How do you elevate a humble ingredient like a carrot to the centerpiece of a vegetarian main course dish? You make it into everyone's favorite food... the schnitzel!
My submission for week #2 of Steemit Iron Chef is a main course dish using carrots.
The dish is, a Carrot Schnitzel with a Carrot Sauce, Yogurt and a Carrot Top Pesto.
I started by peeling and steaming the carrots until they were tender.
After the carrots were tender I left them uncovered in the refrigerator overnight to really dry out.
Next I made the carrot sauce. This sauce is a puree sauce and the ingredients are:
- All the uncooked carrot peelings from steamed carrots
- One roughly cut carrot unpeeled
- 30 grams of sweet onion, sliced
- 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander seed
To make the sauce, heat a sauce pan on medium heat and toast the ground coriander seeds. The sauce pan should be dry with no oil and the coriander is toasted when you can smell its aroma. This takes about 30 seconds. Add the onion, carrot and carrot peelings to the sauce pan and cover the vegetables with water. Bring to a boil on high heat and then reduce the heat and simmer the vegetables until they are soft. This will take around 20 minutes. Most of the water should of evaporated by this point. Puree the vegetables and liquid in a food processor and season with salt and pepper to taste. Keep the sauce warm while you make the pesto.
For the pesto you will need the following ingredients
- Two bunches of carrot tops (blanched and shocked)
- 1/3 cup of olive oil
- The zest of one fresh lemon
- The juice of 1/2 fresh lemon
- The peel of 1/2 of a preserved lemon
- 1/3 cup pistachio nuts
- 1 teaspoon of whole coriander seeds (crushed with a mortar and pestle)
- 2 dried chilies
- 1 clove of garlic (peeled)
To make the pesto add all of the ingredients except the olive oil into a food processor. Turn on the machine and slowly drizzle in the olive oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste. I found that the carrot tops needed to be blanched to reduce their natural "grassy" flavor. Once the flavor was mellowed out a bit, it made a tasty pesto with the other ingredients.
To prepare the yogurt you need:
- Plain yogurt
- Water
In a bowl, whisk the yogurt and slowly add water until the consistency of the yogurt is similar to the consistency of the carrot sauce.
To prepare the carrots you will need:
- The steamed and dried carrots
- 1/2 cup of flour
- 2 eggs beaten
- 2 cups of bread crumbs
- 1 cup of neutral flavored oil
Season the carrots with salt and pepper to taste. Using the standard breading procedure, coat the carrots in the flour and shake off the excess flour. Then coat the carrots in the eggs and let the excess eggs drip off. Finally, coat the carrots in the bread crumbs and really make sure they are fully coated. Heat the oil to medium high heat and pan fry the carrots for around 2 minutes per side. The crumbs should take on some color and become crispy. Drain the carrot schnitzels on a wire rack and then move on to plating.
For the plating, I choose to do a "family" style. This platter would be presented to the table and everyone would share the dish. First I put down a base of the carrot sauce. Then I spooned the pesto around the carrot sauce. I drizzled the yogurt over the two sauces. I stuck some carrot tops into the cooked schnitzels to make sure it was obvious that these are carrots and finally I nestled the carrot schnitzels into the sauces.
The interior of the schnitzel was tender and sweet, with the exterior giving the dish a great crunch. The opposing textures were perfect together. I love carrots with coriander seeds so, this was my inspiration for the flavor profile. I wanted a really simple low fat carrot/coriander sauce to go with the richer and spicer pesto. The yogurt acted to cut some of the richness of the schnitzel and to cool the chilies in the pesto.
As always thank you for stopping by today!
Two quick questions before I say goodbye... Would you order a Carrot Schnitzel with a Carrot Sauce, Yogurt and a Carrot Top Pesto for a vegetarian main course in a restaurant? Why or Why not?
Thank you.
Steve
Can someone smack me for being insensitive but isn't the point of eating raw or clean foods is to keep it clean?
I'm stuck on confusion... Aloha!
You are so funny! I love that line "I'm stuck on confusion..." Thanks for the comment @islandliving
@chefsteve...when I'm rich would you like to mess with all my veggies?!!!
Aloha my dear. You are very creative. Stay that way no matter how hard my mind need to bend..
This looks amazing. Going to try this. Following and upvoted
Thanks! I will head over to your page to see your content!
Looks good! I would probably order pork schnitzel before carrot schnitzel but that's just because I'm a savage carnivore... This is definitely an interesting carrot dish though! Never seen anything like it before
You get an extra tip! for the great resonance of this post !
thank you so much!
wow
@nx4440
Thank you! "wow" is such an incredible complement!
