I like the idea of using vegetables to make sauces. I feel it can make for a lighter dish with unusual flavor combinations, and it allows me to get another vegetable on the plate in some instances. I frequently make a carrot sauce using carrot juice which I reduce to a glaze, but I wanted something less sweet, and more directly “carroty”, and light. This is the result. This was used with grilled sturgeon that was dusted with curry powder, and served with a quenelle of mint yogurt.
INGREDIENTS:
1 bunch Chantenay carrots, peeled, split, and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 shallot, peeled and finely diced
1 tablespoon “sweet” curry powder* or more if needed
1 good pinch of sugar (around 1 teaspoon) or a small drizzle of agave nectar
Salt and pepper to taste (white pepper is nice so you don’t have a myriad of black specks in your bright orange sauce.)
Grapeseed oil as needed
2 tablespoons unsalted butter (or more if needed) cut into pea sized bits
Water as needed
METHOD:
Heat a 2 quart chefs pan (or 2 quart sauteuse) over medium heat. When hot, film the pan with oil. Get this hot, but not smoking, and add the carrots. Sauté a few minutes until the carrots are showing signs of coloring. Not browning, but just transitioning from raw to cooked. Add shallot and cook just until shallot is translucent. Sprinkle carrots with curry powder and toss to coat. Cook until fragrant. Sprinkle carrots with the sugar or agave. Cook just until sugar starts to caramelize or agave starts bubbling. Add 1 tablespoon of butter to the pan, and pull pan from heat, tossing carrots to move the sugar and butter around, and carefully add enough water to the pan to cover the carrots by 1½ inches.
Return the pan to the heat and bring to a vigorous simmer. Cook carrots until very tender, around 15 minutes-you should be able to smash one by pinching it between thumb and forefinger. Season with salt and pepper, swirling to mix. Taste a carrot. If it seems to need more curry, add a pinch. Toss to combine and taste. When carrots are cooked soft, lift them from the cooking liquid and transfer to a blender. Cook the remaining liquid in the pan down until only a half-cup remains. Pour this into the carrots, and add the last tablespoon of butter.
Puree the carrots. If they are reluctant to turn, add a little hot water, a tablespoon at a time, until the carrots are spinning freely and form a soft fluffy puree. Puree on high for at least one minute. Taste the puree and decide if you want more butter. Butter will help add loft and silkiness to the puree, and will emulsify into the puree helping it to hold together. The puree should not be too stiff, nor too runny. It should be sauce like. It should coat the back of a spoon and your finger should leave a trail in it when you run it through, but not like with mashed potatoes. When you put it on the plate, you should be able to spread it around and have it be smooth on top, but not have it run. The taste should be bright and carroty, lightly sweet with the curry as a background presence. If the sauce seems too much like mashed carrots, add a little more water and butter and puree for 30 more seconds. If you find the sauce is too wet, pour the sauce into the pan and sauté, stirring all the while, until the sauce reaches the desired consistency. Check for taste, adjust if necessary, and the sauce is ready to use.
Use right away or you can transfer the sauce to a 1 quart jar and keep it warm by putting the jar into a pot of warm water on the stove.
*”Sweet” Curry powder is one that has more fenugreek and fennel in it, and not a lot of chili. The curry powder should not be too “spicy” or it will overwhelm the sauce. A little heat wouldn’t be bad, though, as the sweetness of the carrot sauce would make a nice foil. Curry powder is also known (more correctly) as garam masala.
Chefs Notes and Tips:
This sauce was served under sturgeon that had been lightly oiled and then sprinkled with curry powder and grilled. The sauce was ladled onto the plate and spread out a bit, and then the fish was centered in the sauce. The fish was topped with mint yogurt quenelles. This was made by smashing 20 mint leaves in a mortar, and then adding a splash of grapeseed oil-just enough to form a brilliant green emulsion. To this I added around 1/3rd of a cup of labne (A very thick yogurt-variously called strained yogurt, yogurt cheese, kefir-cheese. Not as tangy as Greek yogurt, but denser. A great item to have in the frig!) and stirred it in until the labne was bright green. The sauce could also be cooked without curry, but use fresh thyme instead. Season halibut with thyme and roast it, and use the carrot sauce. Served with peas or favas it would taste great and look beautiful. You could use a mint oil for garnish.
If you wish, you could use a little less liquid so the carrot is more of a paste, and then you could form quenelles and use this as a side vegetable on the plate. You could also add whipping cream to the blender and it would whip up, forming a mousseline that could be formed or piped out.
Serves: 4
Source: Chef Andrew E Cohen
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