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Author Archives: Kemp Minifie

New Gourmet Holiday Special Edition On Sale Now!

Posted on October 17, 2012 by Kemp Minifie
Gourmet Holiday

Cover Photo: Romulo A. Yanes

When I get really excited about something, I can’t stop talking about it.  Just ask my family.  That’s been the case with Gourmet Holiday, the latest Special Edition of Gourmet, now on newsstands around the country. During the past three months of work on it, I‘ve been raving to my husband and daughters about all the great recipes, entertaining ideas, cooking tips, and strategies our team managed to cram into 128 luscious pages.

Now I’m free to redirect my enthusiasm for the book towards you. (It’s none too soon for my husband and daughters.) Let’s just say you can count on Gourmet Holiday to have your back this season. And just in time.

New ways to cook the turkey? Check! Forgive me for boasting, but I’m jazzed about an approach I devised that brings out the best in the breast meat, thighs, and drumsticks. Separately. And don’t pass up the bonus recipe that turns turkey skin into cracklings that give bacon a run for its money. Prefer to stick to tradition with your big bird? Check! We’ve got a southern belle that will charm you.

Plenty of side dishes to absorb the gravy, you ask? Check!  And what about vegetarian options for the meatless among us? Got that, too.  Our Mushroom Farro Pie is worth eating all year long. Continue reading →

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Get To Know The New Haricots Verts: Long Beans

Posted on October 16, 2012 by Kemp Minifie
Long Beans

Photo: Kemp Minifie

Don’t these super-long beans look like haricots verts on steroids? They’re a regular in Asian markets, particularly those that carry Chinese and Southeast Asian produce, but they’re popping up with increasing frequency at farmers markets. You’ll see them labeled as yard-long beans, asparagus beans, Chinese long beans, and even snake beans.

Juicy they aren’t. Don’t expect to snack on them raw, like freshly picked string beans. Instead, think of them as the densest, meatiest cooked green beans you ever had. Another plus? Unlike purple green beans, purple long beans don’t lose their color when cooked. And because long beans are so slim, they can stand in for those skinny French beans—haricots verts—quite nicely, although they’re not botanically related. Would you believe long beans are cousins with black-eyed peas?

The folks at Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds are so fond of them, they write in their catalogue that they “wouldn’t go a season without them.” Although Baker Creek doesn’t recommend boiling them, I found that I could briefly blanch the cut-up beans in generously salted boiling water until just barely tender, then drain and sauté them in olive oil with chopped shallots or garlic and herbs.

It also worked to cook them the same way I do dark leafy greens. Film a heavy skillet with a little oil, heat it until it’s hot, then sauté the chopped beans with finely chopped garlic and/or ginger for about 1 minute. Add about ¼ cup water and the lid, then steam the beans until just tender, 2 to 4 minutes. Timing depends, of course, on the age of the beans. Continue reading →

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How To Have Your Wine and Eat It, Too

Posted on October 11, 2012 by Kemp Minifie

Raspberries

As much as I enjoy a glass of wine, particularly at the end of a hectic day, there’s more to its delights than merely drinking it. Thanks to the wonders of gelatin, you can eat your wine, too. A glass of wine jelly, or wine gelée, anyone?

It’s a ridiculously easy dessert that provides loads of creative possibilities. Steep the wine with herbs. Mint is always good, but obvious. Why not experiment with basil, rosemary, lemon verbena, lemon balm, or anise hyssop? Each would add its own intriguing nuance of flavor.

Or mull the wine with spices. Cinnamon, allspice, and cloves are the likely candidates, but you could get a little frisky with star anise, fennel seeds, or coriander. Mulling is usually associated with red wine, but there’s no reason to let it have all the fun. Whites or fortified wines such as Madeira, sherry, or port take kindly to spices, too.

