Cooking with carrots: Halwa is great and all but have you tried gajar romesco or pizza?

What is the first word that comes to mind when one says carrots? More often than not, for Indians, it is gajar ka halwa.

While the pudding is a classic, carrot cake isn't far behind. Ever since more people have started working from home due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, it has given many a chance to enter the kitchen and don the chef's hat. It is time to take those cooking skills up a notch and use the vegetable in a myriad interesting ways that go beyond the standard favourites.

Mid-day Online asked city chefs to share innovative recipes. They recommend roasting carrots, reducing them into sauces, turning them into kebabs, pairing them with cheese and even using them as a star ingredient for a pizza.

Carrot robata by Chef Amol Phute at Bastian, Across all outlets
At Bastian, Chef Phute explores dishes with regular-sized carrots as well as baby ones, which the restaurant gets from its vendor farmers. He reminds that a lot more can be done with carrots than just using them for gajar ka halwa. "Roasting or grilling is the easiest among them. Just tossing them in some spices and oil and grilling them brings out the rich flavours of carrots," he explains. As a part of their winter menu, the restaurant serves a grilled baby carrot dish which is tossed in spices and served with a carrot romesco sauce and carrot chips and duqqa.

Ingredients:

For carrot romesco:
Nuts - 1/4 cup, garlic - 2 to 3 cloves, chilli to taste, Carrots - 500 gms (Roasted rough cut or baby carrots), salt and pepper to taste, olive oil.

Method:
Roast and grind all the ingredients together, season with salt and pepper to taste.

For Duqqa :
Almond - 1/2 cup, sesame seed - 1/4 cup, salt and sugar, paprika - 1 tbsp, coriander seeds - 1 tbsp.

Method:
1. Roast and grind all the ingredients together, season with salt and pepper to taste.
2. On a generous layer of Romanesco and duqqa, lay some of the whole roast carrots.
3. You could top them with some thinly sliced, baked carrot chips.

Chef Anuradha Joshi uses the seasonal ingredient to make a delicious Borani ke kebab with minced meat and caramelised onion gravy. Photo: Charoli

Borani ke kebab by Chef Anuradha Joshi at Charoli, Bandra (West)
Carrots can be dessert and main course but Chef Joshi says they can also be made into succulent kebabs. The minced meat kebabs are stuffed with chunks of winter carrots, cooked on dum in a caramelised onion gravy. She explains, "It's a savoury, subtly flavoured dish that depends more on technique and the hidden flavours of sweet carrots with red meat and spices that extract maximum natural flavours of the main ingredients." The steaming kebabs seem like a perfect option on a winter evening, if you don't want to experiment and make an elaborate dish out of the vegetable.

Ingredients:
Minced meat - 500 gms, Ghee: 1 teaspoon, salt to taste, ginger - 1 tsp, garam masala - 1/2 tsp, coriander powder - 1 tsp, egg - 1 no, carrots peeled and cut into chunks of 1.5 inches, ghee 1.5 small bowl, onions - 2 large (julienned), fresh curd - 2 small bowls, garlic - 1/2 tsp, rice powder - 1 tsp, pinch of saffron, cloves - 8-12 pcs.

Method:
1. Boil kheema in sufficient water add 1 teaspoon of ghee, salt, coriander powder, garam masala and ginger.
2. Once dry, make a paste.
3. Add the egg.
4. Boil the carrots till they are tender. Remove and dry on kitchen towels.
5. Once cool, coat the carrots with ground meat. Make sure it's evenly covered. Pan-fry in ghee and keep aside.
6. Take 1 tablespoon of ghee in a thigh bottomed pan and fry the onions.
7. Remove and keep on the side.
8. In the same ghee add a mix of curd, garlic paste, rice powder, salt and saffron.
9. Stir well.
10. Add the kebabs that are fried to this pan.
11. In another kadhai, take 1 teaspoon of ghee, add the cloves and pour this over the kebabs and gravy. 12. Now add the caramelised onions and put it on dum.
13. Remove after 10- 15 minutes and serve hot.

Experimenting with carrots, Chef Nitish Kumar Singh pairs them with ricotta to make a terrine, which he says is a perfect sweet and savoury combination. Photo: Hilton Shillim Estate Retreat & Spa

Carrot and ricotta terrine by Nitish Kumar Singh, executive chef at Hilton Shillim Estate Retreat & Spa, Pune
Playing around with flavours, Chef Singh says carrots and ricotta complement each other very well because carrots are mildly sweet and ricotta is mildly sharp and savoury. Interestingly, he says, it makes for a perfect healthy dish, and should definitely be one to try out for those who are health-conscious.

Ingredients:
Carrot - 220 gms, ricotta cheese - 150gms, Agar Agar - 5 gms, salt - 2 gms.

Method:
1. Firstly, take nice sweet seasonal carrots and roughly chop them.
2. Then take a saucepan, add water and chopped carrots and boil them.
3. Strain the boiled carrots, bring down to room temperature and make a fine puree of the mixture.
4. Bring the fine puree to the pan, add agar agar, salt and cook well till the mixture becomes a little tight.
5. Side by side, take a bowl, add ricotta cheese and slightly beat the cheese to dissolve the lumps.
6. Finally bring the carrot mixture to the rolling mat and spread it thick. Add battered ricotta cheese in the center and roll it to give a cylinder shape.
7. Then deep freeze the cylinder for a few hours to make it stiff.
8. On finding the roll has taken the shape, bring out, demould it and cut into the desired shape and serve.


