The Flaming Pot Holder

I volunteered at WLRH earlier this week for their spring fund drive. While waiting for the phones to ring, the volunteers were sitting around, chatting about cooking, recipes, food blogs, etc. Someone mentioned they wanted a recipe for glazed carrots. I told them about a recipe Alton Brown made on Good Eats that I would share on my blog sometime in the next few weeks.

Typically, I’m not a huge fan of glazed carrots; they are a tad too sweet for my taste. But I like ginger ale and chili powder so I tried Mr. Brown’s recipe a few years ago. They were delicious!  I have since tweaked the recipe a bit (kicking up the heat), but I stayed fairly true to Alton’s original recipe. Here is a link to his original recipe:  http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/glazed-carrots-recipe/index.html

Coincidentally, yesterday I was at Garden Cove and they had carrots on the sale table – .75¢ for a large bag of Georgia carrots! I couldn’t pass up such a bargain. So here’s my spicier version…

Ginger Ale Carrots with a Kick

2 tablespoons butter (margarine or coconut oil)*

3 cups sliced carrots (3-4 carrots, thinly sliced)**

½ teaspoon salt

12 ounces ginger ale (I used Reed’s Original Ginger Brew)

½ teaspoon chili powder

¼ teaspoon ground cumin

pinch of cayenne, chipotle, or Aleppo pepper, optional

1 tablespoon maple syrup (honey or agave), optional

½ teaspoon freshly grated ginger or a pinch of powdered ginger, optional

1 tablespoon fresh parsley (flat or curly), chopped

Mix 1 tablespoon of butter, carrots, salt, and ginger ale in a large sauté pan that has a lid (Recipe will work in a regular pot with lid, but it will likely take longer for the glaze to thicken and reduce.  A covered wok would also work great.). Cover with lid and bring to simmer. Reduce the heat to low. Cook about 6 minutes. Remove the lid, stir in the remaining tablespoon of butter, chili powder, and cumin.  If you want to kick up the flavor, add the cayenne, maple syrup, and ginger. Turn up the temperature to high.  Stir and cook about 4 to 7 minutes until tender (it depends on the size of the carrot slices, the ones I bought were huge and took longer to cook).  Stir constantly so the carrots do not burn. The sauce will thicken and make a nice glaze on the carrots. Remove from heat. Top with chopped parsley and serve.  Makes about 4 adult servings (as a side dish).

*These carrots can be made vegan with an easy substitution of margarine or coconut oil for the butter.

**I used 4 extremely large carrots and ended up with just over 4 cups of sliced carrots.  Truthfully, the carrots were a tad dry.  In the future, I will add a bit of water or more ginger ale if I use that many carrots. Luckily this is a really forgiving recipe and tweaks to it are perfectly fine.