Candied Miniature Carrots

My garden took second seat to the Farmer's Market this summer.  That almost does not seem right, does it.  I did use herbs from my little garden in the salads and dips I made for the market, but mostly the garden was for my own use.

I planted the carrots and did not thin the planting.  Now that it is fall, it is time to dig up everything.  To my delight I had a lot of these tiny little carrots!  I have always wanted to make candied carrots for decorating carrot cupcakes iced with cream cheese frosting.

Each carrot is between 1 and 2 inches long.  I washed and cleaned them and then I painstakingly peeled each little one.  I think I have about 3 dozen.

The first step is to blanch them in salted water.  This is necessary so that the cell structure will change and accept the sugar in replacement for the water in the carrot.  But you don't want to cook them either.  This is truly 'cooking by braille'.  I guessed at a short blanching time and drained them and then shocked them in ice water.

I made a heavy sugar syrup of water and sugar.  I boiled the miniature carrots in this syrup for two or three minutes and turned off the heat.  I let them sit in the sugar syrup for 2 days.  After 2 days, I added another 1/2 cup of sugar and heated them again.  When the new sugar was dissolved and the syrup was bubbling, I turned off the heat and let them sit in the sugar syrup for 3 days.  During this time the water in the carrots is being replaced with sugar through osmosis.

After this, I warmed them so the sugar syrup was thin.  I removed the little carrots and dried them on a cake rack for one day.  Now they are arranged in layers separated by parchment paper in an airtight container.  I will keep them in my cold room until I use them in two weeks for my cupcakes at the market.

Everyone is asking how they taste!  That did not even cross my mind!  I was only thinking of appearances.  So I just ate one.  It tastes faintly of carrot in a jellied candy kind of way.  The green part was just as candied as the orange part.  Very pleasant.

More on Culture Days

These are the pictures Jessi Bruntz took for the Prairie Post.  I have never had professional pictures taken in my kitchen.  I think she has a great eye!  What fun!  But look at those hands!  These are my roasted peppers becoming something to serve on crusty bread.

She was so sweet.  " It was great meeting you, too.  I had a great time hanging out in your kitchen and breaking the rules by tasting some of your delicious treats.  Thanks."   

 Checking on my preserved lemons!  They smelled so good.

 I love the way the lights gleams from my table.  This was the 'self quiz on interesting serving pieces'.

The Party is Over

Culture Days / Fête de la Culture, throughout Canada, happened this past Saturday and Sunday.  One of the slogans was "I expressed my creativity on Culture Days   Fête de la Culture.

I expressed my creativity through food.  I had planned to talk about plank cooking and how to roast a red pepper.  Then I had little displays.  Two were interactive, name this flatware piece and name this spice or herb.  The other was a display of kitchen gadgets.

Since people just dropped in, I decided to just cook whatever it was that I wanted to cook.  I pulled out the sage honey I made last summer.  The honey had congealed so I placed it in warm water to liquefy it again.  I tasted.  It was heavenly.  I will be sharing it at my Spices & Herbs class on Tuesday.  I pulled out my preserved lemons to check on them.  Again, very good.  I rearranged them in the jar so they would all cure evenly.  I did roast the red peppers and put them in a marinade of olive oil, tarragon vinegar, garden tarragon and roasted garlic.  And more.

It was nice to have a leisurely day in my kitchen.  I pulled out the salmon that was in my freezer and made salmon cakes with black beans for appetizers.

It was fun to listen to people and their relationship with food and cooking.  And because my brain never stops, I am already planning my program for next year.

Culture Days Program

For all you locals, this is my schedule for Culture Days.  These are mini mini cooking demonstrations - say 15 minutes.  We can talk as long as you like after that.  I will have all the demos ready to go and will do whatever the group at the moment wants.  No sense scheduling times and having registration, etc.  It is purely 'drop in'!

Saturday    1:00 - 4:00pm

       How to Cook with a Plank  
       How to Roast a Red Pepper (and then what do you do with it)
       Handy Kitchen Gadgets
       Blind Spice Test
       How to Carmelize Sugar and Make Caramel Sauce
       How to Set a Table

       

Sunday   11:00am - 3:00pm

        Handy Kitchen Gadgets
        How to Roast a Red Pepper (and then what to do with it)
        How to Cook with a Plank
        How to Set a Table
        Blind Spice Test
        How to Carmelize Sugar and Make Caramel Sauce

Why I Love Making Bread

I have become a bread maker, I hardly consider myself a baker, by chance.  After experimenting with a few different things to sell at the local farmer's market it seemed that bread was the most popular.  It has become so popular, in fact, that I have capped out on the quantity I can bake for any given market day.  Yes, truly capped out.  Even though I thought I could only bake 12 loaves in the beginning, I am truly capped out at 50.

I had no idea how passionate people were about their bread.  Listening to people tell me what my bread does for their psyche is inspirational.  I have heard stories like, "This bread that isn't really shaped like a loaf is just what my grandmother made.  I love it."

"Do you make rye bread?  But I bet you put white flour in it though, don't you?"

"We had your cheese bread with a glass of wine and some fruit and it was the best meal we have had in years."

"I love the texture, the holes, the density of your bread."

"Red fyfe...there's your red fyfe, Mom!"

"Can you make some pumpernickel for me?  Don't worry, we are not that picky.  Just experiment.  We would also like some hotdog buns."

I have just purchased The Bread Bakers Apprentice cookbook and joined the Facebook group to make every recipe in the book.  The first bread is Anadama.  That is what I am making tonight.  The story goes that a woman named Anna messed up her bread one day and her husband cried, "Anna, dammit!" and it actually turned out to be a very good bread.  It was then called Anadama to avoid the expletive.

Linguine alla Caprese

Finally I am taking the time to make some proper meals for myself.  Cooking for the Farmer's Market becomes all consuming.  Simple but lovely cherry tomatoes and basil from my garden tossed with linguine, boccocini pearls and olive oil and garnished with shards of parmesan.