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Rainbow Carrots & Purple Pairing

Rainbow Carrots!? Do they all taste like regular carrots?

At any given market we could field this question a hundred times.!

Carrots have a long and interesting history, but there isn’t time for getting into that during a typical market exchange. 

And what  most people asking the question care about is the flavor and nutrition of these well known roots.

All the colors of carrots do taste like carrots in one way or another.

Yellow is by far the sweetest.

Orange has that classic carrot flavor with a sweet depth that only careful, small scale farming can produce.

Purple range ones have hints of the carrot’s  well know sweetness with some rich, earthy undertones.

Pairing Purple

My advice to people curious about these colorful roots is be adventurous.

Buy a bunch or pint of rainbow carrots and try some! 

The other other big difference is that the pigment of the orange and yellow carrots are well behaved. 

The purples not so much.

The Carrot Museum of the UK is the authority in regard to the story of all things carrot. 

They explain that purple carrots get their pigment from anthocyanins.

These pigments act as powerful antioxidants that protect key cell components,  grabbing and holding on to harmful free radicals in the body. 

Anthocyanins also been noted in helping prevent heart disease by slowing blood clotting and are good anti inflammatory agents.

But unfortunately it also has the power color your meals in an “off” sort of way.

Be warned that most people won’t find the dispersed version of this powerful pigment all that appealing if you get too adventurous in the kitchen.

I’ve had my share of blueish,  purplish,  or gray tinted  meals because as a small farm with a big family to feed I often use what’s around to cook with. 

But it’s not always the ideal pairing for picture perfect meals. 

So here’s my advice for paring purple carrots.

Enjoy them raw in salads.

Steam them on their own or with other carrots.

Saute them on their own or with other carrots.

Highlight their beauty with half moons,  carrot coins,  create carrot ribbons with a  potato peeler or even create an extra garnish with a microplaner.

Follow these tips and you’ll enjoy delicious colorful meals without the culinary drawbacks from the strong pigments.

Tag  us in your rainbow carrot Instagram  posts @humblehillfarm  , looking forward to seeing what you create!

 

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Organic Rugelach-Brunch Favorite

rugelach greatpin
These delicious, flaky pastries can be enjoyed with brunch, tea, or anytime you’re looking for a snack that satisfies. You might be thinking pastries are too time consuming to make and most of the time you’d be right; but these come together in minutes. Make them once and you’ll be hooked. 30 minutes start to finish. You can do it, thank me later.

Essential tools:
Food processor
2 sheets of parchment paper

4 cups cold unbleached, organic white flour
1tbls + 1tsp Baking Powder
Pinch of sea salt
1/2 cup of organic granulated sugar of some kind

1/2 pound of cold, organic butter cubed
1 cup cold local milk

1 jar of organic jam

Measure all dry ingredients into your food processor, add the cubed butter, pulse and or blend for a minute or until the butter has been crumbed into the flour and there are no visible chunks. While the food processor is running drizzle the cup of milk into the swirling flour. Go slow and at the very end it will start coming together as a dough which makes a ruckus. Just keep an eye on the process, then end result should be a dough that isn’t sticky. So long enough that it forms a dough, but don’t mix for long after the ruckus starts about a minute.
The dough doesn’t have to be chilled, but work quickly.

Remove half of the dough, place it in the center of a piece lightly floured parchment paper or non-stick rolling mat. Form a round shape and slowly press it down into a puck shape, sprinkle with flour, place another sheet of parchment paper over the dough and do your best to rolling the dough out to a uniform circle about 1/3 of and inch thick. Remove the top layer of parchment and use a pizza cutter (or a knife) and cut 16 slices. Quickly do that by cutting the circle in half, then quarters, and so on till you have 16 wedges.

Spread the dough with a layer of your favorite jam. Next roll each piece up from the widest edge to the tip. Place the rolled rugelach on to a baking sheet (greased or parchment paper lined). Place the sheets on the center rack of your oven and bake for 16 min at 350 degrees or until bottoms are browned.

