, but by this extremely broad definition even Rice-A-Roni is a pilaf. You’ve probably already eaten Rice-A-Roni at some point and you survived, so this will be a step up from that. Doesn't that inspire a lot of confidence? 

My son is an avowed Fish Hater, but he’ll eat seconds and thirds of this. The original recipe calls for a whole fish and making broth using the head and bones. Nope. My version is pretty streamlined; you can manage this on a weeknight if you have a good relationship with your kitchen timer, since there’s very little hands-on work involved and it only takes an hour from start to finish (yes, I consider this a reasonable amount of time for dinner prep now that we're no longer allowed to buy anything convenient). The entire recipe breaks down into timed increments, so if you need to do one part and then oversee the math homework and do another part and drive someone to swim practice and do another part and deal with the daily reading log and fold a load of laundry so somebody can wear his only green T-shirt at the school Fun Run and do another part and pick someone up from swim practice, you can manage it without ruining dinner and still eat more or less on time. If your weeknights are anything like my weeknights, that is.

About that wine recommendation: After Lewis got over being freaked out by the weird recipe, he picked out a great wine for this. It was on the dry side and just a little bubbly – not champagne bubbly, just a little sparkly. It went really well with the richness of the rice and the creaminess of the pine nuts without overwhelming the fish. Three cheers to Lewis! He also picked out a really wild Lebanese beer with sumac and thyme and mint and such, but I haven’t had a chance to try it yet. I’ll keep you posted.

Adapted from The Food and Cooking of the Middle East by Ghillie Basan. And OMG, I just realized she has a ton of other cookbooks and now I want them all! 

Poached Fish with Rice and Pine Nuts

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 onions, peeled and thinly sliced

2 lb any firm-fleshed white fish. We’ve made this with trout and cod and both were very good.

1 bunch parsley

3 bay leaves

1 cinnamon stick

1 teaspoon black peppercorns

1 ¼ cup long-grain rice, rinsed and drained

2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground cinnamon

Small handful of pine nuts

1 lemon, cut into wedges

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet and cook the onions, stirring often, until they turn dark brown. Set aside.

While the onions are cooking, put the parsley in the bottom of a large pot or Dutch oven. Place the fish on top of the parsley, add the bay, cinnamon stick, and peppercorns, then add enough water to cover the fish. Bring a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer 5 minutes.

Remove the fish from the pot, break it into bite-sized pieces, and set it aside. Bring the liquid back to a boil and simmer until it’s reduced by about half, which should take 20 minutes or thereabouts. If you’re used a milder-flavored fish, you might want to add a fish bouillon cube or a few splashes of fish sauce (or soy sauce) to give it a little more depth of flavor.

Add the browned onions to the stock and simmer another 10-15 minutes. Strain the stock into a large measuring cup; you should have 2 ½ cups of liquid (add a little water if needed). Return the stock to the pot and add salt and pepper to taste. Return it to a boil, add the rice, cumin, and ground cinnamon and simmer it for 10 minutes.

When the rice has absorbed the stock, take it off the heat, cover the pan with a clean dish towel, and put a lid on it. Let it stand for 10 minutes while you lightly toast the pine nuts.

Put the rice into a serving dish. Mix about half the fish into the rice and sprinkle the rest on the top. Garnish with the pine nuts and lemon wedges.