My mother-in-law (a fabulous cook) gave me the original dish, but as is my nature, I've changed it a little bit over time. Chris says I change every recipe; it doesn't feel that way to me, but it may be true. These carrots are SO good; I've shared the recipe with a group of friends and we've nicknamed them the "crack carrots."
Peel and remove the ends of about 2 1/2 pounds of carrots, cut them in half, and boil them until they are just tender enough for a fork to go through. I think it's really important to buy organic carrots (or grow your own*) since they grow in the dirt where pesticides can build up.
Those carrots are fresh from the water--look at the steam. Save some of the carrot water, you'll need it along with mayo and horseradish. I prefer the prepared horseradish, but the original recipe called for the creamy horseradish.
Slice the carrots up into little sticks and put them in an oven safe container (one with an oven-safe lid).
The original recipe had amounts listed for the mayo, horseradish, and carrot-cooking liquid. I put a lot of horseradish, a decent amount of mayo, and some liquid. You can also also dried onion flakes at this point.
Whisk it up and it starts to look much more appetizing!
Pour the sauce over the carrots, put the lid on the container and throw it in the fridge (well, don't really throw it as that is likely to get very messy, just set it on a shelf). Overnight is best for saturation of flavor, but if you decide you need these tonight as I often do then however much time you've got will have to do. I think this is why I like to use a lot more horseradish: without the time to soak in you need more.
And we ate them up so fast that I completely forgot to get a picture of the finished product. The recipe originally called for crumbled ritz crackers and parsley on top before baking; I pretty much skip both those ingredients. These carrots are so delicious you won't be able to serve them on only holidays! Enjoy.
*I have such fond memories of growing carrots as a child. I don't know if we did it more than one year but I really loved it. It was so exciting to pull them out of the ground and have a carrot you could just eat right then and there (with a little dusting). One of my and my son's favorite books is The Carrot Seed, a sweet story of a little boy with some gardening faith.
Labels: cooking
Comments