Carrot Gnocchi

      Gnocchi has always been one of my favorite dishes, the little bit of chewy and the versatility and variety of sauces made me excited to eat it. I used the Potato Gnocchi with Pesto recipe from the Williams-Sonoma web site.www.williams-sonoma.com Instead of using all the potatoes, I replace ¾ of the potatoes with carrots. I left some of the potatoes for the starch. The sauce that I use to top it with I just came up on the fly, it is just butter, sage, heavy cream and Parmesan cheese. I did not want to have a sauce that totally over powered the uniqueness of the gnocchi. The recipe is remarkably easy to follow. I can see this as a dessert recipe. I made this recipe savory. The carrot gnocchi has a delightfully smooth texture and the potato and the carrot play well off each other. Neither is dominating, and both makes an appearance leaving a feeling of wanting more and more. Which is fine of course, because are super nutritious.

I did the history of carrots the last time and I thought it would be fun to have some quirky facts about carrots. I got most of these facts from the Carrot Museum.www.carrotmuseum.co.uk

The voice of Bugs Bunny, Mel Blanc actually didn’t like carrots.

So how was the Carrot used as an aphrodisiac? Well, men in Teheran in the late nineteenth century stewed carrots with sugar to increase the quality and quantity of sperm.  

Carrot Vodka? Carrots produce more distilled spirits than potatoes.

Carrots as a conceptive? In India women eat carrots seeds to prevent getting pregnant.

The Calming effect of Carrots? Romans conquerors fed carrot broth to female captives to loosen them up.

These are just a few facts, there of course thousands more and I encourage you to look them up and have fun with the carrot! I use a lot of my recipes from Williams-Sonoma, here is the web site, www.williams-sonoma.com, Please be my guest and take a look. 

Carrot Cupcakes

Where did carrots come from? Asia, America, or Africa?  Would you believe that they came from the Middle East?  Carrots were first mentioned about 5000 years ago in Afghanistan.  Traders took the seeds of the carrots and spread them through their trade routes, and as many of the cultures embraced the carrots.  Even in ancient times carrots were considered an aphrodisiac, even though they were used more for medicinal uses that as a food staple. 

Carrots of ancient times were not the carrots that we know and love today.  They ranged in color from purple, white, black, red, and yellow.  It was during the Middle Ages that the red and yellow carrots were cross bred to make the sweet and delicious orange carrot.

Carrot cake is one of those desserts that show the versatility of the carrot.  If you type in carrot cake into the search engine, hundreds of different recipes will show up.  I personally love my carrot cake without raisins and nuts, but some of my friends don’t consider it a carrot cake with these two additions.   The recipe that I used was the Classic Carrot Cake from the Williams-Sonoma web site. (Williams-sonoma.com). It has a lovely spiced scent that is alluring, and the color, though it’s not bright orange, is rustic and warm.  The cake itself is super moist with a delicate balance of the spices and carrots. I added ginger to it because I love the dynamic of carrots and ginger, and to show that carrot and ginger can be a dessert too.  The cream cheese icing adds a bit of bite to the dynamic of the flavors.  Carrot cake can be used as an aphrodisiac because it ignites all of the senses with warm and inviting colors and smells. Cinnamon is the most prominent smell, and then you can just smell the carrot in the back ground.  Having both of the smells together does get me excited to cut into a piece of carrot cake.

I encourage those that read this blog to try out the recipes and to come up with your own ideas and let me know how it goes.

Just a note: I got the information about the history of the carrot from www.indepthinfo.com  So got check it out and see what you come up with.

Carrot-Ginger Soup

Carrot ginger soup.

Aphrodisiacs do not always have to come at the end of the meal, they can be at the beginning or can be the main course. The recipe that I worked on this week is a carrot-ginger soup. The idea for the soup is actually fairly common, but how often is it thought of as a starter for a passion night?

Carrots are always in a well-stocked kitchen. They add depth for many dishes and sauces. This month the carrots are in the spot light. They have a rustic taste to them that is warm and welcoming. The color orange, according to Kendra Cherry, will draw your attention. People will be more likely to remember and take food that is “warm” and “inviting”. The color orange also promotes a feeling of excitement, enthusiasm, and warmth.(Cherry).

So why carrot ginger soup, your eyes will automatically be drawn to the warm, rustic color. Once you get past the excitement of color the texture will put you over the edge with it smooth and creamy taste. The ginger adds an exceptionally gratifying nuance and a bit of a kick that will add to your night.

Here, is where I got the information on the color orange.

Cherry, Kendra. "Color Psychology How Colors Impact Moods, Feelings, and Behaviors."about.com, Psychology. About.com, n.d. Web. 3 Jul 2011. <http://psychology.about.com/od/sensationandperception/a/colorpsych.htm>


Here is the recipe
Carrot Ginger Soup
       2 cloves of garlic- minced
       1 large onion- diced
       3 celery stalks- diced
       4 cups carrots- diced
       3 tbsp minced ginger
       1/2 cup dry white wine
       6 cups chicken stock
       4 tbsp butter
       1/2 cup cream
In a large pot, saute garlic until it is fragrant.  
Add the onions and saute until the onions are translucent.
Add celery and saute until soft
Add the carrots and ginger, and saute for 5 min.
Add the chicken stock. make sure the liquid completely covers the contents of the pot. Simmer until the       carrots are soft enough to cut with a fork.
In a blender, puree the soup.  You may need to puree the soup in batches. 
Once all the soup is pureed put back in the pot. If the soup is too thick add more chicken stock
Add the butter and the cream
Serve hot and Enjoy! 
You may garnish with the cream or with croutons.