Smoked Honey Roasted Carrots with Chives

The key to good roasted vegetables is technique, period. Keep it simple, use enough fat and enough heat to properly caramelize the vegetables, don't overcook them and pair with simple, like flavours! In this case, the sweetness of roasted carrots pairs perfectly with the honey, and is brought to life by the acidity and heat in the sauce. 

 

What you need

Food:

2 tbsp olive oil

2 medium sized carrots, approx. 250g

1 large clove of garlic, 1 tbsp sliced

20 pieces of chives, 2 tbsp sliced

1/3 cup TGCS Co Smoked Honey Mustard Sauce

1 tsp butter, cut into small cubes

Kosher salt to taste.

Equipment:

Heavy bottom saute pan, just big enough to fit all the carrots in a single layer so they are spaced out a bit.

Spoon for stirring

Small strainer set over a bowl

Oven Mits

How to cook it:

Preheat your oven to 400 F.

1. Peel the carrots if that's your thing, personally I just like to wash them, especially when roasting, I find the little nooks in the outside of an unpeeled carrot adds a nice crispiness. Cut the carrots into whatever shape you like best! Anything works, as long as they are about 0.75-1" thick. I cut them using a "roll cut" or "Oblique" if you want to be fancy about it. Google "How to roll cut carrots" for a few tutorial videos.

2. Peel the garlic and slice it as thinly as you can.

3. Slice the chives as thinly as you can.

4. Heat the saute pan until quite hot, add your olive oil. If you got the heat right, the oil should lightly smoke when added to the pan. Immediately add you carrots, spread them out in a single layer and DO NOT MESS WITH THEM! 

5. Once you see some colour/browning around the edges of the carrots, stir them, you should see some nice caramelization on them. Leave them alone for another minute or so, then stir again. Season with Kosher salt and put the pan into the preheated oven. Set a timer for 5 minutes.

6. After 5 minutes, stir the carrots, check to see if they are tender, a knife should easily pierce them, but you don't want them to be soft. Cook them for another 5 minutes, or longer if needed.

7. Remove the pan from the oven, pour the carrots and the oil into the strainer set over a bowl, scrape as much oil out of the pan as possible. We are going to add more fat so we need to discard as much of the olive oil as possible.

8. Place the pan back on the stove over medium heat and add the butter, once the butter has melted, add the sliced garlic, stirring non-stop until you can smell the garlic, do not allow it to brown. Add the strained carrots back to the pan and toss with the garlic, then add the Smoked Honey Mustard Sauce.

9. Allow the sauce to come just to a boil, toss the carrots to coat evenly, taste one and add more salt if desired. Transfer to your desired plate and/or bowl, sprinkle liberally with chives.

10. ENJOY!!