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Culprit Ugly Carrot

Head chef Kyle Street from Culprit in New Zealand’s Auckland says “A favourite dish since our opening has been our ugly carrot. The idea came when I noticed a hungry chef chowing down on the leftover vegetables from a large stockpot. I had a taste, and it was phenomenal — the carrot had sucked up all the flavour from the stock and though it had lost some of its texture, the softness reminded me of humble home cooking”.

Thanks Kyle.

method

1. Heat oven to 170C.
2. Wash the carrots well to remove any dirt. Place in a suitable sized braising dish. Coat with olive oil and season well with salt and black pepper. Pour over the chicken stock and add the bones.
3.  Bake in the oven for about an hour, or until extremely tender when poked with a knife.
4. Allow to cool on the bench until room temperature. Slice in half lengthways.
5. Make dukkah. Heat canola oil over a medium heat. Fry pumpkin seeds until golden brown and slightly puffed. Drain on paper towels and season with the sea salt. Roughly chop and add to a bowl.
6. In a dry pan toast the coriander, cumin and fennel seeds until aromatic and roughly grind in a mortar and pestle. Then combine in the bowl.
7. Toast the sesame seeds and place in the bowl. Add the turmeric and combine all together.
8. Allow to cool entirely before storing in an airtight container. It will last a few weeks.
9. Heat a pan over medium heat and brown the carrots on both sides in a little cooking oil. If your carrots are particularly large and ugly they may take some time in the oven to get hot all the way through.
10. Once hot, place cut side up on a plate and top with dollops of smoked yoghurt and a generous sprinkle of pumpkin seed dukkah.
11. Finish with a squeeze of lemon juice and some fresh herbs.

Tracey’s cooks notes

• Toast pumpkin seeds in dry pan if preferred. They will toast without oil, but won’t be quite as crisp.
• Use regular plain or Greek yoghurt in place of smoked if not available.
• Smoked yoghurt in Perth maybe hard to find. If purchasing though it can be quite powerful, so perhapsmixt with a little regular Greek or unsweetened yoghurt.
• Smoke your own yoghurt in a cold smoker. Or place yoghurt in a shallow tray and sit it over a container of ice in a hot smoker. I have yet to experiment with this.