It’s a cinch to suspend berries or other fruit in the jelly; just put them in the wine glasses and pour the warm wine mixture over them. You can assemble wine jellies before you leave for work in the morning, stick them in the fridge, and come home to a snazzy dessert that’s all set to serve. So stop reading and start simmering! Continue reading →

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Late Summer + Early Fall Produce = Fabulous Food

Posted on October 9, 2012 by Kemp Minifie
Butternut Squash

Photo: Condé Nast Archives

Gourmet Live’s Fall Harvest issue coincides with the juxtaposition of the last of the summer’s corn and tomatoes, alongside the winter squashes and dark leafy greens at farmers markets in many parts of the country. Actually, the greens have been around most of the summer, but they’re at their sweetest best as the weather cools and the first couple of frosts nip the air.

During the dog days of July and August, we automatically pair corn with zucchini and other summer squash, but as the daylight shortens in September and October, fresh corn becomes more appealing in squash soups and hearty chowders. One of my favorite soups is a purée of calabaza or kabocha squash (you can even use butternut squash) and coconut milk, topped with a corn relish spiked with lime juice and cilantro. Our cheesy corn chowder is a colorful hodgepodge of late summer and fall vegetables, all cut in small dice to match the size of corn kernels.

Then again, there’s minestrone, that Italian staple that joins the last of the zucchini, green beans, and tomatoes (feel free to substitute fresh for the canned in this recipe), along with the heartier members of the fall garden: kale, cabbage, carrots, and potatoes. My family pasta standby, kale, caramelized onions, and lentils tossed with penne, gets extra color and juiciness at this time of year with the addition of pan-roasted cherry tomatoes. For a real knockout fall main course, try our kale, butternut squash and pancetta phyllo pie. Doesn’t everything looks better wrapped in phyllo?

So grab the gusto and embrace this transitional time of year when the best of two seasons of produce are just waiting to be tossed together in your kitchen. Who knows, your ingenuity coupled with their flavors could result in an exciting new harvest creation. Whatever you’re concocting, we’d love to know about it!

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Get To Know The New Kale: Spigarello Broccoli

Posted on October 4, 2012 by Kemp Minifie
spigarello broccoli

Photo: Kemp Minifie

There’s a new kid on the block in the ever-expanding greens department: Spigarello broccoli. It originally hails from southern Italy, particularly around Puglia, the heel of Italy’s boot. The long, smooth, skinny, dark green leaves can be curly or flat depending on the variety.

I bought my spigarelllo from Rick Bishop’s Mountain Sweet Berry Farm, which operates a hugely popular stand at the Union Square Greenmarket in New York City—a line forms as early as 7:30 am on Saturday mornings—and it also supplies specialty produce to many high-end restaurants in the city. Bishop credits chef Michael White of Marea, one of the restaurants in White’s Altamarea Group, for asking him to grow spigarello.

It’s a non-heading broccoli, says Chris Field, a chef and apprentice farmer to Bishop. Bishop get’s his seeds from Seeds of Italy, the American distributor of Italy’s venerable Franchi Seeds. Although Bishop orders the flat leaf, Field speculates that the varieties of spigarello (spigariello in Italy) get unintentionally mixed. “You walk a row and every four or five plants will be curly, curly, curly, and then there’ll be a broad leaf,” explains Field. Continue reading →

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How To Measure Cheese For Recipes

Posted on October 2, 2012 by Kemp Minifie
Grated Cheese

Photo: Kemp Minifie

Gourmet Live’s latest issue, “The Big Cheese,” reminds me of how sublime cheese is to eat, and how wondrous it can be when cooked with other foods, but also what a pain in the neck cheese poses when you try to measure it for a recipe. That’s because cheeses vary so much. Some have edible rinds, some don’t, some are firm and suitable for grating, while others are soft.

