Carrot Pickles with Onion Seed and Sesame

Carrots.  Before we figured out how to pickle them they were just insipid root vegetables boiled to make stock. I dread them in boiled dinners, I abhor them in stews, I hate their pretty orange flesh and I hate that I cannot rend it from bones.  The orange carrot; another Dutch conspiracy.

But pickled carrots!

Crunchy and with a sourness offset by the umami flavour provided by the onion seeds and the nuttiness of the sesame seeds, these pickles are a perfect match to many meat and pasta dishes.  I often bring their vibrant orange colour along with a towering sandwich to work.  If you can’t find kalonji or black sesame, because you live in a remote region, you can just use toasted white sesame seeds or maybe a small dash of roasted, ground cumin for a similarly rich flavour.

While the water’s going, you can toss in a “water’s bylin’, nobody’s home” to your audience, to impress them with your firm grasp of Gaspesian idioms -- they’ll be impressed, even though someone is obviously home, because it will become a self-deprecating comment on how you’re here but not all there. Gaspesians love a bit of the sarcasm.

Bylin’ bits

4 cups carrots

2 cups white vinegar

2 cups water

Toppins

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1/4 c olive oil

2 tsps kalonji (onion seed), toasted

3 tsps black sesame toasted

Slap the water and vinegar in a pot on the stove and crank it up to high. Quarter the carrots and dice them large.  When the water is boiling, toss in the carrots. I won’t tell you how long it will take, since that will depend on the carrot.  However, you’ll want to remove them while they still have a bit of crunch to them.  It usually doesn’t take 10 minutes, unless you’re using the monster carrots from a Chinese grocer or have purchased particularly tough or stringy carrots.  Bang down a skillet on a burner at high heat, while you’re at it , and get it real hot (you can skip this step if you’re using a gas stove).

While the carrots are on the boil, smash up your garlic with the end of a knife, chop off the hard end, whisk off the skin and chop it up quick A garlic press is equally as effective as the quick-chopping, but a bit slower if you have the proper knife skills.  Toss the seeds in the hot skillet and shake or stir them quickly for a minute or two, until you can smell them roasting.  

Remove the carrots, strain'em, and mix'em up with the garlic, oil, and seeds.

Yum.