Curried carrot mash with brown butter

You’ll be surprised how much delicious carrotiness you’ll get from simply steamed carrots when they are matched with browned butter, sweet spices and chilli heat. You can then count on them to inject a whole meal with deep flavour, and serve them alongside some grilled tofu, haloumi, fish or chicken, or as part of a selection of vegetable dishes

General

• The mash and pickled chillies can be made the day before if you want to get ahead, but the butter should be made not long before serving, so the seeds stay crunchy. Use olive oil instead of butter if you want to keep this dairy-free.
• Source: Ottolenghi, Flavour
• Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 1–2 red chillies, finely sliced into rounds (deseeded for less heat)
• 1½ tbsp white wine vinegar
• ½ tsp caster sugar
• 800g carrots (that’s roughly 8), peeled and roughly chopped into 2cm pieces
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp medium curry powder
• ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
• 30g unsalted butter (or 2 tbsp olive oil)
• 5g fresh ginger, peeled and julienned
• ½ tsp nigella seeds
• ½ tsp fennel seeds
• ½ tsp cumin seeds
• ½ tbsp lime juice
• 1 spring onion, trimmed and julienned (10g)
• 5g mint leaves, finely shredded
• salt
  

Procedure

1. Put the chillies, vinegar and sugar into a small bowl with ¼ teaspoon of salt, massage together and set aside to pickle for at least 30 minutes.
2. Put the carrots into a steaming basket or colander, place on a high heat, cover with a lid and steam for about 25 minutes, or until you can cut through them easily with a knife. Put the carrots into the bowl of a food processor with the oil, curry powder, cinnamon and 1 teaspoon of salt, and blitz for about a minute until you get a semi-smooth mash (it should still have some texture and not be completely smooth).
3. While the carrots are steaming, put the butter, ginger and nigella, fennel and cumin seeds, with a generous pinch of salt, into a small saucepan on a medium heat. Gently cook for 3–5 minutes, stirring occasionally until the butter begins to foam and turn light brown and the seeds become fragrant.
4. Set aside until ready to serve. You may need to gently melt the butter again when you’re plating, if it has set.
5. Spoon the mash on to a large plate, creating dips with the back of the
6. spoon. Drizzle over the butter with the ginger and seeds, followed by the lime juice. Drain the pickled chillies well and scatter them over the mash.
7. Finish with the spring onions and mint, and serve warm.