In his most enlightening new book, Simple Nature, Alain Ducasse offers Ten Principles for great cuisine. Among those are: Cook and Eat Seasonally and Eat More Vegetables and Less Meat. This is not a vegetarian cookbook but the role of vegetables and fruits dominates.
If you think of the ingredients cilantro and chili, you might imagine you are destined for salsa or guacamole. Carrots? Braising? Never. Never until now. Here’s a Fall recipe that will let you enjoy all the energy that Spring and Summer have poured into those carrots. And, as the picture shows, go beyond just orange carrots. You can find white and even purple ones that make this dish one of fall splendor.
Here’s my review of Simple Nature. The book is divided into four chapters, one for each season. And Alain is very determined that you cook by the season. This Fall recipe of his is being posted on, naturally, the first day of Fall in 2017. It’s an important and lovely book that you will surely enjoy.
Grilled Vegetable Terrine
Yield: serves 4-6
Ingredients:
- 12-16 small new carrots, with greens
- 1 sweet chili pepper
- 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 clove garlic
- 2 springs cilantro (coriander)
- 1 organic, unwaxed lemon
Preparation:
Prepare the carrots
Preheat the oven to 170°C – 340°F. Wash the carrots. Keep 2 inches of their greens. Put into an ovenproof dish. Finely slice the chili and add to the dish. Put the coriander seeds in a pepper mill and grind over the carrots with one turn of the pepper mill. Drizzle with the olive oil and season with salt. Toss. Distribute the carrots evenly in the dish.
Cook the carrots
Place the carrots in the oven and cook until they soften (you can check with the tip of a knife), about 30 minutes. Peel, chop, and add the garlic to the dish. Return to the oven for 5 minutes.
Prepare the cilantro
In the meantime, rinse, dry, and pluck the cilantro leaves. Put the leaves in a bowl and use scissors to coarsely cut them up.
Finish
Remove the dish from the oven and grate lemon zest over the carrots. Squeeze the juice and drizzle it over the carrots. Then scatter the cilantro evenly over the top. Serve from the hot dish.
Source: Source: Simple Nature by Alain Ducasse [Rizzoli,2017]