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Winter Parsley Dressing

IMG_4694

Finding enough fresh greens in the winter isn’t always easy, but usually a healthy looking bunch of parsley can be found. This dressing is a quick way to add some fresh greens to a simple meal.

2/3 cup olive oil

1/3 cup + 1 splash of red wine vinegar

A bit shy of a 1/4 cup of water

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 small shallot, diced

1 small garlic clove, shredded

1/3 cup chopped parsley, packed

This recipe can be mixed low tech style in a mason jar by hand or high tech with a blender of some sort; both are tasty, but the hand mixed one is obviously going to be chunkier in texture.

Measure out the oil, vinegar, salt, lemon oil, and water into either your blender or jar.

Wash and finely chop the parsley, peel and finely dice the shallot, and peel and finely dice or shred the garlic add all ingredients these to your liquid mix. Blend all ingredients together with your blender or cap your jar shake. Enjoy!

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Carob Celebration Cake

When winters icy grip takes hold come in from the cold and celebrate the crowning of the year with cake!
When winters icy grip takes hold come in from the cold and celebrate the crowning of the year with cake!

This is a recipe that has stood the test of time. It is one of the earliest cake recipes in our archives. I discovered this recipe while in high school and quickly penned it into my trusty spiral bound notebook which at the time was the keeper of all my culinary dreams. The fact that I still have that ratty old notebook and have never transcribed any of the knowledge within its pages is a testament to two things. Number one is that I’ve been into healthy cooking since 1991 and the hustle to figure out how to make desserts free from refined sugar was so intense that I still treasure and hold tight to that early, foundational knowledge. Number two is that the pace of motherhood and farm life over the last 16 years has been very intense!

This is one of the most decadent cakes that we make here in the Farmhouse Kitchen. It’s reserved for special occasions and days when you just need to honor the journey. Back in the days before Humble Hill I used to sell a version of this cake to a local café in Woodstock. One day I packed up my cake and apple pie for delivery as usual and went into town to make the exchange, they got their desserts and I got cash. When I arrived the employee who greeted me shared that there was no payment on hand today and I could just leave the desserts and get paid next week. The promise of payment was not enough to convince me to leave my consumable products in a fledging coffee shop, so I stacked up my boxes and left. I wasn’t really sure what my next move was going to be, but awkward boxes and all I decided to make one quick stop at a bead shop. I was quite a sight walking in there with a big carob cake and an apple pie, so naturally the manager asked me what was up with the boxes and I told him my story. After he grilled me about what types of ingredients were in my desserts he offered to buy some of each. I thought it was a bit strange, until he explained that he’d been working down there for while and had grown tired of all his lunch options. Since I had no other plan and needed gas money to get home I agreed to sell him some slices off of each one. Over time we developed a relationship centered around our love of food and eventually the manager of the bead shop became my husband.

Carob Celebration Cake!

Wet ingredients:
1 cup of water
1 cup of honey (see variations below)
1/2 cup of oil (canola, safflower or olive)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp vinegar

Dry ingredients:
2 cups of organic unbleached white flour
3/4 cup of carob powder
2 Tablespoons Dani~Blend (herbal coffee substitute)
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking soda

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl combine the liquid ingredients and whip with a whisk until well mixed. Sift the dry ingredient mixture into the liquid mixture and mix everything together into a smooth batter. Pour into a greased cake pan or cupcake tins. Cupcakes baking time is 16-20 minutes depending on their size. The cake bakes for about 25-30 min depending on the size of the pan. Cool cake completely before removing it from the pan. Let cupcakes cool for a few minutes and then remove them from the tins so they cool completely.

Recipe Variations:

Substitute the oil:
Substitute 1/2 of oil with a 1/2 cup of applesauce or you can do half oil half apple sauce totaling 1/2 cup of liquid.

Cut the honey!
Reduce the amount of honey to 1/2 cup and add a 1/2 cup of milk or other liquid to total 1 cup.

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