November 2015

I like carrots just fine.

They are readily available, inexpensive and versatile, well-suited to everything from roasting, to pickling, to scooping up hummus.

But they are not, generally speaking, all that interesting.

So when I saw Heidi Swanson describe this Uzbeki carrot recipe as exactly that on her website, 101 Cookbooks, I immediately began to pay attention.

The recipe originally comes from Diana Henry’s book, “A Change of Appetite,” and just like Heidi said, it is among the most interesting things I’ve ever seen anyone do with carrots. Somehow, the carrots, tomatoes, spices, herbs, dried fruit and honey all come together, turning one of the most mundane root vegetables into something truly intriguing.

I don’t really know anything about Uzbeki cuisine or even what about it is about this recipe that earns it the moniker, but if it is all as complex and nuanced as these carrots then I definitely want to learn more….

A while back, I decided to try my hand at making our sandwich bread.

I checked out books from the library and poured over recipes online. I bought yeast and vital wheat gluten and refreshed my stash of bread flour, which I typically use only for cookie making.

Then I set to work, making popular, tried-and-true recipes with the idea that we could slash our grocery budget and enjoy freshly-baked, whole grain bread several times a week.

Well, it didn’t really work.

The bread was OK, but no more than OK. It was never fresh and ready quite when we needed it, so we were always eating bread that was at least day old. And even the recipes designed for busy cooks seemed a little fiddly or required somewhat obscure ingredients. In the end, the return on investment just wasn’t there.

After a few weeks, I ran out of steam and went back to good old Pepperidge Farms.

Maybe making sandwich bread just isn’t my thing.

But these dinner rolls! They are amazing….

Diana Henry’s Uzbeki Carrots

Make-ahead Dinner Rolls

Archives for November 2015