For those of you picking up your Winter Moon Roots Winter CSA, you’ve been getting some delicious carrots. We know this is true, because we’re also buying them for the Clover menu. So we wanted to share our recipe for pickled carrots. This is one of the first recipes I developed at Clover. You may have seen it on top of the chickpea fritter.

Ayr mentioned these pickled vegetables he had at L’As du Fallafel in Paris. Early on, we learned, the thickness/thinness of the shredded carrots were of paramount importance. We started out with a cheese grater, then moved to the food processor attachments, but we were striking out on the size of the carrot pieces. Then we learned about some different shredder attachments that were sized using millimeters. We tried a couple of sizes and landed on the 1.5 mm size. Apparently the metric based shredders have some in between sizes that standard based shredders don’t have.

I then, based the brine recipe idea on quick pickles (quickles) that I’d prepared for Japanese inspired dishes and sashimi plates. Cool part is the pickle brine can be used to quickle almost any vegetable. You just may need to experiment on how thick to cut for the desired texture. The recipe has a nice ratio to it. Equal parts sugar (sweet) to vinegar (acid), with a touch of salt for balance and water to dilute. Let us know what you start pickling at home, or better yet, bring some in for us to try.

Clover pickled carrots – yields 1 quart carrots

Ingredients:

• 2 pound carrots, organic (about 8 medium or 6 large)
• ⅔  cup sugar, granulated
• 1 ½ tablespoon salt, kosher
• 1 cup water (to boil)
• ⅔  cup vinegar, distilled
• As needed water (cold)

Cooking Method:
Pickle Brine

• Measure sugar & salt in a heat-proof measuring container.
• Boil the 1 cup of water, then pour over the sugar and salt and stir to dissolve.
• Add 2 cups of cold water to solution (this cools the solution so you aren’t heating the vinegar which would alter the taste).
• Add the 2/3 cup of distilled vinegar and stir.
• Fill the cold water to the 1 1/2 quart level.
• Reserve.
• Note:  May prepare up to month ahead stored in refrigerator.

Carrots

• Wash and trim the top ends of the carrots.
• Shred carrots on a medium grater.
• Add shredded carrots to a mason jar (or other storage container) up to about the ⅔ to ¾ level.
• Pour prepared brine over shredded carrots so that the carrots settle about ½ inch below the level of the brine (if carrots are too tightly packed, they won’t pickle properly).
• Place in refrigerator and allow carrots to pickle for 24 hours before serving.

• Best if used by 5 days after preparing.