A unique take on carrots, Chef Kekade converts the vegetable into zoodles and combines it with a delicious sage beurre noisette. Photo: Sante Spa Cuisine

Winter carrot zoodles, sage beurre noisette by Chef Shailendra Kekade, Sante Spa Cuisine, Khar (West)
Being a firm believer in seasonal ingredients, Chef Kekade says this recipe celebrates carrots in their full glory. He explains, "Playing on its firm and crunchy texture, we add more earthy flavours with the sage and the olives, a slight tanginess with the cherry tomatoes and the dish gets a rounded mouthfeel with the use of burnt butter and parmesan."

Ingredients:
Carrot zoodles - 250 gms, butter - 60 gms, sage - 0.5 gms, kalamata olives - 30 gms, green cherry tomatoes - 20 gms, parmesan cheese - 20 gms.

Method:
1. Make fine zoodles of fresh carrots lengthwise and blanch them in a vegetable stock, al dente.
2. Stone the olives, halve the cherry tomatoes and pluck the sage leaves and set aside.
3. Make Beurre Noisette by adding butter to a hot pan and cooking it till a nutty flavour is achieved.
4. Quickly add the sage leaves so as to have the flavour imbibe in the butter.
5. Add the olives, tomatoes and the carrot zoodles and toss in the butter to coat the ingredients.
6. Finish off with finely grated parmesan cheese and serve piping hot in a pasta bowl.

Chef Lasrado uses a zero-waste approach to make a pizza with every part of the carrot. Photo: Smoke House Deli

Carrot top pesto pizza by Chef Rollin Lasrado, Smoke House Deli, across all outlets
It is easy to imagine a halwa or dessert made from carrot or even a local dish but as famous as pizzas are, it is hard to imagine the winter ingredient as the start of the Italian favourite and that's where Chef Lasrado stands out. He uses a zero-waste approach with this pizza by using every part of the carrot and converts it into a colourful dish. He explains, "The bitterness of the greens along with the herbs adds a bit of complexity and depth while also being great for digestion."

Ingredients:

For the pizza dough:
High gluten flour, plus more for dusting - 500 gms, cold water - 315 gms, yeast - 2 gms, salt - 10 gms, extra virgin olive oil - 30 ml.

For the toppings and assembly:
Grated parmesan cheese - 70 gms, almonds, deskinned and toasted - 100 gms, small garlic (grated) - 1 no, lime juice of 1 lime, fresh basil (cleaned and dried) - 80 gms, tender carrot tops, stems and leaves, cleaned well and dried - 80 gms, extra virgin olive oil - 100 ml, fresh mint leaves (cleaned and dried) - 40 gms, fresh mozzarella (sliced or torn) - 200 gms, salt to taste, black pepper to taste, baby carrots (coloured are better) - 500 gms, Jalapenos (optional), pea shoots, herbs for garnish, honey - 50 gms, vinegar - 30 ml, sugar - 10 gms, water - 300 ml.

Method:

For the dough:
1. Put all ingredients into a bowl and leave aside for 20 minutes.
2. Knead either by hand or by machine until you make a soft dough. Use oil as required to remove the dough from the bowl and place in a lightly greased bowl and cover with a damp cloth to proof till double in size.
3. Remove from the bowl knock back the excess air and portion out into 200 gm portions. Place on a greased tray and cover.
4. Place in the fridge to proof for 24 hours. (You could also leave it at room temperature in a cool space to proof, until it doubles in size).

For the pesto:
1. Blend the garlic, most of the parmesan cheese & the almonds, along with 2 tbsp of the olive oil.
2. Once blended, add the herbs (basil, mint and carrot tops) in batches and blend until smooth.
3. Add olive oil as required. Season with salt and black pepper and add lime juice as required.

For the carrots:
1. Wash all the carrots properly to ensure that there is no mud on them. Cut about two-thirds of them as required, in halves, quarters or keep them whole as per size.
2. Place the carrots on a baking tray. Marinate with olive oil, salt and pepper. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes then toss with some honey and keep aside to cool.
3. Thinly slice the remaining carrots.
4. Make a quick pickling solution using hot water, salt, sugar and white vinegar. Leave it to cool and chill in the fridge. Place all the thinly sliced carrots in this cold pickling solution. This will last, in the fridge for about a week or two. And works amazing in salads or sandwiches or as a side as well.

To assemble:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees or the highest it goes.
2. On a lightly greased baking sheet, roll or stretch out the dough from the centre outwards, leaving a 1-cm border on the outside, until about 12-inch diameter.
3. Using a brush, apply a thin layer of olive oil, then spread some of the carrot top pesto on the dough, then top with the honey marinated carrots (do not use too much honey, or it will caramelize quickly and burn), some of the fresh mozzarella.
4. Bake on the top rack of your oven until the crust is a deep golden brown and crisp (depending on the temperature it will take between 5 - 15 minutes). If it is getting burnt and still remaining raw, take it out of the oven, turn the pan half way around and place in the middle rack, until done.
5. Remove from the oven, leave it to cool for about a minute on a wire rack, then cut into slices or wedges. Garnish with some grated parmesan, toasted almonds, pickled carrots, carrot tops, basil leaves and other herbs. Drizzle with olive oil and serve immediately.