There is this cooking show on PBS with a tall, nerdy Norwegian chef that likes to set up shop and cook outdoors. One of the dishes I can easily recall – one that wasn’t incredibly complicated or had hard to find ingredients, or was just down-right weird, was a simple side dish of caramelized carrots. The following is a small departure of this dish.

Ingredients
• 3 whole carrots (get ones with no cracks!)
• 2 cups water
• 1/3 tsp salt
• 2 shallots
• 2 Tbs of olive oil
• 2 Tbs brown sugar

Utensils Needed
• a vegetable peeler
• a decorative vegetable cutter (optional)

1. Wash the carrots thoroughly. Peel the carrots with the vegetable peeler and cut the carrots into halves. If you have a decorative vegetable cutter, make 1/4th inch slices at the fattest end of the carrot. If you aren’t going to use a decorative cutter or if you want smaller, bite-sized pieces, cut the carrot into thirds.
2. In a medium sized sauce pan, bring 2 cups of water, the salt and the carrots to boil for about 5-7 minutes or until the carrots are tender. Drain the carrots and run under cold water for 15 seconds.
3. While the carrots are boiling, peel and slice the shallots finely.
4. In a heated pan with 1 Tbs of oil, sauté the shallots until translucent. Add the remaning 1 Tbs of oil and stir in the carrots. Sautee for another 5 minutes.
5. Sprinkle the brown sugar over the carrots and shallots and stir constantly until well covered. You may want to cook the vegetables a little longer and not stir if you want to have a visual caramelized effect. Be careful to not overcook the dish at this point. The shallots will become ‘candied’. Still delicious but not the aim of the recipe!

As you can see by the pictures, I overcooked it slightly! However, I reheated them a few days later and the shallots had softened with the added moisture from the carrots and turned out to be delicious!

I served it with a piece of seasoned chicken (thigh meat) grilled with a bit of cajun seasoning I picked up somewhere and white rice.