Carrots, charred onion, basil and pumpkin seeds
Any left-over vegetable glaze can be stored in the fridge for up to six weeks and reused (just top up with a little water). Use to cook jerusalem artichokes, celeriac, onions, turnips, pumpkin or cabbage.
45 MINUTES | SERVES 4 AS A STARTER | EASY | V GF
carrots 4, peeled
thick yogurt 4 heaped tbsp
pumpkin seeds 2 tbsp, toasted
CHARRED ONION DRESSING
onions 2 small, peeled and quartered red, white, apple cider or moscatel vinegar 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil 5 tbsp
VEGETABLE GLAZE
unsalted butter 125g, diced demerara or caster sugar 95g
cardamom pods 2, crushed
star anise 2
BASIL OIL
basil 100g, stem and leaves roughly chopped
flat-leaf parsley 25g, big stalks removed, roughly chopped
grapeseed oil 200ml
1 Put the vegetable glaze ingredients into a pan with 500ml of water and gently bring to the boil. Turn down to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes. Add the carrots, season with salt and cook on a gentle heat for 6 minutes. Turn the carrots over and repeat. To check if a carrot is cooked, insert a skewer or tip of a small knife into the thickest part – you should be able to remove it fairly easily. I like to serve the carrots just cooked, but if you prefer them softer, then cook a little longer. During cooking if the glaze reduces too much, top it up with a little water. Remove the carrots from the glaze and set aside. The glaze should be thick and syrup-like – if it isn’t, reduce a little further.
2 To make the basil oil, put the herbs in a pan of boiling water and cook for 15 seconds. Take the herbs out and immediately dunk them in iced water. Squeeze all the excess water from the herbs then put in a high-speed blender with the oil and blitz, starting on the lowest setting for 30 seconds and then on to the fastest setting for 2-3 minutes or until the herbs are as fine as they will go. You can leave the oil as it is or strain through a muslin-lined sieve.
3 For the onion dressing, heat a griddle pan over a high heat. Grill the onions for 3-4 minutes on each side to blacken them on each surface. Put the onions into a small blender along with the vinegar and olive oil, and blitz to a coarse purée. Season with fine salt. Check if you’re happy with the amount of vinegar, too.
4 I like to char the carrots a little in the hot griddle pan but this is optional. Cut the carrots into irregular shapes and toss with a little bit of the glaze. Spread some yogurt across the bottom of a plate, scatter the carrots and pumpkin seeds on top, add a drizzle of basil oil and dot over the charred onion dressing.
PER SERVING 197 kcals | fat 13.6G | saturates 4.3G carbs 12.3G | sugars 10.7G | fibre 2.9G | protein 4.9G | salt 0.1G
Carrot and haddock recipes adapted from Three: Acid, Texture, Contrast by Selin Kiazim (£25, Quadrille). Rice pudding recipe from Oklava. Recipes are supplied by the publisher and not retested by us.