Recipe & images by Amber Bremner
SOUR
I love vinegar. My Dad doused cucumber and tomatoes with vinegar when I was a kid, and I didn’t take much convincing to love it too. Now I appreciate vinegar’s versatility to balance and elevate other flavours, and I add a splash or squeeze of something sour into almost everything cook. Sherry vinegar is my most recent darling of the sour family. Made from Spanish sherry, it has a slightly sweet, almost nutty yet clean flavour that is really something special. It’s a little splurge compared to the standard supermarket line up, but a little goes a long way and you’ll enjoy a bottle for a long time. Here I’ve used it in two dishes that hero spring vegetables, one hot, one cold. Pick up a bottle from Vetro and give it a try.
ROAST BABY CARROTS WITH SHERRY VINEGAR GLAZE
These sticky roasted baby carrots are super easy to make and full of flavour, with a Spanish inspired glaze of sherry vinegar and olive oil, cumin and smoked paprika, lightly sweetened with maple syrup. Grab gorgeous multi-coloured baby carrots from farmer’s markets, or find a bag of supermarket baby carrots which will also do the job perfectly well. You might need to double the recipe because these are really moreish and you might find your appetite for carrots is bigger than expected!
Serves 4
500g baby carrots, washed and tops trimmed
Glaze
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp sherry vinegar
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp cumin seeds
½ tsp smoked paprika
½ tsp salt
good grind of black pepper
To finish
Approx. 2 tbsp roasted almonds, finely chopped
Approx. 2 tbsp parsley, finely chopped
Lemon zest
Preheat oven to 220°C fan bake (or 240°C conventional oven).
Put baby carrots in a roasting dish.
Mix glaze ingredients together, pour over carrots and use your hands to make sure they’re evenly coated.
Roast for about 20 minutes, giving the carrots a shake every now and then, until tender and charred around the edges.
Pile onto a serving plate and sprinkle with almonds, parsley and a scattering of lemon zest.
