I like carrots.  Very very tasty veggies!  I found this recipe and now I really LIKE carrots.  This recipe is one of the best for making carrots crunchy tasty or roasted chewy tasty.  Cook’s choice!

I did do this recipe as a combination of Roman carrots with Saracen lamb.  Not precisely in the recipe books but hey, it’s Roman and anything goes for a Roman cook!

Roman Parsnips and or Carrots

Quick addendum:

Apicus equated parsnip with the carrot with the recipes being interchangeable with out detriment to either vegetables taste. (Faas, pp. 214)

Translation:

Cut the boiled carrots into small pieces and boil in a cumin sauce with a little oil.

(Faas, pp. 214).

Cumin, salt, old wine, and oil.  Fi you wish add pepper, lovage, mint, rue and coriander. (Ap.118/Faas, pp. 215)

Ingredients:

24 oz carrots (I use baby carrots)

Water to cover

1 tsp salt

Sauce:

1 tsp each of  salt, ground pepper, ground cumin, ground coriander and whole thyme.

1/3 c olive oil

½ C wine (red or white depending on taste) if desired.

Redaction:

I have added a slightly different twist to this due to my own palate.  Boiling carrots till they are just cooked leaves, even with spices, a slightly bland taste.  I have altered this as to boil then roast then carrots for a richer taste.  This is my own preference.  Should roasting not be desired stop at the boiling of carrots and mixing in of the sauce.

First boil the carrots until just slightly tender.  Usually about 10 minutes.  The carrots are then drained.  While the carrots are draining I mix all the spices and oil together.

This is the oil and spices on the carrots.  I forgot to take a picture of the carrots/spice mix.  It looks better once everything is mixed together!

I do a taste test to make sure no one ingredient is over powering the others.  The fresher the spice the stronger the flavor, so if one spice is not as strong as it should be, add in more starting at ¼ a tsp at a time.

I usually do not add wine.  In my opinion this makes the sauce a little to soupy.  I want my spice mix to stick to the carrots.

Next I place the carrots in a backing dish, mix the spices over and roast for 30-45 minutes.  This gives the carrots a deep rich roasting flavor that will quickly endear them to any palate.

I have also done this dish where I added foreleg of lamb with a Middle Eastern rub spice mix called Rogan Josh.  This mix contains Paprika, garlic, ginger, coriander, cumin, turmeric, cayenne, Saigon cinnamon, cardamon, cloves and spices. (From the Savory Spice Shop)

I decided on foreleg as a whole leg was to big but a foreleg was just enough meat for one person.

When the meat was cooked over the carrots there is this delectable rich meatiness as well as the wonderful taste of spicy carrot goodness.

This is an awesomely delectable dish that you can not go wrong on!  The foreleg per person may be to much to do for a feast but for 2-4 people they are just right over Roman Carrots!