Keys
hung up, briefcase down. Jacket off, apron on. With black stiletto’s on and a
glass of wine in hand, I stand and look at the carrots in my vegetable basket. Move over banana’s and cucumbers, there’s a
new phallic symbol in town (or in my kitchen)... the carrot. These carrots I
bought from the veg market are perfect – long, thick and big in size. Not only are
they aesthetically pleasing, but they do wonders for your eyes at night,
especially when you do it in the dark.
Recipe from Tessa
Kiros (Apples for Jam)
Ingredients
400G carrots,
peeled and chopped
200G spinach leaves
80G Parmesan
cheese, grated
2 eggs, lightly
beaten
Bechamel
sauce:
60G butter
40G plain flour
400ML milk, warmed
Freshly ground nutmeg
Use individual pots (about 6cm wide at the top, 4cm across the base and
4cm high). They are baked in a bain-marie so they stay moist.
Method
1.
Preheat the
oven to 180 degrees and butter ten little 100ml pudding pots. Get your man to do this for you as they all
like a bit of moistness around the fingers.
2.
Cook the carrots in
boiling salted water until they are soft and limp. Puree and place in a bowl.
3.
Add the spinach to
the boiling carrot water and blanch for a few minutes until flaccid and soft. Drain, leave until cool and then squeeze out all
the excess water. Squeeze hard with a
good pulsating movement. Chop finely and put in a separate bowl.
4.
To make the béchamel,
melt the butter in a small saucepan and let it lubricate the pan. Whisk in the flour and cook for a few minutes,
stirring constantly, then begin adding the warm milk. Work quickly, whisking with
one hand while adding ladlefuls of milk with the other. If one can multi-task in the kitchen, imagine the multi-tasking in the
bedroom.
5.
When the sauce is
smooth, add salt, pepper and grating of nutmeg and continue cooking. It should
become a very thick and smooth sauce, like
the texture of the perfect sperm.
6.
Pour off any water
that has collected in the bottom of the carrot bowl then mix in 8 tablespoons
of the béchamel sauce along with half of the parmesan. Stir the rest of the béchamel
sauce and parmesan into the spinach.
7.
Taste each bowl,
adding extra salt, pepper or nutmeg if needed. If you have a talented tongue, then you’ll be able to taste and
make the mixture just right.
8.
Beat the eggs. A little arm action goes a long way here,
so the longer the beat, the better the
result. Add half the beaten eggs to each bowl and mix them in well.
9.
Divide the spinach
mixture among the pots. Tap them firmly on the table to flatten the mixture. Everything needs a firm tap on a table.
10. Then add the carrot puree among the pots. The mixture should just fill
the top. No one likes a muffin top, so
make sure the mixture doesn’t ooze over of the top.
11. Put the pots in a roasting tin and add enough hot water to the tin to
come halfway up the sides of the pots. Move the tin carefully to the oven and
bake for about 45 minutes. The longer the
baking, the better. A 5 min bake
isn’t going to do justice.
12.
Turn the oven off
and leave the pots in the oven for about 10 minutes. After all that baking, a good rest is needed.
13. Remove the pots from the tin and carefully run a knife around the rims. Some people are pros at rimming, but for others - be gentle and slow as you go around the rim, with
the knife. Then turn out into plates.
14. Eat and enjoy.
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