They look like felafel, but they’re carrots, roasted carrots, more-or-less-round roasted carrots. They’re a 19th-century French heirloom variety, so not just a new fancy, not just cute, but really delicious.
The foods that share the plate are familiar enough on this blog, but were no less tasty Tuesday night.
- one 14-ounce duck breast from Hudson River Duck Farm, the fatty, skin side scored in tight cross hatching with a very sharp knife, the entire breast rubbed, top and bottom with a mixture of local sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, and a little turbinado sugar, left standing on the counter for about 45 minutes to an hour, then pan-fried, fatty side down first, inside a small oval enameled cast iron pan over medium heat for a total of about 10 minutes, draining the oil after the first few minutes (the fat strained can be used in cooking at another time, if desired), turned over once, removed when medium rare, cut crosswise into 2 portions and checked for the right doneness in the center, which means definitely no more than medium rare, and maybe even a bit less, left to sit for several minutes before it was drizzled with a little juice from an organic California lemon and some house Portuguese olive oil, both from Whole Foods Market, garnished with scissored chives from Phillips Farms
- ten ounces of so of small round heirloom Atlas or Parisisan Market carrots from Mountain Sweet Berry Farm, scrubbed, stem ends trimmed, dried, cut into discs 1/4 inch thick, tossed inside a bowl with a little olive oil, sea salt, black pepper, more than half a teaspoon of crushed Sicilian wild fennel seed (Semi di Finocchietto Ibleo from Eataly Flatiron), and a bit of crushed dried habanada pepper, placed, bot crowding, inside a large unglazed ceramic Pampered Chef oven pan, roasted at 400º for about 30 minutes, arranged on the plates and garnished with parsley from Phillips Farms
- one 8-ounce head of treviso from Campo Rosso Farm, rinsed, drained and wiped off, cut lengthwise into 6 sections, arranged one cut side up on a medium Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic oven pan after first securing the leaves of each with a toothpick, covered with thyme branches from Phillips Farms, seasoned generously with salt and black pepper, drizzled with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, baked in a 400º oven for 18 minutes or so, turned over more than halfway through onto another cut side, arranged on the plates and drizzled with a very small amount of balsamic vinegar
- the wine was a Portuguese (Douro) red, Mateus Nicolau de Almeida, Trans Douro Express ‘Baixo Corgo’ 2015, from Flatiron Wines
- the music was an album of some amazing chamber works by the Swiss composer Jürg Frey (b. 1953), (some information on Frey and other composers of the so-called ‘Wandelweiser collective’, from Alex Ross in 2016)