Wishing You a Sweet New Year!

Frances Maggin's Applesauce Cake - the recipe comes with a great story!

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, begins at sundown on Wednesday. It is a time of joy and anticipation, as well as an opportunity for consideration and reflection.

It's traditional to usher in the new year with apples and honey and other treats, in hopes of a sweet new year. So here are some of my favorite holiday recipes, which I hope you'll enjoy - for Rosh Hashanah, for breaking the fast after Yom Kippur, to celebrate fall, or just 'cause ... :)

Shanah Tovah! [shah-NAH toh-VAH]


Frances Maggin's Applesauce Cake

Pomegranate Molasses-Glazed Carrots

Helen's Apple Cake (Craig's mother's recipe)

Southern Honey Cake

Apple Almond Kugel (one of my most requested recipes)

Challah

Cider-Braised Chicken (Jeremy's favorite chicken dish)

Quince-Glazed Baked Yams

Honey Cakes with Caramel Frosting

Sauteed Apples a la Mode

Applesauce Bars

Vanilla Cakes with Caramelized Bananas (pictured above)

Sugar Cookies

Banana Oatmeal Pie

Grilled Brie with Cherries and Almonds

Orange, Date and Almond Salad

Moroccan Spiced Carrots

I love Moroccan food, with its vibrant and exotic flavors.  It doesn't have to be complicated to prepare, even if traditional recipes might require special equipment or long cooking; techniques can be adapted and modernized.

But this gorgeous, simple recipe requires nothing fancy or expensive.  And it rewards you with a slightly spicy tingle complementing the sweetness of the carrots, and the ease of being able to serve it at any temperature - it can therefore be prepared right before serving or well ahead of time, whatever suits your schedule.

These spiced carrots can accompany virtually any dish, and are perfect for a picnic or a barbecue.  Try them!  Who knew plain ol' carrots could be so easily transformed into something so delicious?


Moroccan Spiced Carrots
(slightly adapted from a recipe in The International Kosher Cookbook by The 92nd Street Y Cooking School)

1/2 pound carrots, peeled, cut into 1/2" slices
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/8 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 tablespoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon cumin seed
generous pinch of kosher salt
generous pinch of red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon snipped fresh parsley

Place carrots in a medium saucepan and cover generously with water.  Bring to a boil, then cook for 10-15 minutes until tender; drain.

Combine the remaining ingredients in a medium bowl; add the carrots, stir to coat.  Serve warm, at room temperature, or chilled.

Serves 4-6 as a side dish.

Italian Baked Rice for International Picnic Day

It's International Picnic Day - what a perfect celebration for June!

I could have served an American-style picnic today, complete with fried chicken and potato salad.  But I thought that "international picnic day" should be interpreted not as a universal day for picnics, but rather as a day for a meal filled with foods from around the world.

So my international backyard picnic lets us travel to Italy with a baked rice and cheese dish that is reminiscent of risotto, but requires less attention.  Dream of Morocco with fragrant spiced carrots.  Enjoy vibrant Mongolian seared beef, complemented with some simple feta-topped grilled vegetables, then finish the meal with light and tender Hungarian sour cream cookies.  Add a bottle of Spanish wine, and the picnic is complete!

Since I served so many lovely foods at my picnic, I'm going to make them the focus of this week's posts.  Today I'll share the recipe for Bomba di Riso [BOHM-bah dee REE-soh], the rich rice dish, with the other recipes to follow in subsequent days.

To make this casserole - which could easily serve as an entree, served with fruit and salad - all you need to do is cook some rice, stir in some eggs and cheese, and bake ... that's it!  It's a great change from plain ol' rice or potatoes, and there's a hint of nutmeg to offer an exotic nuance.  Some fresh spring peas or asparagus would be a lovely addition, stirred into the rice before baking.

Bomba di Riso
(very slightly adapted from Cucina Ebraica: Flavors of the Italian Jewish Kitchen by Joyce Goldstein, from my good friend Mary Schuman)

1-1/4 cups white rice (Arborio preferred)
2 eggs
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon kosher salt
very generous sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 cup ricotta cheese
3 ounces mozzarella cheese, cut into small dice
1/8 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease a 1-quart casserole dish.

