Oil-Poached Carrots

I love carrots in all forms: grilled, stir-fried, raw, and juiced. Oil-poaching carrots concentrates their flavor without caramelizing or browning the sugars. Adding a bit of sea salt and raw garlic results in a highly flavorful dish that highlights good carrots and is straightforward to prepare.

I was inspired by a fennel purée recipe that's part of a Bison, Beets, Blueberries, and Burning Cinnamon dish from the Alinea written up in the Alinea Cookbook.  In it, fennel bulbs are simmered in butter until tender, and then puréed. Here, I intended to purée the carrots, but found that they were more interesting just poached.

Step 1 Wash, Peel, and Chop the Carrots

Wash, peel, and coarsely chop the carrots.  I often weigh the carrots to help me better estimate how much salt and garlic to add.  In the images, I'm using around half a kilogram.

Comments

[carpii]

Looks tasty :)

Whats the difference between 'poached in oil' and 'deep fat fried'
Im wondering if its the same thing, or whether poaching means a lower temperature.
Or maybe its just a US/UK language difference?

Thanks

[ewilhelm]

In this recipe, I'm using a lower temperature than one would use to fry carrots.

[Dr_Stupid]

They're still deep fried, just at a lower temperature. (I mean let's call a spade a spade and a shovel a shovel)...after that it's all academic.

[red-king]

 i hate carrots(!!!) but good instructable anyway.

[hishealer]

A very easy way to roast garlic too!  I do this same method of the low and slow good oil using garlic cloves, whole and UNPEELED.  After the peels start turning brown, take them out and drain the infused oil.  Then the garlic will pop out of the skins with a squeeze at one end.  It is sweet and mild, not to mention soft enough to mash into some butter for garlic bread spread...  If it makes it that far.  I usually eat half of it before it can get room temp.  I bet I can do the carrots and garlic at the same time... ^ ^

[ewilhelm]

Garlic sounds fantastic!  I've roasted peeled garlic with olive oil in the oven, but you're right, I should just drop a head of garlic in the oil the next time I do carrots.  

[hishealer]

I forgot the easy tip:  break up the clove of garlic and cut the crusty end off them first.  The soft cloves will just squeeze out later when you pinch the other end.  You can also watch the smaller ones and take them out before they burn.

[=SMART=]

Oooooo <3 Carrots !

[scoochmaroo]

What's the caloric content of this?  Like how much oil gets absorbed as the water seeps out.  Does it compare to frying, calorically-speaking?

[ewilhelm]

I estimate the carrots to have more oil then properly fried food, but less than improperly fried food.  There's definitely oil in them, but probably no more than mashed potatoes with butter.

[nachobobs]

Superb....
We did a dish like this at the place place I worked at, but we added some finely sliced shallots to the oil as well as cumin and coriander seeds.  We served it cold with a big dollop of saffron infused yoghurt on top 

[ewilhelm]

I'm hoping you'll post some of your recipes soon!

[lemonie]

"Confit" - that's the word isn't it?

L

[hishealer]

Confit is using an animal's own fat to cook the meat, very similar, only this is vegetarian version.

[Goodhart]

Isn't that a method of storage? 

 

[Goodhart]

Looks REAL good.   I use EVOO for most of my own cooking requiring oils (since I don't deep fry nor "pan" fry anything for heath reasons & the higher temps can make Olive oil smoke).   I even spritz my air-popped popcorn with OVOO rather then butter to cut down on the saturated fats.

 

[Jayefuu]

This looks tasty! :D

There's a mistake on the third line, you wrote "highly very"....

[dagenius]

You are quite the cook, aren't you?

[Kiteman]

Looks nice, but it's my dad's idea of hell.
He's in Vietnam at the moment, and being offered a carrot shake warranted a special mention in his blog.

[Brennn10]

I will be giving this recipe to my mom for our Thanksgiving dinner!  We usually have about 16-18 people for dinner, so I know they will all love this recipe.   My mom makes a root vegetable dish with beets, potatoes, turnips, sugarbeets, and some more.  I will tell her to add this.  Looks delicious!