In the main course of my meatless menu for the 2011 ZEITmagazin cooking competition I wanted to present the carrot from different perspectives. The base is formed by a clean tasting creamy carrot puree. After cooking the carrots I put them back on the hot stove to dry them out a bit. Afterwards, while blending to a fine puree I adjusted the consistency if the puree by adding some raw carrot juice. Carrots tend to loose a lot of flavor during cooking – by adding carrot juice later I managed to reincorporate the clean carrot flavor into the puree.

As contrast to the puree I sautéd young carrots with some fresh orange juice which added a nice fruity note. The warm but still close to raw carrot cubes emphasize the carrot taste from a spicy perspective. I marinated them with rice vinegar, some soy sauce, maple syrup and cumin. Cumin works really great with carrots. As a fourth variation I created a foam of carrot juice with a clear lime and ginger taste. The dish was finished by some planed hazelnut and a ruby red rainbow trout, which has a soft orange-pink color too. The image below shows the plating steps for this dish.

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