spice-crusted carrots with harissa yogurt sauce
“What’s in the drawer?” asks Amy Sedaris in her off-the-cuff recurring instagram video series exploring a large chest of mini wooden drawers in her Manhattan apartment, the contents of which are all delightfully strange like Amy herself.
“What’s in the drawer?” also happens to be the exact same question I ask myself everyday as I drag my pandemic-wearied ass over to the refrigerator to check the contents of the crisper at an hour when I should probably already be cleaning after supper, but instead am only just getting around to cooking it because aside from the hours blocked off for zoom calls, time does not exist right now. Anything to come out of my crisper so far has made for a much less interesting discovery than Amy’s mini drawer roulette, but the day I pulled a bunch of carrots out and made what Cos calls “fancy carrots” ended up a damn good one and made me remember how much we love this recipe.
I started making these “fancy carrots” way back in our Astoria, Queens days when we ate mainly vegetables and pasta because Cos was still a vegetarian and we were broke AF, but they’d fallen out of our dinner rotation as of late. The reason I don’t make them all that often is also what makes me like them so much, which is that they require a bit of TLC. I usually serve carrots as a side dish, meaning that if I have to do more than toss them with oil and roast them on a sheet pan, it’s just not gonna happen. These you parboil first before you toss them with oil and spices and theeeen sauté. Ain’t nobody got time for that! Except you know, right now we maybe do. Or if we don’t find ourselves with extra time to make dinner, maybe we are finding ourselves trying to make something nice out of a near-raggedy bunch of carrots. For me the answer is a little of both, and as a result this recipe is finding its light again at our house.
I guess I had forgotten about the addictive crust that forms when you toss the parboiled carrots in a spice mix of smoked paprika, mustard powder, cumin, coriander, a little sugar, and then sauté them, but man it has levels of oomph that a regular ole roasted carrot seriously could never. The flavors are sweet, smoky, and earthy with a slight tang, and the texture is just soft enough with a crisp-tender bite. And you know what? Making them wasn’t actually as big of a deal as I had remembered, especially not if you are making an all vegetable dinner. We had them with leftover Potatoes Anna and simple green beans, and the combo was *chef kiss.* Though they’d go great with a roast chicken too, as they are 100% a stovetop affair. Whatever you do, don’t write them off as high maintenance, guys, because they’re not - they’re *fancy.*
Spice-Crusted Carrots, adapted from Bobby Flay
Carrots
1 lb small carrots with tops, scrubbed, tops trimmed and saved for garnish
Kosher salt
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp mustard powder
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp ground coriander
Pinch of cayenne (optional)
3 tbsp vegetable oil, divided
Yogurt Sauce (optional)
½ cup plain greek yogurt or labne
1 tbsp harissa paste
Put a large pan of salted water on to boil. Boil carrots until crisp-tender, about 5 minutes.* Remove boiled carrots to a plate or pan to cool for a few minutes, just long off enough so that you can handle them. Run each carrot under a stream of cold water and rub off the skin. Once the skins are removed, the carrot will be bright orange. Pat dry with paper towels, removing any leftover bits of skin.
[*Note: If your carrots are super fat they will need to boil for longer, about 7 minutes. A couple of mine were and I left them in the boiling water for longer then sliced them in half once their skins were removed so that all the carrots would be roughly the same size. Bonus because this way there’s more surface area for spice-crust amazingness.]
Mix sugar, mustard powder, paprika, cumin, coriander, cayenne (if using) and 1 tsp with salt in a small bowl. Toss carrots with 1 tbsp oil on the plate or pan you were using before, then sprinkle spice mixture over top, and toss toss toss.
Heat remaining 2 tbsp oil over medium heat in a large skillet (cast iron if you’ve got one). Working in two batches, cook the carrots, turning occasionally, until deep brown all over and the spice crust has formed, 6 to 8 minutes. Remove to a serving dish and season again with another sprinkle of salt and pepper. Before adding the second batch to the oil to cook, roll around again in the spice mix to pick up as much as possible.
While carrots are cooking, mix the harissa into the yogurt and season with salt and pepper, if using. Garnish carrots with the reserved carrot tops and serve with yogurt on the side or spooned over top. Amen!