The best way to measure cheese is by weight, which is the way it’s usually sold, but that isn’t a big help to you if the chunk you’ve bought is heavier than what you need for the recipe, and you don’t have a scale at home. Well written recipes take into account each type of cheese and give you another measure, usually a volume one, such as cups of grated or crumbled cheese, for instance, but that isn’t nearly as exact as the weight. (By the way, you’ll make your time in the kitchen so much easier—and your recipes will turn out better—if you invest in a scale that can switch from ounces to grams; it’s an invaluable tool.)

Parmesan is a real conundrum. If you buy it already grated, it’s powdery, and a cup measure will hold more, by weight, than a cup of parmesan grated into shreds. But it gets more complicated. If you grate it yourself, the tool you use can make a big difference. A box grater with small tear-shaped holes produces thicker, heavier shreds, while a microplane creates incredibly light wisps of Parmesan, which when packed into a cup—for a more accurate volume measure—lose their delicacy. Continue reading →

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A Spicy Chile Story

Posted on September 27, 2012 by Kemp Minifie
Chiles

Photo: Romulo A. Yanes

Chileheads rejoice! It’s chile bonanza time right now at many farmers markets in the country. Tim Stark’s Eckerton Hill Farm is a favorite at the Union Square Greenmarket in New York City. His three tables are solidly paved with boxes of so many different varieties of chiles, you wonder how Stark even keeps track of them. But he does. He can identify every single one.

Chile time at the market has its pluses and minuses for a chile farmer. Yes, you attract lots of passionate and curious shoppers, but you also get peppered with questions all day long.

Stark wrote about his fan base among Caribbean immigrants—Cubans, Trinidadians, Jamaicans, and Venezuelans, to name a few— in “Burning Love,” an article that appeared in Gourmet magazine in August, 2008 (it’s not online at gourmet.com, but many blog posts by Stark are there).  Thanks to word of mouth, it’s a steadily increasing group. I was reminded of Stark’s article and the accompanying recipe for Trinidadian Green Seasoning, when I saw a small crowd gathered around his chiles last weekend. Continue reading →

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How To Quickly Core and Slice An Apple

Posted on September 25, 2012 by Kemp Minifie
How to Core and Slice An Apple

Photo: Kemp Minifie

Fess up. Has the following scenario happened to you? You learn a nifty cooking tip, then eventually forget it, only to be reminded of it much later, at which point you wonder how you could have forgotten something so smart and easy. Sound familiar?

I was kicking myself this weekend when I was testing an upcoming recipe—stay tuned for our Thanksgiving Modern Menu!—that involved apples. I called Gina Marie Miraglia Eriquez, a gifted baker and the developer of the recipe, to check just how she got to those ¼-inch thick slices of apple (for instance, she could have quartered the apples and cut each quarter into thinner wedges, the way my mother would have done it).

As Eriquez enthusiastically described her method, we simultaneously realized that she’d done a video demonstrating this timesaving trick. The photograph above also illustrates the technique, but you’d want to do it with a peeled apple—I left the skin in place for the visual appeal.

The basic approach is this: You cut the sides, or cheeks, off the apple, leaving a skinny, squared-off core. Then slice each cheek piece lengthwise.

The benefits are numerous. It’s fast, and the cuts are straight and vertical; no messing with a paring knife trying to pry a curvy core from a quartered piece of apple. Better yet, it’s safer, because each slice provides a flat surface for the apple piece to rest on, which is much more secure, lowering the risk of a bloody knife accident.

Between the photograph above, the video, and the act of writing the tip down, there’s no way I’m forgetting it again!

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How Bruce Feiler Became a Maître D’ at Union Square Café

Posted on September 20, 2012 by Kemp Minifie
Bruce Feiler 450

Illustration: Eric Hanson

Sometimes the backstory to an article is as good, if not juicier, than the article itself. Such is the case with Bruce Feiler’s “The Therapist At The Table,” the archival piece from Gourmet magazine’s October 2002 issue that Gourmet Live featured in its Restaurant Issue last week. In it, Feiler describes what it’s like to go through the Danny Meyer restaurant training program and work as a maître d’ at Union Square Café in New York City.

