Beer Braised Carrots

This recipe too comes from the Jennifer McLagans’ excellent book, Bitter: A Taste of the World's Most Dangerous Flavor, with Recipes. We’ve made whole meals around the recipes in this book…as you might notice, in this issue of the journal. The original recipe just calls for “beer”, without any mention of what sort might be best. A rich chocolatey stout, a citrusy wheat beer, a bracing IPA? We tried them all. Suggestions follow, in the recipe below. In the end, though, you have to use your imagination, to decide what you think would suit the intended diners best. Or, do as we did, and make it over and over, with different beers, until you hit on the best one. It’s not a bad method, at all.

We liked best, a white beer with coriander and orange peel, which made a golden glaze that was hardly beery at all. Stout made a dark, deep glaze, visible against the sunny orange of the carrots. IPA was noticeably bitter, an interesting contrast to the sweet roots, but certainly not for the faint of heart. In fact, in our recipe testing, half of our staff loved the carrots with the IPA and half did not care for it at all.

Directions

1) Prep your carrots

Scrub the carrots well, or peel them if desired.
Cut on the bias to make 1/2” slices.

2) Melt your butter

3) Cook your carrots

Add the carrots and salt, and cook for 5 minutes, stirring to coat the carrots with butter. The carrots will release liquid.

Pour in the beer and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat so the beer bubbles gently, and cook for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the carrots are cooked through and the liquid is reduced to a couple of tablespoons.

4) Season and serve immediately

Season with black pepper and more salt, if necessary.

Over to You

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