In the Kitchen with Doctor Carrot

Recipes for Carrot Salad, Carrot Marmalade, and Carrot Cookies

What would Edith (a character both real and fictional in the novel Ashes and Ruins) have done with a bounty of carrots?

Dr. Carrot, an ubiquitous cartoon carrot-man, urged Brits to eat lots of the easily grown orange veggie. Unlike onions, citrus fruit, and fish (also never rationed), carrots were never in short supply. Encouraged by Dr. Carrot and his boss, Lord Woolton, head of the UK Ministry of Food, the housewives of England learned to expand the use of carrots in their cooking. . . . carrot curry, carrot salad, carrot and potato roll, carrot cookies, carrot marmalade, carrot and sultana pudding . . . everything and anything was fair game. Edith would surely have had ideas for a multitude of ways to feed carrots to her family.

In this excerpt from Ashes and Ruins, Clara and Edith with her two young childrenvisit Uncle Bruno and Aunt Nelda at their home near Wimbledon.

“Luckily, Bruno’s estate, with its extensive grounds, offered plenty of shady woods where wild garlic grew and sunny spots with strawberries, chickweed, and leafy dandelion plants. They gave half the collected strawberries to Nelda and Bruno and filled the pram with vegetables from his garden and a jar of honey from his beehives. On the way home, Michael curled up around the bags of produce, while Hazel skipped along holding her granny’s hand.”

During years of strict WWII rationing in Britain, Clara and Edith were lucky to have access to Uncle Bruno’s country estate. Besides allowing them to forage, Bruno always offered them vegetables from his well-tended garden. He knew a gift of non-rationed produce would not put him at risk of being fined. Influenced by the urging of the Food Ministry, Uncle Bruno undoubtedly planted lots of carrots and potatoes in his garden, as well as cucumbers, cabbage, and squash. Most likely, Bruno also had an apple tree or two and a small hothouse with a potted lemon, maybe even an orange or a kumquat.

When Clara and Edith returned home after their expeditions to Uncle Bruno’s estate, the children’s pram would be a cornucopia filled with vegetables and fruit. This bounty certainly often included a large bunch of carrots.

So, what would Edith, a trained cook with German roots, do with all those carrots? She worked during the week; thus, for efficiency’s sake, it’s likely she would set aside an afternoon on one of her days off to concentrate on cooking.

Recently, I set myself the task of re-enacting Edith’s afternoon with Dr. Carrot.

I started with a bit over a pound of carrots. After peeling and trimming the carrots, I cut up two large ones, which I cooked in a little water and pureed. The rest, I grated using the fine-grating disk of my food processor. Lacking a processor, a box grater will work fine, though it’s a lot more work.

From the two-plus-pounds of carrots, I ended up with enough grated carrots to make three recipes: Carrot Salad, Carrot Marmalade, and Carrot Cookies (or what Edith, in England, would have called biscuits.) I made the salad first and set it aside in the refrigerator for my supper. Then I combined the marmalade ingredients, and while they simmered, I made the cookies. It all went together quite easily. That evening my dinner consisted of a salad of grated carrot with some cold chicken and carrot cookies topped with a dab of marmalade. A perfect meal for a cook who had been on her feet all afternoon.

Here, for you, are the recipes the way I imagine German-born Edith would have made these WWII classics.

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Carrot Salad the Kaiser’s Way, or Karotten Salat

Unlike the gloppy mayonnaise and raisin salad so popular in the US and Britain, the German version is light and tangy. Most German recipes for carrot salad call for chopped onion. However, in the UK during the war, onions were very difficult to find unless you grew your own. I have substituted thinly sliced green onion tops, which I trimmed from the onions growing in my own vegetable garden. Edith would have saved the luscious onion bulb for flavoring a dish like vegetable pie or meat stew. To stay with the spirit of rationing, this carrot salad makes a light lunch or a side dish with kippers or canned sardines—also probably with grilled meat or chicken, which would have been a special treat during the war years.

For the Salad:

· 2 to 3 carrots, peeled and grated on the fine side of a box grater or with the food processor.

· 1 medium parsnip, peeled and grated fine like the carrot.

· ½ cup of thinly sliced onion tops (use the long green tops of growing onions or the tender green parts of scallion).

· ½ cup minced fresh parsley leaves

Toss these ingredients together lightly to mix.

For the Dressing:

· 4 Tablespoons neutral oil (avocado, sunflower, or another oil of your choice)

· 2 Tablespoons of white wine vinegar

· 2 Tablespoons of honey

· 1 Tablespoon of Dijon mustard (German mustard will do nicely too, of course)

· ½ teaspoon of salt

· ½ teaspoon of ground pepper.

Combine and mix well. Pour the dressing over the grated vegetables and mix again lightly. Cover and set it in the refrigerator for several hours to let the flavors blend. Mix again just before serving. Makes 2 servings as a side dish.

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Carrot Marmalade

This “ersatz” marmalade was meant to impersonate the beloved orange marmalade which became difficult to find in England during the war. Rare and expensive citrus fruit was given to young children, not made into jam. Carrots have their own sweetness, and I was surprised to see the amount of rationed sugar called for in the recipes of the time. I decided to use no more than Edith’s one-week family allowance of sugar—four cups, one each for each person, including the children. The result is a “low sugar” version that has a shorter shelf life. Because sugar affects the way marmalade sets up, I also added a grated apple for sweetness and for the pectin (a jelling agent) that apples contain.

