Friday, August 17, 2012

French Fridays with Dorie - Café-Style Grated Carrot Salad



This week´s recipe for the French Friday`s with Dorie group is Café-Style Grated Carrot Salad (“carottes râpées”).




The recipe is nice and simple, with only a few ingredients required. Apart from fresh carrots, of course, the recipe calls for a dressing made of Dijon mustard, honey, cider vinegar, oil, pepper, salt and optional chopped parsley, walnuts and raisins.




I have been making grated carrot salad for years, on a weekly basis, and it is our favorite “raw vegetable” salad. Today I decided to prepare the carrot  salad as a side dish to grilled pork tenderloin with  homemade zucchini chutney and oven-roasted potatoes.




The recipe for the zucchini chutney was developed by one of my favorite cooks, I saw it featured on his cooking show on Wednesday and tried it for the first time today. Wonderful. The carrot salad was a nice side dish to the other dishes and the different tastes harmonized well together. I made sure to use the same apple cider vinegar for the salad and the chutney and used a neutral salad oil (sunflower) - so no one taste overpowered the other.




In summary, Dorie´s Café-Style Grated Carrot Salad is simple, refreshing, healthy and delicious, not only for a hot summer day. It is great picnic fare as well as a wonderful side dish and a winner at our house.



Zucchini Chutney
(recipe translated by yours truly from a German recipe)

Ingredients

300 g zucchini (use a medium sized zucchini, or use more and double or triple the recipe)
1 tbsp ground fennel seeds
2 shallots
1 tbsp olive oil
4 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 small bunch Italian parsley
fine sea salt
freshly ground pepper (to taste)


Preparation

1. wash the zucchini, cut ends off and slice thinly (using a mandolin makes it easy)
2. using a pestle and mortar, grind the fennel seeds
3. peel the shallots, mince finely
4. to a medium sized heavy saucepan (depending on the quantity of zucchini you chose to use), add the olive oil, heat on medium
5. add the zucchini, fennel, sugar and vinegar
6. bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat, then simmer uncovered, stirring every once in a while, over medium heat for about 25 minutes or until the zucchini have “broken down” and the chutney has reached the consistency of your choice
7. in the meantime, wash the parsley, dry and mince relatively finely
8. add the parsley to the chutney, cook for additional 3 minutes
9. add salt and pepper to taste



To see how the other Doristas prepared the Café-Style Grated Carrot Salad, please click here.




30 comments:

  1. Andrea, you take such beautiful pictures! I liked this salad a lot and ate it with steak. The idea of pork with zucchini chutney is fantastic. Do you have a link to the chutney? I would love to try it! Enjoy your weekend!

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    Replies
    1. Pauls, as soon as I have translated the recipe, I will let you know.

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    2. Oh Andrea, don´t bother with the translation. Just send it to me and I will use the google translator. Thanks so much!

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    3. Paula, I have added the recipe for the Zucchini Chutney to the post - hope you will like it!

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  2. Your salad looks delicious! So does your whole meal!! I made mine today, between recipes of cupcakes!

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    Replies
    1. Candy, thank you - grated carrot salad is such a lovely side dish to so many foods, including pork or chicken.

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  3. The salad looks wonderful! Love your pictures:)

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  4. Everything looks so good. The zucchini chutney looks wonderful, and I am wondering about the zucchini recipe coming
    up. I am not sure about the combo of flavors in the one. Great job on both dishes.

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    Replies
    1. Recipe is still "in translation", will drop you a line when it´s done.

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    2. Translation is done and I added it to the post!

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    3. Andrea, thanks so much for posting recipe. This is a perfect time to try it.

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    4. You are quite welcome! If you get a chance to make the Chutney, please let me know how it turns out.

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  5. Andrea, Such a lovely meal with a beautiful carrot salad!! I really enjoyed this one…so fresh and delicious! Your zucchini chutney sounds great! Have a wonderful weekend!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Kathy! Freshly grated carrot salads compliments so many meals and picnics. Have a great Sunday!

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  6. I love carrot salad too and have been making Dorie's version for years. So happy to hear that I'm not the only one.

    Your meal looks delicious.

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  7. AOh your photos are just beautiful. You sure can make carrots look tasty.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Suzi - carrots are so nice and colorful and I realized that it is indeed a lot of fun taking pictures of them.

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  8. Like the others, I am very intrigued by that chutney... Especially since I seem to be swimming in them right now :-)
    Beautiful pictures.

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  9. I love your long strips of carrot...beautiful! I must catch up and make this soon :)

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Lizzy - the different cut makes for a bit of a different presentation and who does not need a change once in a while, even if it is just in a recipe...

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  10. Ohhh I'm curious to see what are the other dishes on the plate in the 3rd picture. I love vegetables dishes in summer time and zucchini chutney sounds fabulous! I have fennel seeds in the cabinet and I really had no idea how to use it. I was so happy to see it in your recipe! That's how we use it.. haha. Can't wait to try this recipe!

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    Replies
    1. Nami, the other dishes in the third picture are simple oven-roasted potatoes, cubed, roasted with olive oil and coarse salt, as well as pork tenderloin, put in the grill pan for those grill marks, pepper, salt, then finished in the oven, rested, cut into slices and slathered with the zucchini chutney. For each plate: some carrot salad, three pork tenderloin slices, some potatoes and extra chutney, voilà, dinner!
      P.S.: Hope that helps!

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  11. Hi Andrea, You are the picnic queen! The zucchini salad looks wonderful. What nice complements for your tenderloin!

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  12. Thanks so much for the zucchini chutney recipe! We have more homegrown zucchini than I know what to do with, and the recipe looks excellent. How did you make the long strips of carrot? They're so pretty.

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    Replies
    1. Jora, quite simple actually, instead of grating the carrots, zest them with one of those handy zesters, it is a bit time consuming but worth the effort and for some reason, when veggies are cut in different ways, they taste different.

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  13. Wow, the zucchini chutney sounds really interesting! I adored this salad and have since made the dressing again! Looks like it went great with the pork.

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