Crushed Carrots with Harissa and Pistachios from "Plenty More"

This recipe was delayed for nearly a week due to an apparent harissa shortage. I know harissa isn't quite as common as - say ketchup (in America at least) but it certainly isn't too foreign of a condiment, or is it? I was first formally introduced to harissa when I was living in New York and sharing a fabulously shanty chic West Village apartment with an amazing bohemian-esque roommate "Sarra" whose family came from Tunisia in Northern Africa. Just as Mexico has its Cholula and Thailand has its Sriracha - Northern Africa has its Harissa. It's a vibrant paste of chili peppers, garlic, and vinegar - and then kicked up a notch with local spices such as caraway, coriander and cumin. These spices "warm" up the spicy condiment, making it something so pleasing to the palate that you would almost, just almost, want to take a big spoonful of (before you realize it is, in fact, hot sauce).

So when I finally made it to Whole Foods, I figured third time was the charm to find this harissa so I could make the next recipe on my list from Plenty More. Success! Not only did they have harissa, they had four kinds of harissa: regular, mild, spicy and green. Jackpot. Regular was just fine for me - it was certainly spicy - enough to where you don't want to leave a little tidbit on your lip if you were perhaps licking the spoon (guilty) because it will be sure to sting. But the regular was still mild enough that you could enjoy it and have it compliment rather than overpower many different types of dishes.

And when I say dishes - I also mean wine, another important "condiment" with meals (at least weekend meals). This night I was having a pre-meal glass of the Etude Pinot Gris, a wine that we first became familiar with when we were members at Cellar 360 in San Francisco.We grew to love Etude for their Pinot Noir but were later introduced to their lovely Pinot Gris - a varietal that I admittedly misunderstood and shunned for quite some time. Pinot Gris is, in fact, the same grape as Pinot Grigio (which I used to call wine water for its lack of anything enjoyable) but the wine itself is quite different. A Pinot Gris tends to be a richer, fuller-bodied dry white - so think of Pinot Grigo with a backbone that is quite food-friendly. Etude does a nice job with theirs and at just under $30 a bottle, it's a bottle that I will enjoy, but not crack open for anyone who claims to love Pinot Grigio :-)

This recipe was quite simple in nature. Ottolenghi describes it as an appetizer dish - one to have out and ready for guests to pick at when they arrive for a dinner party. The thought of this excites me as it is unique and impressive - but easy. I'll be sure to serve to to someone other than Derek at some point. But for its trial run, this recipe landed a spot on our dinner plate, making it a bit of an odd presentation but a refreshingly unique side dish at that.

The majority of time for this recipe is devoted to cooking the carrots, during which you can eaily throw together the add-ins and additional components to the final dish: combine zests and spices for final carrot mixture, make yogurt, chop pistachios. Done.

Then, once the carrots are cooked and pulsed to a chunky puree (so not baby food, just a "mash" if you will) - a quick assembly will make this ready to serve.

I did a half recipe and didn't think Derek and I would polish off this whole platter. Well, perhaps you don't know us by now - perhaps I don't know us well enough by now - but of course we finished it.

Crushed Carrots with Harissa and Pistachios from Plenty More
serves four as a starter

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to finish
• 1 tbsp/15 g unsalted butter
• 10 large carrots (2 1/4 lb/3 kg), peeled and cut into slices 3/4-in/2-cm thick
• scant 1 cup/200 ml vegetable stock
• grated zest of 1 orange
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 2 tsp harissa paste
• grated zest of 1 lemon, plus 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 cup/200 g Greek yogurt
• 3 1/2 tbsp/25 g shelled, unsalted pistachios, coarsely chopped
• salt and black pepper

Directions

1. Place the olive oil and butter in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Add the carrots and saute for 6 minutes, stirring often; they need to soften and take on a bit of color. Add the stock, turn down the heat to medium-low, cover the pan, and cook for another 25 minutes, until the carrots are completely soft and there is hardly any liquid left. Transfer the carrots to a food processor, add 3/4 teaspoon salt, and blitz briefly to form a coarse paste. Leave to cool and then add the orange zest, garlic, harissa, half the lemon zest, and some black pepper. Stir to combine.
2. Mix together the yogurt, lemon juice, the remaining lemon zest, and 3/4 teaspoon salt.
3. Spread the yogurt our on a serving platter and spoon the carrot mixture on top. Sprinkle with the pistachios, drizzle with a little olive oil, and serve.

Crushed Carrots with Harissa and Pistachios served with Leg of Lamb Steak

I had pictured serving the yogurt and carrot mixture as the base of the plate and then topping it with some sort of meat (a spiced pork tenderloin initially came to mind) but with the meat already plated before I could get the carrot mixture down - we treated the two as separate entities which clearly was fine from a taste perspective but lead to less than impressive visual impact. The lamb, simply prepared, added a nice richness to the carrot dish which can be described as particularly bright and zesty.

Note: If serving the carrots as a side and not as a stand-alone starter, I would cut down the zest (perhaps half of an orange and half of a lemon) as it was quite zesty. Then, regardless of presentation, I would kick up the harissa if using mild or regular spicy varieties. I can take the heat - and after my 3 store search for the condiment, the dish deserved more than just a teaspoon (half recipe). We served more on the side to make my search worthwhile!

Overall a unique dip that would certainly impress guests and would be fabulous to serve as a pre-dinner dish. It is light and refreshing, with enough heft to satisfy a hungry guest (or host).

Bon Appetit!