Prepare the rice according to package directions.  Remove from heat, then stir in eggs, shredded Parmesan, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

Place half of the rice mixture into the bottom of the prepared casserole dish.  Spread the ricotta over the rice, then top with the mozzarella.  Spread the rest of the rice mixture over the top, then sprinkle with grated Parmesan.

Bake for 30 minutes until bubbling and starting to turn golden.

Serves 6-8 as a side dish.

"The Kosher King of Ann Arbor"

I recently had a fabulous time talking with Emil Boch, chef/co-owner of From the Hearth Food - a catering service offering kosher, vegetarian and vegan dishes - and chef at the University of Michigan Hillel during the school year.  I'd heard only raves about the food Emil serves, including such stellar accolades as this one, from Jeannie Ballew of entre-SLAM:


"I truly can't say enough of this man's cooking.  It is ethereal, other worldly, intoxicating.  He uses only the freshest locally produced ingredients and produce and just seems to have a magical touch with every dish he prepares."

Wow.

So many people I know, from friends to acquaintances, were offering such extraordinary compliments about Emil's cooking - simple lunches at Hillel, take-home Shabbat dinners, catering options for special events - that I simply had to meet this man!

A native of Ortonville, Michigan, Emil is a proponent of the Slow Food movement and its dedication to sustainability, local sourcing, organics, and traditional handmade foods.  He engages in cheese making and charcuterie in his spare time, and received specialized training in Europe to further his knowledge of these hand crafts.  As the bio on his catering site states, Emil "draws inspiration from flavors of India, Latin America, France and Asia, but his style would be best described as New American."  Emil is influenced by many cultures and foods, and brings all of these together to create his own fabulous cuisine.

My friend Donna Shewach, one of Emil's most avid devotees, states that "Emil's cooking can be summed up in two words: simply delicious!  Everything he makes - from soups to main dishes, sides to desserts - is packed with flavor.  His creative use of seasoning and spices from all over the world make his dinners unique and irresistibly delicious ... always innovative and memorable."

Like so many others who are tremendously creative, Emil is a former art student; one of the reasons he left the art community, though, is because he felt he couldn't give up his pieces because of a deep "emotional attachment."  His high level of commitment now finds itself invested in the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti community - good friends with many other restaurant and brewery owners, a regular chef at Selma Cafe breakfasts, and a volunteer with local food and farm projects.  From the Hearth Food will once again be one of many sponsors at this month's entre-SLAM, a networking event for entrepreneurs, being held at 7 p.m. this Thursday, May 31 at LIVE Ann Arbor (click here to register).

Emil was raised vegetarian and his mother cooked many ethnic foods, so he's well versed in specialized diets and a wide variety of flavors.  Although he's not Jewish, which enables him to work at Hillel during times when work is forbidden to observant Jews, Emil is considered "the Kosher king of Ann Arbor" for the inventive and distinctive dishes he has created in accordance with the dietary laws, as well as for his updates of traditional dishes.  (He can either cook in a home kitchen or in the Hillel kitchen, to certify kashrut standards.)

As Donna, an avowed foodie who keeps kosher, tells me: "When he catered dinner at my home, Emil was wonderful at accommodating all of our dietary preferences, including his delicious vegan dishes that the omnivores enjoyed too."  She also notes that while "Emil's dinners are exceptional by anyone's standards ... if you happen to keep kosher it's an added bonus" that this chef is skilled at preparing meals that go so far beyond the familiar chicken dinner or brisket.  Emil likes to serve "frat boy portions" that are extremely generous, which is great because Donna says "you’re going to want leftovers to enjoy the next day."

Emil is warm, friendly, and immensely likable - if his parking meter hadn't been on the verge of running out, we may very well have kept talking for another hour about everything from Jewish cuisine to the Pixies.  I normally need a flow chart to follow my own tangents, and Emil's quick thinking and gregarious nature even put me to shame!  Not only would you enjoy the food he prepares, but he would be wonderful to work with in planning an event, as well.

Emil very generously shared two different Jewish-influenced recipes: the Carrot Ginger Kugel pictured below and one for Home Cured Salmon, both of which would be perfect for light summertime meals.  From the Hearth Food's website also gives sample menus, to give an even better overview of his abilities and offerings.

