Carrots, Moroccan Style

Dear all,

Carrots are a gift of nature and I could not live – or cook – without them. You can find them almost anywhere anytime; they burst with vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients and they taste wonderful.

Whenever I can, I hide carrots in food. You will find them in my tomato sauce, in burgers of any kind and various recipes with legumes.

This month I would like to feature a recipe where carrots play the hero: carrots Moroccan style. This is a light, nutritious side dish, ready in a few minutes, yet it offers a strong flavour profile that can complement many different main dishes.
Just recently I paired them with a spinach pie at a vegetarian dinner and I dare say my guests enjoyed them. They also go well with any kind of chicken or fish dish.

The Moroccan style in the name refers to the spice mix: ground cumin, cinnamon and chilli powder combine with garlic and parsley to underline the sweetness of the carrots. It is surprising how well cumin and cinnamon go together. Together they transform each other, a typical example where the sum of two ingredients creates a bigger whole.

Another advantage is the fact that you these carrots taste warm or cold. You can prepare them in advance when you host a dinner party and just warm them up for a few minutes in the oven or a microwave – or just serve them cold as they are.

Wishing you happy cooking, always!

Kornelia Santoro with family
 

Ingredients:

(for 4 servings) 

• 6 big carrots
• 1 bunch flat leaf parsley
• 2 big garlic cloves
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• ½ teaspoon red chilli powder
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon powder
• salt
• pepper
• 2 lemons
• 50 ml water

Method:
Wash the parsley. Flat leaf parsley tastes much better than curly one but sometimes it is difficult to find. If you cannot buy flat leaf parsley, use curly one.

 Clean and crush the garlic. To stabilize the healthy ingredients in garlic you need to expose it to air for five to 10 minutes. After this time the heart protecting nutrients of garlic are resistant to heat.

 Peel the carrots. I use a peeler, but if you want you can also scrape them or just brush them.

Halve the carrots lengthwise and cut them diagonally to get nicely shaped pieces.

Heat the olive oil in a pan and add the ground cumin, chilli and cinnamon. Let them sizzle for about one minute to activate their aromatic oils.

Add the chopped carrots and the crushed garlic and mix everything well. Add a bit of water, around 50 ml or so. You don’t need a lot of water; just enough to create a little steam and prevent the carrots from burning.

Close the pan and let the carrots cook for five to ten minutes, depending how you like them. I prefer mine with a bit of bite, so around seven minutes cooking is usually fine for me.

Towards the end of the cooking time, season the carrots with salt and pepper and add the chopped parsley. If the taste of the spices is not strong enough, add some more ground cumin, cinnamon and/or chillies.

Before serving, squeeze the lemons over the carrots to add some zing. I prefer my carrots without lemon juice though.

Rainbow Frittata

Sometimes our world seems to crash. Whenever I open the newspaper or watch the news, I cannot help but feel depressed: bombs, bad economy, corruption. The list of tragedies goes on and on.

My only recipe for making the world a better place is to try and live as well as I can, to try to be the best person I can be. Both my men can tell you that I lapse many times. But I know that occasionally I manage to bring a smile to their faces. Our home is generally a peaceful and welcoming place; my son knows he can always invite his friends over – also on short notice. When somebody drops in, I am always able to offer lunch or dinner. It might not be an elaborate dish, but even on a rainy day I normally have a pasta sauce or two stashed away in my freezer.

In case I don’t want to make pasta, a frittata is a great way of dishing up a tasty and healthy meal in no time at all. Basically, a frittata is the Italian version of the French omelette. With one big difference: An omelette is cooked only on one side, while the frittata is flipped or finished under the grill. Like pizza, anything goes with a frittata. You can use every kind of vegetables, herbs, cheese, fish and shellfish, bacon, sausage and salami slices. Only one ingredient remains the same. You cannot make frittata without eggs.

I call the recipe here Rainbow frittata, because I tried to use as many different coloured vegetables as possible. This recipe is only a guideline. Just take whatever you have in the kitchen, throw the ingredients into a pan and spill some eggs over the mixture. In most cases you can enjoy a delicious, light meal.

Wishing you happy cooking, always!

Kornelia Santoro with family

 

Rainbow Frittata

Ingredients (for 4 servings):

• 6 eggs
• 1 big carrot
• 1 medium beetroot
• 1 bundle spring onions
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 bundle parsley
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Method:

Clean and chop the spring onions. Crush the garlic. Peel and grate the carrot and the beetroot. Wash the parsley and chop it.

Heat the oil in a non-stick pan. Fry the spring onions, the carrot and the beetroot over a low fire until they are soft, around three to four minutes. While the vegetables are getting done, crack the eggs into a bowl and season them with salt and pepper. Mix the eggs well with a fork.

Add the parsley and the garlic to the vegetables and fry for another minute. Spread the egg mixture over the vegetables and cover the pan with a lid.

