Not about the castle renovation

Are you tired of reading about the castle renovations yet? I could go on and on about how wonderful it is to have a place for everything and everything in its place. I could show you a picture of how beautiful is the space. Alas, I’m not comfortable with the brackets we chose for the shelves – let’s just say they don’t inspire confidence that they aren’t going to come crashing down on my beloved Alexandria – so the renovations are on hold until we’re not dying anymore. By “we” I mean David. My squirty allergy medicine rocks my blocks and it helped me avoid the almost certain death which David will probably die.

So instead I shall wow you with one of my favorite snack recipes! Hush. You can go on to the next blog if you really don’t want to read about Alton Brown’s carrot salad recipe. You can’t actually get Alton Brown’s carrot salad recipe on the next blog, or the food network’s site either, but that’s your choice.

My understanding is that carrot salad is a staple of southern picnics. I’m not southern and unless there is a table and chairs I’m not a girl who takes a lot of meals out of doors. However, I love me some carrot salad as a sweet snack in the middle of the day. It is lovely as a quick side dish at supper too. I’ve made Mr. Brown’s recipe a few times and have quickly adapted it to suit out tastes.

Start with two pounds of fresh carrots. Scrub the skins a bit under cold running water. Mr. Brown says to peel them. I don’t. I read somewhere once – and I believe everything I read – that all the vitamins and stuff is actually in the skins. Plus, as long as you wash them up well they don’t actually taste any different than the rest of the carrot so why do the extra work? Run your two pounds of fresh carrots through your food processor using the large/coarse grate blade. Alternately you can just buy a bag of shredded carrots at the market – I promise I won’t tell anyone. Especially, Mr. Brown as he says to peel them into noodles, but whatever.

Dump your shredded carrots into a great big bowl. Add to the carrots a half of a cup of mayonnaise. I use the “light” mayo because someone in our home, who shall remain nameless, has high cholesterol. Let’s just say it isn’t me. Or Princess Kitty. Anyway, the light mayo is made with canola oil and it’s a wee bit better for you than just plain vegetable oil.

Next up? A pinch or two of salt. Always use kosher or sea salt. The stuff that comes all the same size and is iodized? Bland and gross and should never be used. Maybe you can use it next winter to salt your sidewalks? Anything but for your food.

Now you’re going to add a third of a cup of brown sugar. I often use less if my carrots are extraordinarily fresh and thusly super sweet. Mr. Brown uses white sugar, but I think brown sugar adds a more subtle sweetness.

Two thirds of a cup of crushed pineapple out of which you’ve squeezed all of the juice. Dole canned is the only kind I use. Theirs is really crushed – to the point that once you’ve mixed together all of the ingredients you can’t actually find the pineapple. It just becomes a lovely background note of sweetness.

Now you’re going to mix in one cup of raisins. Mr. Brown uses only half that amount – and now that I think of it he only uses half of the pineapple too – but we like a raisin or two in every bite. So one cup it is!

If you have kids to feed this is where you stop and just combine everything really well. Tell the children the carrots are brains and the raisins are bugs and they’ll eat it all right on up. However if you have a more discriminating palette, or more sophisticated children, follow me into the land of carrot salad nirvana.

Add to your bowl three teaspoons of curry powder. Yes, curry powder. Mr. Brown says it works with carrots because it contains cumin and cumin is a cousin of the carrot. Whatever the reason it makes it incredibly scrumptious. Also? A pinch of two each of celery seed and caraway seed.

Now stir it all up. Have a fork full or two and then put it in the refrigerator until tomorrow. Tomorrow all of the flavors will have married into what I promise it is far and away the best carrot dish you’ve ever eaten.