By: Helena Stallings, Culinary Arts Student
The first 6 weeks in Escoffier’s culinary arts program is called the Foundations block. This part of the program is designed to teach you knife skills and all of the cooking methods and techniques used throughout the program, as well as many classic French recipes. For many students, Leah Eveleigh and myself included, glazed carrots or in french Carrots a la Vichy quickly became one of our favorite recipes and luckily, carrots are just coming into the peak of their season. If you are looking for a fast and easy recipe for a family dinner, you are looking for a carrot recipe your children will love, or you have an abundance of carrots in your refrigerator that need to be used, this is the perfect recipe for you.
To start you will need 3 large carrots, peel and cut into the desired shape. Traditionally Carrots a la Vichy is made using oblique cuts, however batonêt or ‘stick’ cuts are fun to use if you are serving children. Next you will need 2 tablespoons of butter and 1 cup of either chicken stock, vegetable stock or water. If you want your carrots a little on the sweeter side, you can always add 2 teaspoons of sugar or honey to the carrots, however the carrots will caramelize in the butter and especially at this time of their season they are already really sweet. Lastly you need 2 tablespoons of chopped parsley for garnish and salt and pepper to taste. When you have your mise en place ready, melt the butter in a large sauté pan, add your carrots and then your cup of liquid. Once the liquid has been absorbed, your carrots should be nice and tender, and you are done! Give them a little seasoning and garnish with the parsley. This fast and easy recipe really is a crowd pleaser and a great way to get stubborn children to eat good vegetables.
Carrots a la Vichy / Glazed Carrots
3 large Carrots (Try using Asian carrots to get a variety of colors)
2 tablespoons of butter
1 cup of liquid i.e. chicken stock, vegetable stock, sparkling water or water
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Salt and Pepper to taste
