Carrots can be a wonderful vegetable side dish, but are very often overlooked because most people buy baby carrots and are just tired of them. In order for this to be an interesting and appealing dish you've got to take care to do a couple of things. First, use large carrots which have a sweeter flavor and that you can also cut into random shaped pieces. Second, don't over cook the carrots, they should still have a slight crunch to the bite.
Ingredients:
Large carrots, about 4 - 5 depending on size
Preparation:
Wash and peel the carrots. Use this technique to create a visually appealing cut carrot. Cut the carrot with you knife at a 45 degree angle. Next, rotate the carrot 1/4 turn keeping the knife in the same position at a 45 degree angle. Do this each time you cut a piece of carrot and you will end up with your visually appealing dish.
To cook your carrots, place them in a steamer and cook for 5 to 6 minutes and test the doneness. The carrots will be done when you can stick a fork right to the middle of the carrot, but not all the way through. This will give you a perfect "al dente" carrot. When cooked, rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process. This will also keep your carrots the bright orange color because there are few things worse that and overcooked brown carrot.
To finish your carrot dish, reheat the carrots in a sauté pan with a little butter or olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and you're done.
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