When the egg has largely set, flip the frittata or finish it under the grill. All my pans have plastic handles, that’s why I always flip my frittata. This is a bit tricky, but not as difficult as it sounds. I loosen the border of the frittata with a spatula and make sure that it does not stick to the pan. Then I place a flat plate over the pan and turn it. Now the frittata should be in one piece on your plate. From the plate I slide the frittata back into the pan and give it another two minutes.

If you use the grill, just place the pan under the grill and wait that the egg-mixture takes on a lovely, bronze colour. Enjoy!

Piggy Moons

‘Piggy Moons’: A high fiber shell hides a naughty filling

My son Valentino never ceases to amaze me. The other day we watched a food show on television featuring diners specialized in deep frying all over the United States of America. Although deep fried food clogs your arteries and leaves its fans looking bloated, it tends to make our gastric juices flow. “Why don’t we make something deep fried together?” was Valentino’s innocent reaction to the health hazards we had just watched. (One of them was huge strips of bacon dipped in batter and then deep fried…)

“I want something with bacon and carrots”, he continued. Luckily he included something healthy. Carrots belong to the few vegetables he likes. Being an obedient Mama, the next day I went to work. Bacon it had to be, carrots also. I decided to balance the bacon with a wrapping made with the new diabetic flour you find now in the supermarkets. It is a mix of whole wheat with different dry beans flour. It has a lot more fiber and protein than the normal whole wheat flour and a low glycemic index – in short, something really good for our bodies. I used it to make simple dough with eggs and oil which we stuffed with bacon bits mixed with spring onions, garlic, carrots and mozzarella. “Now we also have to name it”, said Valentino after our work was done. Because of the shape we agreed to call our creation ‘Piggy Moons’.

My men liked them so much, they disappeared in one day. Our ‘Piggy Moons’ are great snacks and they go very well in Tiffin boxes. Just freeze them spread out on a plate, then pack them into an airtight container and fry them, whenever needed. I am always happy to have some easy meals for Tiffin boxes stand by – they make my mornings easy.

Wishing you happy cooking, always!

Kornelia Santoro with family

The following ingredients make around 35 ‘Piggy Moons’.

Ingredients for the filling:

• 1 packet bacon (200 grams)
• 1 packet mozzarella cheese (250 grams)
• 1 big carrot
• 1 bundle spring onions
• 2 cloves garlic

Ingredients for the dough:

• 2 cups flour (preferably whole wheat)
• 2 eggs
• 5 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• water

You also need:

• flour for rolling of the dough
• 1 egg for brushing the moons
• peanut oil for deep frying

 

Method:

Cut the bacon into small pieces. I find this easier to accomplish when the bacon is frozen. Put it into a nonstick pan and fry it over a small flame to release the fat slowly, but surely. While the bacon is frying, clean and chop the spring onions, the carrot and the garlic. I just throw them into a blender; you can also use a grater for the ingredients. Grate the mozzarella cheese as well. When the bacon bits have turned crispy and released their fat, add the spring onions, the carrot and the garlic and fry them all together for about 2 or 3 minutes. The onions should turn translucent. At this point a mouthwatering aroma ought to fill your kitchen. Let the filling cool down before you mix it with the mozzarella cheese.

Now it is time to work on the dough. Put the flour in a bowl, add the eggs, the oil and the salt and start combining it with a spoon. Once it is mixed, take some cold water, put aside the spoon and go in with your hands. Knead the dough thoroughly with just enough water to make it smooth. If by mistake you have added too much water and the dough remains sticky, you can add some more flour.

Finally we are ready to make the moons. Take about a third of the dough, knead it into a ball and dust it with flour. On a smooth surface – I use my granite kitchen counter top – roll out the dough as thinly as possible. Now stamp out dough circles with a big glass or a round cookie cutter. Put one egg in a small bowl or a cup and jumble it up. Brush the dough circles with the egg wash to make the borders stick together. Place one teaspoon of filling on a circle and fold it into half, making sure the dough covers the filling well. Secure the round border by pressing it together first with your fingers and then by pressing it down with a fork. This not only secures the edge, it gives it also a nice pattern.

When you have made your way through all the dough, your ‘Piggy Moons’ are ready for frying – or freezing, if you want to fry them later on. For freezing spread them out on a plate and put them into the freezer. Once they are hard you can pack them properly. In this way they will not stick together and you can take out the pieces easily.

Now heat up enough peanut oil for deep frying your moons. I prefer peanut oil because it can be heated to high temperatures. The oil should be so hot, that the ‘Piggy Moons’ don’t stick to the bottom of the wok, but float up immediately. Fry them until they are golden brown on both sides, drain excess fat on a kitchen towel and serve. If you want your piggy moons spicy, just add some chopped green chilly to the filling.