I need to work on my steaming if I'm going to be doing more Moroccan cooking. I had both too much and too little water in the steamer for this. Too much, because once the water started boiling it boiled up through the bottom of the steamer and my carrots ended up partially boiled. Too little, because the pot boiled dry before the carrots had finished cooking. I think I need to elevate the steamer a bit more next time and then put more water in the pot. Hopefully that will get the balance right.

Crushed Spiced Carrot Salad

Slightly adapted from The Food of Morocco by Paula Wolfert

Ingredients

• 350g carrots, peeled and trimmed
• 3/4 tsp. cumin seeds, ground
• 1 Tbsp. garlic paste¹
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. sweet paprika
• 3 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1-2 Tbsp. orange juice²
• black pepper, to taste
• 1 Tbsp. chopped flat-leaf parsley

Directions

1. Steam the carrots over boiling water until they are soft and easily crushed with a fork (~30 minutes). Transfer to bowl and set aside.
2. Combine the cumin, garlic paste, salt, cinnamon, paprika and oil and stir to mix.
3. Heat a small skillet over medium heat and add the spice mixture. Cook until warmed through (~30 seconds).
4. Pour the warm spice mixture over the carrots and mash with a fork to break down the carrots and mix in the spices.
5. Add the juice and season to taste with salt and pepper.
6. Garnish with parsley and serve.

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¹ The original recipe called for two cloves of garlic. These were then halved and ground/mashed along with the whole cumin seeds and salt to form a spiced garlicy paste. I haven't gotten around to seasoning my molcajete yet, so I just used garlic paste as an easy shortcut for this recipe. ^Back
2 This was supposed to be "juice of 1/2 a lemon", but I was all out of lemons, so I used a bit of freshly squeezed orange juice instead. ^Back