So did how Feiler land this plum insider job? It all began with his first James Beard award winning article, “A Pocketful of Dough,” in which he chronicles his success at bribing his way into “hard-to-penetrate” New York restaurants, which ran in the October, 2000, issue of Gourmet magazine. (Full disclosure: I was one of the lucky ones roped in to fill out the foursome at Alain Ducasse.)

“The bribing piece really became a thing,” Feiler said when I called a couple of months ago to catch up with him as part of an editors’ note to “The Therapist At The Table,” updating what’s happened to Danny Meyer, Union Square Café, and Feiler since that story ran.  How could a story describing Feiler’s success at bribing, along with “Ten Tips for Tipping” not create a lot of buzz in the restaurant and media worlds?

Before it ran, however, Editor-In-Chief Ruth Reichl was worried about lawsuits. “I spent weeks in the legal department,” recounted Feiler. “I had to get everybody’s name. And everybody was fine except for Danny Meyer, who was upset I had bribed my way into Union Square Café… He wanted to know who took the bribe and I never told him.”  Continue reading →

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Great Greens: Tatsoi

Posted on September 18, 2012 by Kemp Minifie
Tatsoi

Photo: Kemp Minifie

Isn’t this a gorgeous bunch of greens? What you’re looking at is a head of tatsoi (taht-SOY), an Asian green in the large brassica family, which means it’s related to broccoli and mustard. Even if it’s not familiar to you, chances are you’ve likely eaten the smaller spoon-shaped leaves in Asian salad mixes. Sometimes you’ll see the leaves sold loose in upscale markets with large produce sections.

In order to see a whole head of tatsoi, though, you’ve got to go to a farmers market. I was blown away the first time I saw a tatsoi plant in its entirety. It looked remarkably like a flat leafy Frisbee. So I was surprised to see the tatsoi heads standing tall this past weekend, but according to the Kitazawa Seed Company, tatsoi grows more erect in warm weather and flattens out in colder weather. Considering the warm summer we’ve had, no wonder the tatsoi heads aren’t Frisbee-like this season.

Some people describe the leaves as having a mild mustard flavor. I didn’t detect any of that characteristic mustardy heat in the raw leaves from this bunch, and when cooked, it was as mild as baby bok choy. I could have just cut off the leaves and served them in a salad, but I can’t bear to waste stems, so I cooked the whole head. Continue reading →

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My Favorite Sweet Onion: The Ailsa Craig

Posted on September 13, 2012 by Kemp Minifie
Ailsa Craig Onion

Photo: Kemp Minifie

Ever heard of the Ailsa Craig onion? “It’s the only raw onion I can eat,” declared Jim Grillo, owner of Northshire Farms, as he stood in front of a box of big globe-shaped orbs at his stand at New York City’s Union Square Greenmarket. With those words, I immediately bought a couple with the vision of a thick slice of sweet onion nestled in a generous slick of mayonnaise on a piece of crusty bread for lunch. That was about four years ago. It made the best onion sandwich ever, so I’ve been buying bagsful of Ailsa Craigs from Grillo ever since.

Last week, as I was loading my cart with more onions, I wondered aloud about the  name. The question launched Grillo into one of those only-in-New-York stories.

Three years ago, a young fellow, about 19 to 20 years old, came up to the stand, and then immediately dropped down to the ground in front of the table. Grillo thought he might be having some sort of seizure, but the guy quickly pulled out a camera. “He starts taking pictures of himself gyrating around, smiling, in different positions pointing to the sign,” said Grillo. “He was crazy like.” When Grillo asked him what was going on, the fellow replied in a Scottish brogue, “I come from there! I live there! It’s an island off the coast of Scotland.” Grillo quickly solved the Scot’s problem. Grillo handed the fellow an onion, positioned him next to the sign, and snapped the picture for him. Continue reading →

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Our Top Ten Food Tip Tweets

Posted on September 11, 2012 by Kemp Minifie
Corn

Photo: Gourmet/Romulo A. Yanes

When it comes to food and cooking tips, I have to hand it to Twitter. It’s a social platform tailor-made for getting these helpful hints in front of eager eyeballs. As a tweet, the tip stands alone, so it’s easy to consume, without the distraction of a lot of text to clutter the message. And at 140 characters, the information has to be straight to the point and concise.