You could prepare these dishes yourself, of course.  But as Emil says, because of his very small "family-type business," when you hire him you're "directly supporting" him and his wife and those he hires for events, rather than any large entity or corporation.  So why not let Emil cater a summer event - small or large scale - so you can taste for yourself the amazing dishes that Ann Arborites are so enamored of?


Chef Emil Boch
FromtheHearthFood@yahoo.com
734-645-7308

Easy Carrot Ginger Kugel

4 cups finely chopped carrots, peeled (5-6 medium-sized carrots)

1 cup finely chopped apple, peeled and cored (approximately 1 large apple)

1 teaspoon ground coriander
2 teaspoon fresh grated ginger

1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt

6 eggs

Preheat oven to 375F.  Grease a 9" round cake pan with butter or oil.

Process carrots and apple in food processor until finely chopped.  Add all other ingredients and process until well mixed, fluffy, and foamy.  Pour mixture into prepared pan(s) and bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Cool slightly and serve warm, or chill overnight and serve cold.

Home Cured Salmon

1 whole side of salmon, 2-3 lbs

1 cup kosher salt

1 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons coriander seeds

2 tablespoons black peppercorns

1 tablespoons pink peppercorns

1 tablespoons lemon zest

1. Place your salmon filet on a cookie sheet.

2. Rub filet on both sides evenly with the salt, sugar, lemon zest, and spices.

3. Place in a ziplock bag or "brining bag" and place in the refrigerator for up to 24-48 hours, turning over every 12 hours.

4. Rinse the salmon of all of the seasoning and pat dry.

5. Brush lightly with olive oil and garnish with fresh dill and tarragon.

"Chopped" Challenge - Mini Carrot Latkes with Chocolate Rum Caramel Sauce

Rachel at Diary of a Chocoholic is a girl after my own heart!  Here is her dare for my "Chopped" challenge: "Dessert (because it's my favorite!)? Carrots, Chocolate and Rum!"


Well, how can we go wrong with chocolate and rum, and with a hint of nutrition to delude us into thinking we're behaving ourselves?

Today is sadly the last day of the challenge, in which I had asked readers to suggest ingredients that I would then have to use in creating a dish for a specific course of a meal.  It's been so much fun!  But at least we're going out on a sweet note.

I knew immediately that I didn't want to resort to making carrot cake with the suggested ingredients.  It is one of the great foods in the universe, absolutely!  But it's too obvious.  I debated candying carrot sticks, turning them into gorgeous translucent rum-scented dippers with a chocolate fondue-like sauce.  But adapting a candied orange peel recipe for a vegetable with a different consistency seemed to have too many variables to predict success - too soft or too hard or too gumdrop-y?  A noble notion to tinker with some day when I have time to play.

So, being a girl with a Jewish soul and appetite, I then thought of latkes.  They don't always need to be made with potatoes, and they don't always need to be savory; carrots offer an inherent sweetness that could be played up for dessert.  The combination of mini spiced treats with a luscious chocolate sauce started to sing a Siren song to me.

These little pancakes have a fabulously enticing fragrance, and are utterly enhanced by the addictive sauce.  (Pour it over ice cream and it thickens like fudge ... sigh.  I'm almost - but not quite! - ashamed to admit that I made a full batch of the sauce, ate and enjoyed it with a few of the latkes, and then simply took a spoon and ate the rest of it "as is." )

Thanks to Rachel, we can all be chocoholics today while still eating our vegetables!


Mini Carrot Latkes with Chocolate Rum Caramel Sauce


Latkes:
1/2-pound carrots, peeled, finely shredded
4 ounces sugar cookies, crushed fine
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 cup brown sugar
pinch of kosher salt
2 eggs
1/4 cup oil, for frying

Combine carrots, cookie crumbs, cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, salt, and eggs in a large bowl.

Heat oil over medium-high heat.  Add batter by the tablespoon and cook 3-4 minutes per side, until nicely golden brown.  Remove from pan, drain on paper towels, and continue with remaining batter.  Makes 16 latkes.

Sauce:
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons dark rum
2 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
1/3 cup half-and-half

Melt butter, brown sugar and rum together in a small saucepan over low heat.  Add chocolate and stir until melted.  Slowly stir in half-and-half.

