Ginger, Honey and Lemon Glazed Carrots

Carrots are not one of my favorite foods, but I’m a sucker for beautiful fresh vegetables. So when I saw these lovely carrots at the Original Farmers’ Market in Indianapolis last weekend, I was drawn to them. The vendor offered me a carrot to taste, and I was sold after just one bite!

 

These were very sweet and tender carrots, unlike what I typically buy from the produce section of a store. I decided to keep them whole and roast them in a pan with a ginger, lemon and honey glaze. The quantities for these ingredients can be adjusted to your taste. Since I was cooking these on the stove top and not in the oven, I steamed the carrots first to tenderise them before pan roasting.

Ingredients:

4-6 fresh carrots

1 tsp olive oil

1-1.5 tsp grated ginger

1/2 tsp honey

1/2 tsp lemon juice

Salt, ground black pepper for seasoning

Chopped cilantro for garnish

Trim the stems close to the carrot top. Wash the carrots well and use a knife to scrape off any impurities from the surface. Steam the carrots until tender (~10 min).

Heat oil in a pan over medium high heat. Add ginger and the carrots. Drizzle honey and lemon juice. Season with salt & pepper. Toss well to coat the carrots. Cover and cook for a minute or two until the the carrots are browned on one side. Turn them gently, then cover and cook again until browned on the other side. Take the pan off the heat, squeeze more lemon juice on top if you’d like, and serve garnished with chopped cilantro.

~Gayatri

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Posted by The Cooks of Cake and Kindness on Thursday, December 17, 2015

Apple Millefeuille (a.k.a. Leaning Tower of Fruit!)

Growing up I’ve always had a sweet tooth, and I can hardly recall any meals from my childhood without a dessert. If nothing else, I used to have a little bit of jam, jaggery, or sugar with ghee on my plate. Over the years I’ve consciously tried to reduce my refined sugar intake, which is not very easy when you like to bake cakes ;-) … but I now enjoy the healthier desserts with a lot of fruits, so I can occasionally indulge in the more sugary delicious baked treats.

This recipe is for a simple dessert which can be made with fresh fruits such as apple or pear. I like calling it Millefeuille because it is a layered tower. Millefeuille is a French pastry with several thin crispy layers stacked up with creamy filling in between. This version doesn’t have any pastry but it does have thin and crunchy layers of apple! The dish is not just visually pleasing but it also really elevates the taste of the simple everyday apple. It uses very few ingredients (things you might already have in your pantry) and takes hardly any time and effort to put together. It’s a healthier dessert too - in addition to the vitamins and fiber from the fruit, you can also get your protein fix with your favorite nuts and nut butters.

Ingredients: (Serves 1-2)

1 apple (any kind - I used the Gold Delicious variety)

~2 Tbsp peanut butter (or any other nut butter)

1 Tbsp dried cranberries/raisins (or chopped fresh berries)

1-2 tsp chopped nuts (I used pecans and pistachios)

Cinnamon, nutmeg (optional)

Any seeds such as sunflower or chia, nuts, granola etc. can be used in this recipe.

Sauce

1-2 tsp honey

¼ - ½ tsp lemon juice

Water

A pinch of ground cardamom

Salt (optional)

Thinly slice the apple. Mandolin slicer would work great for very even slices, but I just used a knife. Core the slices with a small cookie cutter or a knife. Start laying down the slices from the bottom up. After every 2-3 slices spread a thin layer of nut butter, sprinkle chopped nuts and cranberries. Sprinkle with cinnamon, nutmeg if using. Continue till you reach the top.

To make the sauce, mix honey, lemon juice and cardamom powder. Thin the sauce to your liking with water. If your nut butter doesn’t have any added salt, a little bit of salt in the sauce would taste great! Drizzle the sauce on the apple tower.

I’ve been asked how to eat this tower of fruit , so here are the 'instructions' ;-). I like to gently push it over so the apple slices fan out nicely onto the plate. That makes it easy to cut into only a few slices at a time. Dip in extra sauce if desired and enjoy as a (relatively) guilt free breakfast or dessert!

~Gayatri

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Posted by The Cooks of Cake and Kindness on Monday, August 17, 2015