Labor Day may be history, and the fall school semester has begun, but a bounty of summer produce still fills local markets. Use our Top Ten Food Tip Tweets, below, to grab the gusto before it’s gone!

• The freshest ears of corn feel plump, solid. Each should have a bright green husk, w/a tassel that’s pale, shiny & moist.

• If you love your cooked corn in slabs cut from the cob, lay cob on its side, and cut off the sides, rotating ear.

• Make noodles from zucchini! Use a mandoline to slice into julienne; toss w/salt. Wait 20 minutes; the zucchini will go limp.

• Hate those small chunks of garlic in your pesto? Mince & mash garlic to a paste w/ salt before adding to food processor.

• When working with fresh herbs, use only the leaves−the exception is cilantro, which has tender, flavorful stems.

• Make ice cubes from leftover coffee or tea and use to chill down your iced coffee/iced tea the next day. Continue reading →

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Restaurant Pet Peeves

Posted on September 6, 2012 by Kemp Minifie
Paul Grimes

Photo: Romulo Yanes

In this week’s Gourmet Live, The Style Issue, I profile the artist and food stylist, Paul Grimes, who brings a painter’s eye to the preparation of food for the camera. Since high school, Grimes has also spent a lot of time in restaurant kitchens and dining rooms—working and dining in both—so I was curious to get his take on current trends in that industry.

Open Kitchens: “I am not a fan of open kitchens, or the entertainment of the open kitchens. When I go to a restaurant, I am not interested in watching them make my food. I am more interested in the people I go with. I work in kitchens. I’m not going to pay money to watch a kitchen.”

Music: “I do not like music in restaurants. This trend for loud music? People have the attention span of a tsetse fly!”

Front of the House: “I like the waiter station to be close to the door. I think it is awkward walking into a large space, and you don’t know where to go. You should be immediately taken care of. At Taillevent in Paris, they had an electronic system when you came in the door, so that [the late] Monsieur Vrinat was already walking down the hall to greet you. Whether you were the King of Jordan or Joe Schmo, you were treated equally.”

Lighting: “Good lighting is vital. I hate it when people adjust the lighting in a restaurant. It’s like a lightning bolt has gone through the room, and you never detect that the lighting has dimmed.”

Napkins: “I hate polyester napkins!”

Bathrooms: “I hate bathrooms next to the kitchen.”

At this point, you might wonder what Grimes does like in a restaurant, besides a warm greeting, no music, good lighting, linen napkins, and of course, good food. “I love beautiful flowers,” he said with a sigh, “and clean water in the glass flower vases!”

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Super Salsas With Dried Chiles

Posted on September 4, 2012 by Kemp Minifie
Guajillo Chiles

Photo: Romulo A. Yanes

Salsa! Say the word and most people think red (tomatoes) or green (tomatillos), along with the kick of a couple of fresh serrano or jalapeno chiles. We’re hot on chiles this week at Gourmet Live, and there’s another world of salsas out there using dried chiles that will put a whole new spin on your usual tortilla chips and dip.

If those unfamiliar dried chiles hanging in cellophane packages in the supermarket produce aisle intimidate you, relax. They are a cinch to use. Wipe off the chile first with a damp cloth. Next, remove the stem, then slit the chile open lengthwise, and shake out the seeds. Pull out the veins, too. (In a tiny village in Oaxaca, I saw two women make a special sauce from just the seeds and veins of chiles.)