To serve:
Whipped cream

Drizzle chocolate sauce over 4 dessert plates.  Place 4 latkes onto each plate, and top with whipped cream.

Serves 4.

Wordless Wednesday: Anatomically Correct Carrots

For today's recipe - Espresso Granita - go to the Food and Grocery page of AnnArbor.com ....

International Week -- Polish Dill Pickle Soup

One of my dearest friends in the world, Connie, is 100% Polish; she's also married to a man who's 100% Polish. They are some fabulous cooks, and make a kielbasa that is a true work of art and a most generous gift some years at Easter. (There are too many demands and insufficient quantity to feed all of the ravenous hordes, so I have resigned myself to not being on the "in" list every year ... alas!)

Anyway, Connie is a great cook, as I've already said. So when I went to a horrendously bad Polish restaurant last year, where the one and only redeeming food was the dill pickle soup (don't even ask how leaden and flavorless the blintzes were ... with a filling made from canned mushrooms!), I asked Connie if she would share her recipe with me. (She did; here's the post from AnnArbor.com. And that's her son Andrew, one of Jeremy's best friends, doing the "bunny ears," fyi.)

Connie's soup is very easy to make, and it is some seriously astounding comfort food. But the soup at the restaurant had some flecks of carrot, potatoes, and dill, which Connie's lacked.

So I tinkered a bit by using the original recipe as a base but then adding the other ingredients. It's still Connie's soup, in my opinion, just with a bit more stuff in it.

And it was truly, wonderfully, amazingly delicious!

It may sound odd to pour in juice from a pickle jar, but why use plain ol' water when you can add some depth of flavor? Connie's late mother-in-law used to add a bit of vinegar in her version of this Polish classic; but there's an entire jar full of brine just waiting to find a purpose other than swimming around cucumbers! Do it Connie's way, which she learned from her own mother, whom we call Busha ([BOO-shuh] = grandmother). Busha is in her late 90s now ... the woman knows a thing or two!


Polish Dill Pickle Soup

1 pound pre-cooked kielbasa
1 cup water + water to cover kielbasa
1 tablespoon bacon fat or butter
1 small onion, chopped
3/4 cup juice from a jar of dill pickles, preferably Polish
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 medium potato, cut into 1/2" cubes
1 large carrot, peeled and grated
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup chopped dill pickles
1 teaspoon dried dill
slices of caraway rye bread, toasted and buttered, because as Connie puts it: “Of course, you have to have a good rye bread to go along with it.”

Place the kielbasa into a medium saucepan, cover with water, and bring to a boil; lower heat and simmer for 1/2 hour. Remove the kielbasa from the saucepan saving the liquid, and slice to desired thickness.

Heat the bacon fat in a small skillet and saute the onion just until translucent. Add to the reserved cooking liquid.

Add the 1 cup of water, the pickle juice, salt and pepper to the saucepan with the onion. Bring to a boil, then add the potatoes and carrot; cook for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork.

Combine the sour cream and the flour in a medium bowl, then slowly stir in 1/2 cup of the broth until smooth

Whisk this mixture back into the saucepan, bring just to a boil (small bubbles around the edge of the soup), then remove from heat.

Stir in the chopped pickles, the kielbasa and the dill. Serve hot, with the toasted rye on the side.

Makes 4 generous servings.

The Comfort of Vegetable Lo Mein

I was sick last Tuesday, so I stayed home from work coughing and napping and napping and coughing; then I had pre-scheduled Wednesday off because it was my birthday. (Although I coughed a bit, I did feel infinitely better for my celebration after resting the day before and sparing my co-workers any further exposure to cooties.)

So, since my new glasses -- 2 pair, so now I have a back-up -- had come in on Monday night, Thursday was the first time I'd worn them to work.

The prescription is stronger -- much stronger. And I've got progressive tri-focal lenses, which I'd had in my last pair; so I was used to the concept, but have been learning where my eyes and head should be positioned when I look through the new specs.

So, given that I'd been at home for 2 days doing nothing but eating and sleeping and typing and talking and coughing, I hadn't given a proper challenge yet to my notorious motion sickness. My head had been pretty stable with those reasonably sedentary activities, with everything I might have had to focus upon resting comfortably within a 2' radius. And so, though I was still a little fuzzy in ye olde vision department as I adjusted, I was doing okay.