Though all citrus fruits were rare in the UK during the war, recipes of that era for carrot marmalade always contain lemon juice, as the acid helps the pectin in fruit to hold the juices together. I asked a British friend if she had any insight on how easy it might have been to get a lemon during the war. She assured me that lemons were often grown by farmers and estate owners in hothouses. So, trusting that Uncle Bruno could have supplied Edith with a lemon, I was able to believe she made carrot marmalade.

This recipe will fill four, 8-ounce jars that can be stored in a cool, dark place for several weeks or in the refrigerator for a year.

· 1 pound of finely grated carrots

· 1 apple, peeled and cored and finely grated

· Zest from 1 lemon (use a zester if you have one to create long, thin strips. But grated zest is ok too)

· Juice of 1 lemon (the amount will vary according to the size of the lemon. I got ¼ cup from a large lemon).

· 4 cups of white sugar

· 3 to 4 cups clear water (enough to just cover the carrots)

Put all the above ingredients together in a non-reactive pan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. As soon as it boils, turn down the heat. Allow the mix to simmer for an hour. Watch that it is actually bubbling, but NOT bubbling over. Stir every ten minutes or so to make sure it doesn’t scorch.

Meanwhile, sterilize the jars you will use AND their lids in a large pot of water. Make sure the water covers the jars and that they boil for about 10 minutes. Lift the jars out of the water with tongs and set them on a clean dish towel to air-dry.

The marmalade mixture should be reduced to about half the original volume and have bubbled continuously for an hour. Carefully fill the sterilized jars with the mixture. Wipe off any sticky juice from the rim with a clean, damp paper towel. Screw on the lids while the jars are still hot. Allow them to cool to room temperature with the lids on.

Store them in a cool, dark place for a couple of weeks or in the refrigerator for up to a year. Once they are opened, they must be refrigerated.

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Carrot Biscuits (Cookies) a la Lebkuchen

It seems natural to me that Edith would have incorporated techniques she learned from making Lebkuchen into her carrot cookies. Like in my Lebkuchen recipe, I chopped the raisins and incorporated them into the flour mixture. I also pulverized rolled oats into a flour-like consistency in the same manner that German bakers turn nuts into flour, and I used a viscous sweetener, here the British canned “Golden Syrup” rather than honey. These sweeteners add moisture and were available during rationing on the point system, while sugar was rationed by weight. Besides, I had already used a week’s allotment of sugar to make the marmalade.

Other ingredients reflect the reality of rationing in Britain. Eggs and fat were rationed, so this recipe uses only one egg and two tablespoons of fat. I used butter because that’s what I had on hand; Edith might have used margarine, lard, or even rendered fat from bacon. Nothing, not even meat drippings, was wasted. Whole wheat flour (called wholemeal in the UK) would have been the only flour available to Edith. This recipe can be made entirely with wheat flour, but oats add a nutty flavor and were less expensive in WWII Britain, so I chose to use half oat flour.

The recipe will make between two and three dozen cake-like cookies. They will keep for a week in a closed container. As they are not crispy, they freeze well.

Dry mixture:

· 1 whole cup of flour

· 1 cup oat flour (you can make your own by pulverizing rolled oats in a blender or food processor until it is like flour)

· 1 cup of raisins

· 2 teaspoons of baking powder

· ½ teaspoon of baking soda

· ½ teaspoon of powdered ginger

· 1 teaspoon of cinnamon

· 2 Tablespoons of butter or other solid fat, cut up into several pieces and softened to room temperature (or gently melted if you are using a mixer)

Put the oat flour and the raisins in the food processor or a blender and process until the raisins are in tiny pieces that blend in with the pulverized oats. If you use a blender, move the oat-raisin combination to a large bowl and proceed with a hand- or stand-mixer. If you are using a food processor, you can continue the recipe in the processor until the final step of adding the grated carrot.

Add the rest of the dry ingredients (the wheat flour, the baking powder, the baking soda, and the spices) to the oat-raisin mixture. Mix all together until incorporated. Add the fat and mix until it is well blended into the dry ingredients.

Wet ingredients:

· ¾ cup cooked carrot puree (applesauce will also work)

· ½ cup Golden Syrup or Honey (Golden Syrup, which is slightly sweeter than honey, is a British product easily purchased online)

· ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

· 1 egg, lightly beaten.

Mix all these ingredients together in a separate bowl and stir well to combine. Add the wet ingredients to the dry mixture and stir until all is mixed. Do not overmix.

Now gently fold in:

· 2 cups of finely grated carrots

Mix only until blended. The small pieces of grated carrots should be evenly distributed but still be visible (not pulverized).

To Cook:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Prepare two 13” X 16” baking sheets with oiled parchment paper.

Drop rounded tablespoons of dough about an inch apart on the two baking sheets. These cookies don’t spread, so if they are a bit closer it isn’t a problem.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. The cookies need to feel dry on top but still soft and moist inside. The best way to test them for doneness is to take out one cookie and let it cool enough to taste. If the interior is no longer doughy, they are done!

These are soft, cake-like cookies, not too sweet, with a pleasing texture. They keep well and freeze well too. Great with tea. Add a touch of the carrot marmalade if you want something special.

Please let me know if you try any of my carrot recipes . . . or the earlier recipes for Lebkuchen or Christmas Stollen. I’d love to know what you think!