Baby carrots in Camel CSA’s veg boxes

In all the boxes this week:-
*new season baby carrots
*Swiss chard
*spring onions
*parsley
*Cornish new potatoes (Mark Norman, Bodmin)
strawberries (Mitchell Fruit Garden)
cauliflower (Growfair, Cornwall)

Standard boxes also have:-
extra new potatoes
*mangetout OR podded peas
*mixed lettuce bag – including ‘Freckles’
Hispi ‘sweetheart’ cabbage (Growfair, Cornwall)

* = grown to organic principles
Please wash all vegetables and fruit. All produce grown by Camel CSA unless otherwise indicated

Try these delicious baby carrot dishes on Camel CSA’s recipes page: –
Baby carrots with lemon and thyme
Jamie’s best whole-baked baby carrots

Seasonal local food recipe No.150: Jamie’s best whole-baked baby carrots

We have REAL baby carrots in this week’s veg boxes – not the baby-cut carrots that are heavily marketed in supermarkets as a healthy alternative to junk food.

Real baby carrots are delectable eaten raw or lightly steamed. They are also delicious roasted, in this simple recipe from Jamie Oliver. He says: “By cooking them first covered by tinfoil, they steam and exchange flavours with the herbs and garlic. Then when you remove the foil they start to roast and sweeten.”

Serves: 4

Preparation: 5 minutes
Cooking: 40-50 minutes

Ingredients
750g/1lb 10oz young bunched carrots, different colours if possible, washed and scrubbed
olive oil
herb or red wine vinegar
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
a few sprigs of fresh thyme
3 cloves of garlic, crushed

Method
Preheat your oven to 200°C/400°F/gas 6. Toss your carrots with a good glug of olive oil, a splash of vinegar, salt and pepper, the thyme sprigs and the garlic cloves.

Place in a roasting tray or earthenware dish, cover tightly with tinfoil and cook for 30 to 40 minutes until just tender. Remove the foil and cook for a further 10 minutes until the carrots have browned and caramelized nicely.

Baby carrots with lemon and thyme
Summer carrots, herb sauce

Seasonal recipe No 48: Baby carrots with lemon & thyme

A simply delicious way of cooking new-season carrots from Henrietta Danvers, one of Camel CSA’s picking and packing volunteers.

Serves 6

Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking: 15 minutes

Ingredients
750g baby carrots, tops off
2 sprigs of fresh thyme, chopped finely
Juice of half a lemon
25g butter
500ml vegetable stock

Method
Scrub the carrots and leave them whole. Bring the stock to the boil in a heavy-bottomed pan, then add the butter and lemon juice. When the butter has melted, add the whole carrots and cook for five minutes. Take out the carrots with a slotted spoon and pour some of the liquid into another container (keep for soup). Retain about 1ml of stock in the bottom of the pan and reduce it over a high heat. Pop the carrots back into the pan to coat them with the remaining liquid. Sprinkle on the chopped thyme leaves and serve.

Update 

Glad we agree on this one: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s cookery column in the Guardian this weekend features – guess what – new-season carrot recipes.  “There’s not much that heralds the onset of summer as much as a new-season carrot – so get grating, chopping, roasting, even baking now,” he says.

We will, Hugh, we will…