Great.
Thanks @nightgirl!
Your dish made me drooling! I have just had my lunch but I dont refuse if you give me some :-D Good luck for the contest! :-)
Thank you for your super nice comment! That was my goal, to make the humble carrot look and taste really good! Good luck to you, in the contest!
Wauw, I am completely amazed!! I cannot compete with that :) You are the master! I would definitely would want to try it if I was in a vegetarian restaurant, but maybe more as a starter I think..
Thanks Man! You have taught me so much! I thank you for being my friend and teaching me how to excel here. I have listened to your advise and applied only some of it so far! I have so much to learn. Thank you!
I love to help people if I can, I still have to learn a lot myself! It is a never ending quest haha..
You did really really well! You got a really nice reward for the post, well deserved brother!!
This is such a creative use of the humble carrot! Great dish here @chefsteve!
Thank you so much @jaymorebeet! I really tried to honor this ingredient.
Carrot Schnitzel! What an ingenious idea. I am tired of old boring carrot dishes, so I think I will this one out on the family! Thnks for posting this.
Thanks! I hope your family enjoys this dish!
Totally awesome love it
Thank you for the super passionate comment! I appreciate that!!
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STOPThis is @chefsteve at his best! Wow man, what a dish! You really went all way in elevating the carrot! Using the tops of carrots for the pesto is just an awesome idea and full of creativity!
I am so happy that this week your post got the attention of @curie and @hendrikdegrote, keep on doing the great job chef!
Good luck for the contest!
Thank you, Chef! I am humbled by such complements! I was so inspired by the creativity that I saw in last week's competition. It made me really focus and think outside the box this week. Thank you for organizing this competition. I has helped me to get outside my comfort zone and to push my boundaries again. I have been working in a comfort zone for too long. I feel that I am creative again and I am super motivated to do new things with food.
You really did a great dish my friend!
In fact , another main idea behind steemit iron chef is to make everyone push their limits and transform the product of the week. I am sure all those who joined will just keep doing better and better each week by looking at others entries.
This will just raise the level of the contest!
So happy to see you motivated my friend!
Keep rocking!
Congratulations to this exceptional excellent recipe and this post @chefsteve!! Stay Steemed!
Holger
Thank you @holgerwerner ! I appreciate your kind complement!
Hi @chefsteve! @holgerwerner is sending you 0.1 SBD tip and @tipU upvote
:)
@tipU - send tips by writing tip! in the comment, get share of the profit :)Thank you! I am deeply honored by your generosity!
Mmm yummy, your dishe looks delicious, I'm a cook too and I upvote for it. If you want, you can also look at my recipes. :)
Thanks! I will definitely check out your content!
vow so easy to do, I want to try.
You should try, It is easy to do! Thanks for stopping by!
Congratulations @chefsteve!
Your post was mentioned in the hit parade in the following categories:
Wow, That is so cool. Thanks. I never heard of the hit parade. I will check that out.
What a beautiful and elegant presentation! And it looks yummy!
Thanks for your kind words!
WOAHHH!! Step aside, pork schnitzels!! This one's taking over the game!! =))
I love how you maximized the carrots in this dish, Steve...the skins in the puree sauce, the tops in a pesto, and the main bulk in delightful brilliant schnitzels!! =DD
I would totally order this in a restaurant if I saw it on the day's menu..teehee..well done, and you lived up to your name and experience, Chef!!
Thank you! The carrot schnitzel was delicious. I had two for dinner and it was really satisfying. But, nothing can touch the awesomeness of the original! I remember having a huge pork schnitzel in Vienna once that was so good. You know the kind that covers the whole plate!
OOO...aren't you lucky to have two!!!
hehe yes, I totally get the covering-the-whole-plate image..I sometimes find the schnitzels a little too tough though..I've got a lazy jaw =P
Upvoted :-) What I love most about this dish is there is no waste. I also like that you're open to feedback from everyone- I may pinch that idea! Great way to learn how to improve in the future. Very insightful post for me :-) PS- I would defo order this in a restaurant because I've never had carrot schnitzel and I love pesto!
Thanks! I don't like to waste food. So much of what we call waste is just food that no one has found a use for yet.
Accepting feedback is so important if you want to grow and keep learning. I have been a chef for 17 years and I intend to keep learning for the rest of my life. I have no problem learning from anyone that has knowledge that I do not have yet or If they have knowledge that is better then what I currently know. That is why I love @steemit-ironchef. Every week you can pickup tips and ideas from Pros to weekend gourmets. I don't remember seeing your post last week... I am going to head over to see what you made! Good luck with the beets!
Thank you!