Wild carrot seed head/Daucus carota a.k.a. Queen Anne's Lace. Flowers in the background. They're easy to identify by the roadside, but I like to pick them for eating from wooded areas or forest edges.
Wild carrot is up, one of the last wildflowers we'll see in the Midwest. The flavor is nice and carrot tasting, but it's delicate, subtle, too many other things in a dish will overpower it. Most of the time I just sprinkle the flowers and seeds on simple things, raw, unadulterated.
A couple weeks ago I tried the wild carrot flowers and seeds with some carrots cooked in carrot juice-one of my favorite preparations for the ubiquitous orange root. I liked it so much I'm putting it on the menu this week at the restaurant while the flowers are at their peak.
Using the carrot flowers with carrots is a natural pairing. Red and orange carrots, flowers (above) tell-tale wild carrot seed head (below)
It's a study in a vegetable, and a lesson in layering flavors. Of course, you won't want to use the same method with just any vegetable (juicing eggplant sounds pretty bad) but you can apply the same technique to a couple of different things, at the top of the list is beets, which brings me to a dish I had that was partly the inspiration for this.
At Saison in San Francisco, I ate a whole baby beet that had been dried over a wood fire for three days, then cooked in beet juice and served whole, topped with whipped bone marrow and pickled elderberries. The garnishes were fun, but the concentrated beet flavor, that was from the beyond. From there I started applying the "cooking stuff in it's own juice" method to other things, and, here we are.
Even if you don't pick carrot flowers, bookmark the recipe and try it out sometime, you'll be amazed at how carrot-y it tastes, and it'll be fun to bring out the next time your craving some glazed carrots. When you throw the flowers sand seeds into the mix, to me it's like eating a carrot's soul.
Wild carrot seeds are an abortifacient
This is a well known side effect of eating large amounts of wild carrot seeds. If you're trying to get pregnant, maybe don't eat handfuls of them.
Carrots Glazed in Carrot Juice, with Wild Carrot Flowers and Seeds
Ingredients
- 2 cups carrot juice
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- Kosher salt to taste
- Wild carrot flowers and seeds for garish
- 4 cups carrots sliced medium-thick, about ¼-1/2 inch
- Dash of fresh lemon juice
Instructions
- Put the carrots in a wide pan with a fingers width of water and a good pinch of salt. Bring the mixture to a simmer, covered, then cook until the carrots are just tender. Discard the water, then add the cup of carrot juice and turn the heat up to high, rapidly reducing the sauce.
- Add the butter to the pan and stir, swirling the pan to emulsify the butter and make a thick glaze, season with the dash of lemon juice. Season the carrots to taste with salt, then transfer to a serving dish, sprinkle with the carrot flowers and seeds and serve immediately.
Notes
You'll get the best flavor from using both the flowers and the seeds of the wild carrot. The leaves are pretty, but they don't taste like much.
Dan F
Wow!! Why aren't wild carrot seeds considered a spice? I just stopped along the roadside while on a drive around Lake Pepin and spotted some wild carrot blossoms that had gone to seed. Put one in my mouth and bit down... OMG! Not like a carrot at all, though. Reminds me more of rosemary, or even spruce tree gum. Very powerful, but delicious!
Dan F
I should add that cooking carrots in their juice had become a favorite, too. The reduced carrot juice makes an excellent sauce, as well. Plus, I can see in the dark reeealy reeeeealy well now!
Ron
It should be noted that people should not forage for wild carrots unless they know what they are looking for. Poison hemlock looks very similar and is no bueno.
Alan Bergo
You're absolutely right!
Jacqui
Just to add an additional "warning" (I put it on the instagram post of the wild carrot flowers too), (Wild) Carrot seed is a powerful emmenagogue. "Witches" have been using this to induce early term abortions forever, and people still use it today. And it works. Of course many of the Apiaceae (hogweed, parsley, parsnip, angelica, and other plants, like juniper, some mints like pennyroyal etc etc) have similar effects but for carrot even a quite small amount is an effective dose. If this interests you, a great reference is the book "Eve's Herbs" by John Riddle.
One of my friends recently proposed the experiment to his female colleagues when he found carrot sprouts at his local market. All the women who ate what would be considered a normal serving of sprouts was menstruating within two days. So be careful to whom you offer a dish spiced with carrot seeds...
I decided not to make carrot syrups for the restaurant I supply for just that reason because menu warnings can be off-putting.
Alan Bergo
Thanks Jacqui, that's great advice. I know a number of chefs who do cook with these, and Sean Brock's book "Heritage" is where I first thought of cooking with them. He makes bitters though. An infusion, further diluted with liquid, and not containing the seeds themselves as I do here is obviously different animal, and should be a much lower dose. Really interesting about the carrot sprout experiment, I'm assuming they contain the seeds in the sprouts, per your typical bean sprouts? Can't ever say I've seen carrot sprouts at a market like that, but I'd definitely try.
Jacqui
yup, sprouted seeds, like alfalfa sprouts. A couple of tablespoons was enough.I have also never seen carrot sprouts, but apparently the Montpellier (France) market has/had a very creative sprout stand.
I made braised carrots with wild carrot seeds and flowers the other day, but i checked that none of the women present was trying to be pregnant...
Jacqui
And to add to this. In the extended quest for spice cake that a locavore would eat, last week during our holidays in northern Denmark I made a carrot cake spiced with carrot seeds, spruce syrup and sweet gale cones. Not bad at all. I brought home a handful of sweet gale cones that I popped in the freezer for later.