CARROT LOAF

I am a big fan of watching cooking shows on tv. If there is a channel dedicated to only food and cooking, that’s all I would be watching. And that was the case when I lived in the US for a couple of years. Food network is all I used to watch. And they have a good website (www.foodtv.com) with loads of recipes to browse through. Even now I look for recipes on this particular website. If you are looking for ‘Quiche Lorraine’, for example, this website will have at the least 10 recipes for it. There are many celebrity chefs who are part of this network and each one probably has his/her own recipe for ‘Quiche Lorraine’ put up on the website.

I once watched a tv show many years ago when they baked a carrot loaf on it. It appeared reasonably easy to make and it looked delicious. I am constantly looking for vegetarian dishes since I do not have many. This recipe involves eggs and mushrooms so it may not be an option for strict vegetarians.

Ingredients:
900 gms carrots
200 gms button mushrooms
200 gms spinach leaves removed from the stem
5 eggs
100 gms cheese (cheddar/gruyere), grated
¼ tsp grated nutmeg
3 tbsp butter
Salt and pepper to taste

Peel the carrots and cut them into 0.5cm slices. Heat 1 tbsp butter in a pan and sauté the carrot slices in it until the carrots are tender and cooked. Allow it to cool and chop coarsely by hand or in a food processor.

Slice the mushrooms thinly. Heat ½ tbsp of butter in a pan and sauté the mushroom slices in it until cooked and the moisture evaporates. Allow it to cool and chop coarsely. Add the chopped mushrooms to the carrots and mix thoroughly.

Heat 1 tbsp of butter in a pan and sauté the spinach leaves in it until cooked and the moisture evaporates. Allow it to cool and chop coarsely. Break 1 egg into the spinach and mix. Add salt and pepper according to taste.

Beat 4 eggs and the grated cheese together with the freshly grated nutmeg. Add this to the carrot and mushroom mixture along with salt and pepper and mix thoroughly.

Use the remaining butter to butter a loaf pan. Add half the carrot mixture to the loaf pan followed by the spinach and egg mixture. Finally add the remaining carrot mixture on top and even out the surface. Line the top of the loaf with a buttered paper to prevent the loaf from browning too much while baking. Now place the loaf pan in a larger baking dish and pour enough hot water into the baking dish to cover the bottom by about 1 ½ inches. Place the baking dish with the loaf pan into an oven that has been preheated to 180˚C. Bake for about 1 hour and a knife inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean. Allow the loaf to cool a little bit and invert it on to a serving plate.

You can use half butter and half oil instead of using only butter to sauté the vegetables. But do not compromise on the quality of cheese. Using a good quality cheese is important since this recipe uses a considerable quantity of cheese and its quality shows in the final taste. Enjoy……..