Spiced Carrot - via Chris Simpson at Pensons Restaurant
“A cheeky request for the recipe was met without fuss. I will enjoy interpreting chef’s ideas in my own kitchen…”
Those words from my recent review of our lunch at Pensons have already been acted upon.
Our Spiced Carrot starter was just one part of a delicious meal at the restaurant but it is the element which has generated the most discussion and acclaim from us both at the time of eating and since. So memorable that I was inspired to make my own version in double-quick time.
I am writing this a few days after Alastair Little died on 2 August 2022. An influential British chef, his menus changed daily and featured seasonal produce. That legacy from the mid 1980s is certainly reflected in Chris Simpson’s primary approach at Pensons. I’m sure he would readily fall in with this part of Phil Howard’s reaction to the news of a great chef’s passing.
“… my time at Bibendum changed my perception of food forever and through Simon Hopkinson and the likes of lovely Alastair Little I came to see that the ingredient is king. That is all one needs to know. Thanks Alastair. RIP.”
The Ingredient
The ‘royal’ ingredient in this case is growing in our garden. I have to thank Mrs Cheoff for her St George’s Day sowing for the mature crop on the left. Her later sowing lies in tantalising wait.
The Recipe (not a recipe)
I noted down the ‘recipe’ which Jade relayed verbally from the kitchen team to our table. It was enough to give me fuel for my own version. I realised later that coriander was not mentioned and it did not appear in my dish.
The rest of this post will roughly describe how I interpreted those scribblings. So, no proper recipe for you either - but if you have enough cooking understanding and the confidence to play around with the elements you should have your very own tasty attempt.
Chef Simpson uses baby carrots in his dish. None of those in our more advanced home crop but I cut things down to size until they would fit the bill.
First cooking stage involves softening the carrots in spices (cumin, cinnamon, star anise and pink peppercorns) and juices (orange, carrot and butter). It’s possible the restaurant use sous vide at this stage to really ‘squeeze’ flavour into the carrots but I made do with a very slow simmer until all was Al Pacino (or some similar culinary term).
Pumpkin seeds were toasted and some of them ground along with a little ground fennel seed. No fennel bulbs in our house so this was my modification to reflect the restaurant’s offering of pickled fennel strips.
My first (discarded) mandoline efforts were too thick but I managed to adjust the blade for carrot strips which were then pickled in a 300g orange juice, 200g castor sugar and 100g white wine vinegar mix. Bring the liquor up to simmering. Immerse the carrots, cover and remove from the heat to cool.
Three other elements complete the dish. Our homemade yoghurt is always at hand. I reduced half of the spiced carrot and orange cooking juices to make a thin sauce. The other half was used for my own idea. A fluid gel with agar agar. Fine for vegan diners, this one. Mind you, so is this whole dish.
All prepped for plating. My layout is different to the restaurant’s.Yours can be too. Simply enjoy the placement of carrots, the sprinkling of crumb and the blobbing from squeezy bottles to realise your own visual impact.
Visual impact is pretty much redundant unless you have treated those ingredients like royalty. Taste, taste, taste everything as you cook. This could easily be a too-sweet affair. The light pickles are vital to draw back on that. My taste buds told me to add a little lemon juice to the fluid gel. It was immediately brighter and less akin to confectionery. Juggle the flavours here but make sure they are in balance before serving.
The last detail of this non-recipe rundown is to advise gentle warming of the spiced carrots only. All other elements are room temperature apart from the yoghurt which leaves the fridge at the last moment.
Oh, and my garnish is a few fronds of bronze fennel.
Eager to please (and show off just a little) I suggested a taste of my latest exploits with my Mum, our sons, their partners and our grandchild. Last weekend saw seven fairly decent plates served up. Yes, the flavours were very much appreciated but King Carrot was definitely the star.
Such enjoyment in the cooking of this. Enough experience to work from verbal hints and the tasting of the original at Pensons. Mine was not the perfectly balanced dish but I never lost sight of trying to do justice to its ingredients.
And I certainly won’t lose this chance to thank Chris Simpson for developing a lovely dish and sharing his ideas with me.
If you need even more inspiration, here is David Loftus’ photograph of the ‘real thing’ from Chris Simpson’s Instagram account.
