Winter is passing by slowly and spring gets in its place. This is a very interesting time of the year, not only because of the awakening of the nature, but also from a culinary point of view. At this time of year, both winter-stored and fresh spring versions of the same ingredients can be found at local markets. While the winter vegetables usually require a lot more cooking time, spring vegetables tend to get soft within minutes. In this dish I combined the last purple carrots from winter with the first orange ones of spring.

Noémi has not only sent me colorful beets, but also some purple carrots. In contrast to the so called “ancient carrot” which can be found at the local markets and which has a bright orange center, the purple carrots from Noémi were purple inside too with only a few white spots. This simplifies the preparation of pure purple carrot dishes, such as soups or purees, because the carrot “flesh” doesn’t need to be separated by its interior and exterior colors.

In this dish I prepared two different purees from the orange and purple carrots. Because the purple carrots had a more earthy flavor, I cooked them with ginger, while for the spring orange carrots I used some orange zest. For the duck breast I cooked a sauce from the roasted wings. I used three different seasonings to finish the dish: basil oil, roasted sesame seeds and cep dust. Cep or porcini mushroom dust has to be sieved to remove large pieces which could resemble sawdust. It works great as a spice and can be applied not only on vegetables but also on pasta or risotto.
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