And then on Thursday I went back to work.

I am embarrassed to say that I've gotten sick in cars, on school buses during field trips, and even -- God help me, it's true! -- on a swing once when I was little. And it was only because Tom came to pick me up at 1 p.m. on Thursday afternoon that I didn't manage to get sick at work. 'Twas close, I have to admit!

Things started badly almost from the beginning as I looked down a long hallway and couldn't focus on the end of it. My head wobbled as I looked across the main office to talk to my co-workers, hoping I'd find the right niche and suddenly be amazed by clarity ... but not having any success.

I bent down to the left to reach under my desk and turn on my computer, then turned right to check my voicemail. I swung to the center to look at the monitor (and it's a wide screen, which only complicated matters), and felt like a bobblehead trying to find the right fraction of lens to peer through in order to make anything legible.

I pulled the monitor closer to me, then enlarged the text size. The doorbell rang and I instinctively swung to the right to answer the intercom. I had to make up an email group, which consisted of following a chart to find the necessary names and then pulling my head up to look at the screen, then peering down again, and .... You're getting the idea. Back, forth, up, down, left, right ... and no ability to focus on any of it because I couldn't figure out how to tilt my head in each moment as I moved in familiar ways while wearing unfamiliar glasses.

So I became queasier and queasier, until I finally had to go home. I accomplished everything that had to be done that day, but barely. I went home, sucked on some ginger candies, and took a nap. And I was still a tad shaky 'round dinnertime, but dinner was a necessity since I'd had no lunch.

And so, a simple and benign meal was concocted -- Tom chopped a beautiful array of vegetables; I stood at the stove focused (both mentally and visually) on one thing, the skillet. That I could do.

We had leftover angel hair pasta which was transformed from Italian cuisine to pseudo-Asian. I drizzled a bit of sesame oil into the pan, then added a dollop of chili sauce, a generous splash of teriyaki sauce, and a dribble of rice vinegar.



I sauteed the vegetables, plopped them on top of the reheated noodles, and a nutritious dinner was ready within about 5 minutes. And with a bit of sustenance in me, I felt better ... :)

Vegetable Lo Mein

3 cups leftover angel hair pasta
2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons Thai chili sauce
4 tablespoons teriyaki sauce
1 teaspoon rice vinegar
1 carrot, peeled and sliced thin
1/2 small onion, chopped
splash of water
2 scallions, chopped
2 large handsful baby spinach

Pour boiling water over the pasta to reheat it; set aside to soak while cooking the vegetables.

Heat the oil in a 10" skillet over medium heat. Add the chili sauce, teriyaki sauce, and vinegar. Add the carrot and the onion, and saute for 1-2 minutes until the carrot softens.



Add a splash of water to thin the sauce a bit. Add the scallions and the spinach and cook just until the spinach is wilted.





Pour the vegetables and sauce over the pasta, and serve immediately.

Serves 2.

Wordless Wednesday: Tom's Cole Slaw in Balsamic Vinaigrette

I Won, I Won, I Won, I Won!!!

Just a quickie post to offer MANY, MUCHO, and MEGA thanks to everyone who voted for me in the 7th Mediterranean Cooking Event, which featured Algerian-inspired recipes. I WON!!! I had 32 votes vs. 17 for the 2nd place finisher ... you like me, you really like me!

So now I wait anxiously for my prize -- a North African cookbook which will fit happily with the several Moroccan cookbooks I already own (but really, one can never have too many, can one???).

Check out my page of contest wins to see this one featured right at the tippy-top of the list. It's a small win ... alas, no million dollars from Pillsbury to pay off my credit cards and car repair loan. But -- as my fellow cooking contesters and I are fond of saying -- "a win is a win." The competition was tough, with some gorgeous and amazing dishes! Rising to the cream of this crop was quite an accomplishment.

I am a proud and happy chickie on a sunny Friday evening ... :)

The Carrot or the Stick ...?

I seem to be getting my Cooking Karma back -- in the past few days I've made cheese omelettes with hash browns, sauteed salmon with asparagus and grape tomatoes (which started out as fillets with vegetables on the side ... until the fish stuck to the pan, at which time it became a kinda hash when I threw everything in together), and last night I grilled steaks.

