Bourbon Maple Glazed & Braised Carrots


I love carrots. Especially their bright orange color. Usually, I eat carrots raw as carrot sticks. But I often forget how sweet carrots are when cooked. Another one of my favorites is roasted carrots with potatoes. It is rare to find a dish where the carrots are the star. One of the standard culinary carrot dishes I learned to make in culinary school was glazed carrots. Unfortunately, it rarely lived up to its potential. I believe due to the technical execution which consisted of boiling the carrots in too much water in a narrow sauce pan, resulting in watery and mushy carrots with no color left. Herein lies my redo of this classic. Braising proves perfect for glazing. Braising is when something is cooked in a wide covered dish with no added moisture over medium to high heat. Here my seasonings consist of my seasonal favorites: maple syrup, Kentucky bourbon (yes, it is gluten-free, made from corn: my choice Eagle Rare), nutmeg, and butter. My favorite cut for carrots is oblique which is easy, making all cut about the same size, and very fancy looking. Here's a link of oblique cut demonstration video. Special enough for the holidays. Easy enough for anyone to make. Tasty enough for everyone to enjoy.

Ingredients:
1 pound carrots, peeled, cut oblique
1 tablespoon butter (or olive oil)
2 tablespoons (real) maple syrup
3 tablespoons Kentucky bourbon
dash nutmeg
salt, black and white pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoon parsley or chives, finely chopped (optional)

Directions:
In a large skillet (make sure you have a tight-fitting lid for it), heat the butter, maple syrup, and bourbon over medium heat with occasional stirring, simmering for about 5 minutes to cook off alcohol. Add in cut carrots, a dash of nutmeg, pinches of salt and pepper. Stir. Cover with lid. Occasionally stir. After about 10 minutes, the carrots should appear darker and glazed. Check with a fork for tenderness and taste for seasonings. Once tender per your preference, remove from heat and toss in parsley if you would like. Serve immediately.

-Erin Swing
Swing Eats

This is part of Food Network's Fall Fest, highlighting the produce that is in season. Check out The FN Dish. The seasonal produce we are focusing on the carrot. Come over to Twitter where we are discussing it on #cookingwith and #fallfest. Here’s the link to our Fall Fest Pinterest board: http://pinterest.com/foodnetwork/lets-pull-up-a-chair/  Here are other delicious features on carrots :

Feed Me Phoebe: Honey Roasted Carrots with Thyme
Jeanette's Healthy Living: Ghost Chile Carrot Hot Sauce
The Heritage Cook: Roasted Carrot and Sweet Potato Soup #FallFest
Elephants and the Coconut Trees: Carrot Cake with Coconut and Raisins
Weelicious: Spiced Carrot Cauliflower Soup
The Mom 100: Carrot Fries with Sriracha Sauce
Big Girls, Small Kitchen: Easy Slaw with Carrots & Red Peppers
Devour: Fall Fest: Carrot Recipes to Covet
In Jennie's Kitchen: Carrot "Fettucine" with Lemon Thyme Butter Sauce
Napa Farmhouse 1885: Carrots & Avocado with Cumin
The Wimpy Vegetarian: Maple Candied Carrots with Currants
Swing Eats: Bourbon Maple Glazed & Braised Carrots
Dishing With Divya: Honey Glazed Baby Carrots
Daily*Dishin: Spicy Carrot Spread/Dip (Guten Free-Dairy Free)
FN Dish: 5 New Ways to Bake with Carrots

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