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1. The carrot (Daucus carota sativus), is a biennial plant which is usually grown for it's edible tap root which is eaten at the end of the first season.

2. It is a domesticated form of the wild carrot, native to Europe and southwestern Asia, thought to originate in Afghanistan.

3. Carrots can be eaten raw, cooked or made into juice.

4. Carrots are usually orange, although are available in red, purple, yellow and white varieties.

5. Carrots can be preserved by making into chutney, jam or marmalade.

6. Carrots have a pectin level of approximately 1.4%

7. Carrots are best stored in the vegetable drawer in the fridge but first remove the greens, as they will deplete the carrot of both moisture and nutrients. Don't use a plastic bag, as this can lead to rotting, use a paper one instead. For the best taste and nutrients use carrots within one to two weeks.

8. You can freeze carrots if you blanch them first. Small and tender carrots freeze best, remove the tops, wash and peel, cut large carrots into thin slices, cubes or strips. Blanch whole carrots in boiling water for a minimum of 5 minutes, slices, cubes or strips only need 2 minutes. Drain, cool and freeze as quickly as possible.

9. If you grow your own carrots, you can overwinter them in the ground if your soil is well drained. If lifted from the ground they can be stored in layers of moist sand in boxes, in a frost-free, dark place such as a shed or cellar. More information at the RHS website.

10. Masses of information can be found about carrots at the highly informative carrot museum website.

We've been eating a lot of carrots recently. Partly through trying, as much as possible, to eat seasonal vegetables. At this time of year this results in a lot of coleslaw, which isn't a bad thing especially with the addition of fresh chives from the garden.

It set me thinking that there must be a way of using carrots in a chutney, after some searching it seemed that a lot of people were trying to replicate the classic M&S Wensleydale and caramelised carrot chutney sandwich. It's a few years since I had one of these, but I do remember them as being particularly good, Wensleydale goes very well with a sweet chutney.
There was a good looking Indian recipe at indianfoodforever.com which I'll have to try another time. I decided to have a go at this recipe for Carrot and Almond Chutney from the Chutney Recipes Blog, as I was intrigued by it's description as angel hair jam.

A selection of good big carrots were bought from the local veg shop, peeled, and then grated. I'd thought this would take ages and had considered using the food processor, but in the end it only took about 10 minutes by hand. I'd had to adapt the recipe somewhat, mostly because I hadn't planned to well in advance and didn't have enough honey or fresh ginger.

See here for the carrot and almond chutney recipe.

Recipe Costs

£1.70 1.5kg carrots (some weight is lost in peeling)
£0.21 125ml white wine vinegar
£0.60 2 lemons
£0.05 1 tblsp honey
£0.10 3 tblsp sugar
£0.05 1 tblsp salt
£0.05 2 tblsp coriander seeds ( I bought a bulk pack)
£0.80 85g fresh ginger
£0.20 2 large red chillies
£0.80 3 tblsp flaked almonds
£4.56 Total
£3.80 per kg chutney

Grinding the coriander gave me the chance top use my favorite stone pestle and mortar, something I searched for ages until finding. It has just the right combination of heavy mortar and rough pestle.

The mixture was all stirred up and left overnight, it wasn't quite as moist as I would have expected, which made it quicker to thicken up when the boiling stage was reached.

At this point I realised that maybe if I'd grated the carrot finer it would better resemble 'Angel Hair'. Still it's a great colour, and smelt very gingery.

The chillies and almonds were added just before putting into jars, I had to force it into the jars a bit, as the carrots retained quite a bit of their structure, and I didn't want to leave to many air gaps. Maybe I boiled it for a bit to long, or it could have done with some more liquid.

Recipe Timings

30 mins First Preparation
12 hours sitting
10 mins Second Preparation
40 mins cooking
30 mins Potting

Taste test

I had thought the coriander would be the dominant taste, as 2 tablespoons seemed a lot to be adding, however the ginger is prominent, with a following up of chilli. The carrots retain a lot of bite, as do the almonds, so the texture is a slightly crunchy one. The colour is great, and certainly looks good in a sandwich.