Yeah, it doesn't sound like much for someone who loves to bake bread and who pits her own tart cherries every July rather than buying them in a jar. But given that, once again, I am abruptly boyfriend-less (third summer in a row!) just when I had grand plans for outdoor concerts and eating ice cream and going for walks in the sunshine, I think I'm doing pretty well.

And so, in honor of the nice dinner on a gorgeous sunny day, I determined to make a more glamorous side dish than the simple sliced fruits I've been serving as I eased my way back into the kitchen. It's also perfect for the Side Dish Showdown, which I entered last month with a recipe for Indian Spiced Potatoes. There are so many fabulous recipes from so many amazing cooks! I am proud to be even a small part of it.

It only took about 5 minutes to cook the shredded carrots in butter and orange juice, so this is a quick and easy -- but delicious and festive -- dish to accompany anything from beef to lamb to chicken to pork to even (gag! retch! gasp!) tofu.

So, whether you need a nice salad to tote along in a pic-a-nic basket, or something fast to serve after a long day at work, or an easy side dish to make on a hot summer day, or just a soul brightener with beautiful color and festive flavor, this will solve all your problems. And isn't it infinitely more interesting than just some carrot sticks looking forlorn on the plate??? (I do like the Plain Jane version very much, but they're definitely not singing a scintillating Siren song.) A hint of cumin or curry probably wouldn't hurt these, either ... :)

Orange-Glazed Shredded Carrots

2 tablespoons butter
6 ounces shredded carrots
juice of 1 orange
pinch of kosher salt

In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Saute the carrots until they start to soften, then add the orange juice. Cook, stirring whenever you feel like it, for about 5 minutes 'til most of the liquid has been absorbed. If only everything else in life could be this easy!

Oh, My God, the House Smells Fabulous!!!

Although I have been sadly lax in the past year ... 2 years? ... or so, one of my favorite hobbies is entering cooking contests. You've gotta feed the family anyway, right??? So why not have some fun with new recipes, and possibly win prizes as well?

I've won or placed in more than 60 contests; I even found out the other day that I'm a finalist in a new one, though I can't say anything yet 'til I know what the outcome is. But I would like to get back into the kitchen again rather than throwing dinner together on the spur of the moment, which seems to have become my norm. Time for tinkering, of course, and inspiration are necessities; but without the former, it's kinda hard to de-frazzle ye olde brain long enough to find the latter.

But in seeking to happify my blog the other night with widgets and gadgets and cyber-tzotchkes so that it didn't seem quite so pink but plain, I found a very cool competition: the 7th Mediterranean Cooking Event, run by a blogger named Tobias who lives in Greece. Apparently Tobias picks a different country each month (last month was Italy), and then challenges the world to cook recipes representative of that cuisine. This month the spotlight falls upon Algeria, which is the next-door neighbor to my beloved Morocco.

Lots of fabulous, fragrant spices ... tagines and salads ... fruits and vegetables ... sigh. This is what Algerian cooking is all about. With so many options at my disposal -- a freezer door full of everything from coriander to turmeric, as well as dates and pistachios and whole wheat couscous in the pantry -- what might I make??? Carrots. A carrot dish that could be served warm with couscous or served chilled as a salad. It's rainy and dreary here, right before President Obama comes to honor Ann Arbor with a commencement speech at the University of Michigan. The gorgeous color of carrots would brighten my kitchen and my morning!

And so, here is my entry into the competition. Voting is required, so be sure to offer me some love when the time comes!!!

Glazed Spiced Carrots

1 pound baby carrots
water to cover carrots
3 tablespoons argan oil or extra-virgin olive oil
juice from 1/2 lemon
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons honey

Place the carrots into a 3-quart saucepan; cover with water, bring to a boil, and cook 10 minutes until tender. Drain carrots.


In a 10” skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add lemon juice, red pepper flakes, cumin seeds, coriander, ginger and salt; cook for 30 seconds, swirling the pan to blend everything. Add honey, cook for another 30 seconds while swirling the pan. Add carrots, stir to coat, and serve either warm or cold with a lovely glass of mint tea.