khizzou – moroccan style carrots

It’s said that carrots in a new bride’s kitchen brings good luck so here I am munching away.

The carrot is the taproot of a biennial plant that comes from the Umbelliferae family (parsnips, fennel caraway, cumin and dill). These plants all have umbrella style flowers, hence the name.

This wonderful recipe brings out the natural sweetness of carrots and I love to roast thin, young carrots without peeling them much at all.

I've never been big on Moroccan food because of the regular use of cinnamon in a savoury context. It's a little bit perverse of me, since cinnamon is my favourite spice, however I only like it in sweet dishes, but this recipe works wonderfully alongside the honey and pinenuts.

Khizzou – Moroccan-Style Carrots
Recipe from Australian Gourmet Traveller’s Modern Salads. Serves 4-6 as side dish or mezze.
Ingredients:
3 bunches baby carrots, peeled and tops trimmed
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
2 tablespoons chopped coriander
4 tablespoons olive oil
60g roasted pinenuts
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 190’C.
2. Combine carrots, honey, cumin and half the olive oil in a roasting pan. Toss well and season with salt and pepper.
3. Bake for 20 minutes until carrots are tender and slightly browned.
4. Dry fry paprika and cinnamon until fragrant. Combine with remaining olive oil and lemon juice then add to carrots.
5. Add herbs, mix then transfer to platter.
6. Serve warm or at room temperature, topped with pinenuts
My WHB ingredient this week is obviously carrots.

Carrots are high in vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin K, dietary fiber and potassium. They are also chock full of antioxidants and pro-vitamin A carotenes, protecting against heart disease and cancer and also promote good vision, especially night vision.

The high levels of beta-carotene in carrots helps to protect vision, especially night vision. In the liver beta-carotenes are turned into vitamin A which then moves to the retina where it becomes rhodopsin, a pigment used for night-vision. The antioxidants in beta-carotene protects against macular degeneration and the development of cataracts in the elderly.

Carrots were first grown in the Middle East and Central Asia and were originally purple in colour. Before Ancient Greece was even worth mentioning an Afghani carrot came out yellow and became the ancestor of today’s orange taproots.

In Rome and Greece, carrots were used as medicine and it wasn’t until the Renaissance that European caught on that carrots could be part of your daily meal.

Carrots have been used to treat digestive problems, intestinal parasites, tonsillitis and the Mohegans (Native Americans) used a tea of carrot blossoms to treat diabetes.

In the 1800s carrots were the first commercially canned veggie and today the US, UK, France, Poland, China and Japan are avid carrot growing nations.

The negative aspect of eating too many carrots is a condition called carotoderma, where the skin is tinged yellow and then orange from consumption of too much carotene.

It seems consumption of too much carotene overloads the liver which can’t convert it to vitamin A. The excess is then stored, in the weirdest of places, in the palms, soles and behind the ears.

There are a lot of carrot festivals around the world including Holtville, California (USA); Bradford, Ontario (Canada); Ohakune (New Zealand); Croissy sur Seine (France); Aarau (Switzerland); Schenectady County, NY (USA); Creances (France); and Beypazarı, (Turkey).

In Australia there is even a kooky musical group, Flute‘n’Veg, who make musical instruments out of carrots. It’s bizarre and intriguing all at once.

And here are five carrot facts to whet your whistle before you make your own carrot flute!
• Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny, did not like carrots
• If cows eat too many carrots their milk tastes bitter.
• in 2005 carrots were Britain’s third favourite vegetable
• In EU agricultural regulations fpr fruit jams/jellies carrots are considered a fruit as well as a vegetable since the Portuguese have a traditional carrot jam.
• The world's largest carrot was grown in Alaska in 1998 weighing 8.614 kg (18.99 pounds).

This week the WHB host is Kate from Thyme for Cooking. Be sure the visit the recap to see what's going down in the world of herbs.

References: http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk
http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=21
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrot

Tags: morsels and musings food blog food and drink australia recipes weekend herb blogging whb salad side dish carrotspinenuts roasted carrots carrot recipe moroccan recipes moroccan food moroccan cuisine moroccan morocco