Daring Cooks: Olive Oil Braised Carrots

The March 2012 Daring Cooks' Challenge was hosted by Carol aka Poisonive--and she challenged us all to learn the art of braising! Carol focused on Michael Ruhlman's Technique and shared with us some of his expertise from his book "Ruhlman's Twenty".

This is my first Daring Cooks Challenge! I was very excited to see that the challenge was braising. In the January/February fine cooking magazine, they featured olive oil braised vegetables. I had been wanting to try some out and this presented the perfect opportunity. Braising is very simple and fast. Most of the time spent is inactive. The flavor is amazing for such minimal effort. The same is true of meat dishes. I made braised short ribs, but failed to take any pictures. The short ribs were assembled and put into the oven for 4 hours, in under 20 minutes.

These carrots are a great way to add variety to your average vegetable side dish. They are such little work, for huge flavor. Try slicing them and drizzling them with red wine vinegar, it adds a nice tang. Enjoy them!

Recipe courtesy of Fine Cooking
Ingredients:
1 pound carrots (about 4-5 medium carrots), peeled and halved lengthwise
2 medium cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
1/3 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 scant teaspoon cayenne pepper
Kosher salt to taste
Mint, roughly chopped or torn

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375F. Fit the carrots in a single layer in 9 x 13 baking pan. Sprinkle the garlic slices over the carrots.
2. In a small bowl whisk together the broth, olive oil, cinnamon, nutmeg, cayenne, and salt and drizzle over the carrots. cover the baking pan with aluminum foil.
3. Braise the carrots in the oven until fork tender, about 30-40 minutes. Garnish with mint.