Often the disemboweled chiles are lightly toasted on a comal or in a dry heavy skillet. It only takes a few seconds on each side, holding the chile flat with tongs, and in the twinkling of an eye, you’ll see them soften and change color slightly. Sometimes the chiles are soaked in hot water for 20 minutes until they’re silky soft, while other times, the chiles are torn or broken into pieces and puréed in the blender with hot, freshly cooked tomatillos or tomatoes. Continue reading →

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Chile Corn Chowder

Posted on August 30, 2012 by Kemp Minifie
Chile Corn Chowder

Photo: Stephanie Foley

Gourmet Live’s latest issue, Sweet Heat, reminded me of what a wimp I used to be about chiles. It took two trips to Mexico—a week’s study with Mexican cooking authority Diana Kennedy at her home in Michoacan, and another week with cookbook author and teacher, Susana Trilling, touring the different areas of Oaxaca to sample some of the many regional dishes containing their richly varied capsicums—to transform me from a chile-phobe  to a chile fan. I learned that not all chiles are searingly hot, and that once you get beyond the heat, each chile has it’s own unique flavor.

I’m particularly fond of the big dried Mexican chiles, and these days, I’m finding them in supermarkets everywhere, even in a Walmart in northern New Hampshire. When reconstituted in water and puréed, the resulting sauce is thick and velvety. My cupboards are now stuffed with cellophane bags of anchos, guajillos, pasillas, and fiery little chiles de arbol.

Anchos are probably my favorite, because their heat tends to be milder, and there’s an earthy sweetness to their meaty pulp. I turned to them for a corn chowder I created several years ago, when I was looking for a way to give the soup a rich and creamy texture without adding milk or cream. True, a simple purée of cooked corn kernels and water is pretty darn creamy on its own in a soup, but the chiles add an extra layer of warmth and body. From the anchos to the corn and potatoes—all native to the Americas—this chowder is a bowl of New World flavors.

My soup is just one example of a way to incorporate more chiles into your life. Tell us, what do you like to make with chiles?

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The Shortest and Funniest Gourmet Recipe

Posted on August 28, 2012 by Kemp Minifie

Photo: CN Digital Studio

There’s nothing like humor to bring on the banter from the creative minds of Gourmet Live and Epicurious.com readers! In Gourmet Live’s latest, The Water Issue, I wrote about the shortest and funniest recipe on Epicurious.com, “Salted Water For Boiling,” which, since it first appeared in November, 2001, has generated over 880 comments in the review section of the recipe. With only 14 words and two numerals, it’s the shortest and simplest recipe that was ever attributed to Gourmet. In the few days since the article appeared last week on the afternoon of Wednesday, August 22, new comments have been added, and they are too much fun not to share.

The first reader to jump in since December, 2011, was “SgtPsychosis,” who asked, “Do you need to rinse the water before boiling?”

Thank goodness “dkphilbin” rushed to this cook’s aid with an answer: ”Do you need to rinse the water before boiling? NO! NO! NO! You rinse the water AFTER boiling! Jeeze, do I have to explain everything;)” Continue reading →

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The Simplest Fresh Corn Soup

Posted on August 23, 2012 by Kemp Minifie

Photo: CN Digital Studio

Gourmet Live’s latest issue on Water got me thinking about how our most precious liquid gets a bum rap in recipes. It’s essential to cooking, yet it often gets taken for granted. Sometimes it doesn’t even rate inclusion in the ingredient list.

Where water really gets ignored is in soups. Many cooks automatically turn to chicken broth for the liquid base, when water would work just as well, if not better, where a pure flavor is the goal. Ask any vegetarian.

In late August, when corn is busting out all over, I’m reminded of one of the simplest summer soups, made from just three main ingredients: Water, corn, and salt. Period. Okay, there are chives, too, but they’re more for garnish. Continue reading →

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Giant Zucchini + Eggs + Herbs = Frittatas!

