Easter with a Side of French Carrots

We’re still in Easter Week in France, since the Monday after Pâques is a holiday here. And what a sad Easter it was, with everyone in mourning over Notre Dame. May our beautiful Lady of Paris rise from the ashes.

So today, in honor of the Easter Bunny, we are going to talk about carrots. For a few decades my go-to recipe has been Carottes à la Lyonnaise, a recipe I clipped from some woman’s magazine way back when. It’s one of my favorite side dishes; it’s easy and even Ron, who doesn’t really love carrots, likes it a lot. I often serve it to company.

But I happened to come across a recipe for Carrottes à la Lyonnaise the other day, and it in no way resembled my recipe. So I did a bit of sleuthing  to see what the traditional Carottes à la Lyonnaise actually is. The answer was: carrots braised in chicken broth with onions, and sometimes sweet peppers. Well who knew! I discovered that after these many years, I haven’t been making Carottes à la  Lyonnaise at all. Mine are braised, but with a buttery orange glaze.

So today, we offer up two recipes for you: Real live French Carottes à la Lyonnaise , and our faux version which we shall now call Carrots Lynnaise, since the originator of this recipe is lost to history.

RECIPE: Carottes à la Lyonnaise

This traditional French recipe is from Kitchen Divas. Some recipes I found in French used olive oil instead of butter, so take your pick.

Ingredients

• 2 pounds baby carrots or regular carrots, sliced
• 1 onion, medium, sliced
• 1/3 cup butter
• 2 tblsp flour
• 2 tsp chicken bouillon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 cup broth, chicken or vegetable
• 1 peppers,green or red, sliced (optional)

Instructions

1. In a large pot bring water to a boil. Add carrots, cover and cook for about 10 minutes or until crisp-tender. Drain. Set aside.
2. In a large skillet sauté onion in butter until tender.  
3. Add flour and stir until incorporated.  Stir constantly for a couple minutes.  Onion mixture will start to look dry.  Add bullion and stir.  Add sugar and stir and then salt and pepper.  Continue to stir mixture.   
4. Using a whisk, gradually add broth. Bring to a boil. Stir constantly. Cook for a few minutes or until thickened. 
5. Add carrots and peppers, if using. Combine until thoroughly incorporated. Taste to see if you need salt. Serve immediately.

RECIPE: Carrots “Lynnaise”

I never measure for this recipe, it’s too easy for that.

Ingredients:

• carrots
• a large orange, or any good OJ
• sugar
• butter
• Gran Mariner (optional)
• parsley

Scrape enough carrots for 4.  I cut them into skinny strips, but you can cut them any way you like.

Place them in a saucepan. Add the juice of a large orange and a tablespoon of sugar, and a little bit of water if needed. I cover them about halfway with the liquid. Add a couple of tablespoons of butter, and a pinch of salt.  

Bring to a lively simmer, stir, and cook, covered, until they’re tender. Check frequently, giving them a stir. Toward the end of cooking, check the liquid: if it’s getting syrupy, keep them covered. If it’s still thin, you can uncover them to reduce the sauce a bit; it that doesn’t work, add a bit more sugar and butter, and in a few minutes it will thicken. You should end up with tender carrots  that are glazed with a syrupy orange butter sauce. If you’re feeling frisky, add a splash of Gran Marnier at the end.

Sprinkle them with parsley, some fresh ground pepper if you like, and serve toute de suite. But you can also make them ahead, leave them in the saucepan, and heat up at the last minute. Happy (belated) Easter!

In the COMMENTS: We have another southern food blogger in our midst, y'all! Check out Mary Anne MacMorran's  Texas  Food Heritage. There's a great post this week, with recipe, on Jewish cooking. And Martin has more on Lagioule knives and corkscrews–he's visited the town.

FAVORITE READS: Everyone's favorite blogger/author, Kristin Espinasse,  is writing a new book–with her husband! And that's not the only unusual part: she's releasing a chapter at a time. Surf on over to French Word-a-Day to check it out.