Posted on August 21, 2012 by Kemp Minifie
Zucchini Frittatas

Photo: Kemp Minifie

Unless you have a vegetable garden, or a friend or neighbor who does, you likely haven’t seen the gargantuan zucchinis that peek out from beneath a canopy of wide squash leaves around this time of year. It’s as if they balloon from baby-squash cute to ginormous in the span of a couple of days, not weeks. City slickers like me, who normally only have access to farmers market produce, won’t see these behemoths, but they are the real stuff of zucchini jokes and unwanted gifts.

Next-door neighbors in northern New Hampshire, where we go on vacation, practically pleaded with us to eat from their vegetable patch, and now I get why. I stumbled upon a four-pound zeppelin while hunting for some tender little zucchinis. My neighbor stuffs and bakes the blimps, but I immediately thought about some individual zucchini pecorino frittatas baked by former Gourmet magazine food editor/stylist Lori Powell, now the food director at Prevention Magazine.

How to tackle my elephantine squash? I peeled it (the skin’s quite tough), cut it crosswise into sections, then quartered each section to facilitate discarding the seedy cores. Next, I coarsely grated 3 pounds of the pale flesh, tossed it with 1½ teaspoons salt, and let it weep in a bowl for 10 to 15 minutes. Continue reading →

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Thank You, Julia Child!

Posted on August 16, 2012 by Kemp Minifie
Julia Child

Photo: WWD

I will always be grateful to Julia Child, because her success made the field of cooking a legitimate career pursuit for bright intelligent young people at a time when it was still considered vocational training for those not college bound.

My three brothers and I knew practically from birth that college was a definite in our future. There was no question of taking time off after high school. We were on track starting in nursery school. So imagine my parents’ surprise when I returned home after college and took a job in a trendy Georgetown restaurant in Washington, D.C. Not quite what they had in mind for a newly minted art history major.

The hours were terrible, but I loved learning new skills. When I complained after a couple of months that the waiters were making triple the money I was, my father sat me down, looked me sternly in the eye and said, “If you want to be a galley slave the rest of your life, go right ahead, but I urge you to write to Julia Child, write to food editors, and find out how they got to where they are.” Continue reading →

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The Remarkable Red Carrot

Posted on August 14, 2012 by Kemp Minifie
Red Carrots

Photo: Kemp Minifie

“What’s up with these carrots?” a friend asked the other evening. “They’re not like regular ones. And I hope you know I mean that in a good way,” he added as he helped himself to another serving.

I’d just braised a bunch of red carrots, my new favorite of the many-hued carrots that are increasingly available at farmers markets and even supermarkets. I find that when cooked, red carrots are denser and meatier than the others, with a more savory flavor; they aren’t so candy-sweet. The red carrots I buy don’t look red so much as deep pink, and when cooked, they turn a dark orange veering towards red.

In case you thought the white, yellow, red, and purple carrots you increasingly see in the marketplace are just a gimmick, I’ve got news for you: Orange carrots weren’t developed until the 1600s in Europe. This root vegetable, the second most popular in the world after potatoes, is believed to have started out as white or purple in it’s native Afghanistan.

In more recent years, the Vegetable Crops Research Unit, a division of the United States Department of Agriculture, has been breeding different colored carrots for their beneficial pigments. Red carrots are a rich source of lycopene, a carotene found in tomatoes and watermelon that is helpful in preventing heart disease and some cancers.

Although kids and adults alike snack away on raw carrots, thinking they’re doing their bodies a big favor, it turns out that cooked carrots are better for you, because more of their nutrients become available to the human body when the cell walls are softened. And cooking the carrots whole, rather than cut up, ramps up their attributes further. In June, 2009, scientists from Newcastle University, in England, announced that their research showed that carrots boiled whole, rather than cut up, contain 25 percent more falcarinol, a cancer-fighting compound. Continue reading →

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