ALIYA LEEKONG X JILL LINDSEY SUPPER CLUB + CARROT TARTARE
A few weeks ago, I hosted a supper club at a gorgeous store in Brooklyn, the namesake of the equally gorgeous Jill Lindsey. It is the perfect venue - beautiful handmade home goods, rugs and furniture from Nicaragua (designed by Jill!), candles, jewelry; they host events and have a café area in the back. Jill is the perfect partner, having worked in restaurants and well-versed in all of the front-of-the-house needs. The one catch? ....no kitchen! So, yes, I served (with the help of the amazing Tamsin Kelly! thank you again!) a 5-course, sit-down dinner with my "easy-bake" countertop oven and an induction burner, both of which I brought with me. Fun! and Terrifying!
Here is the menu and some great photos of all of the people (so many friends surprised me!) who came. Photos are all by the talented MJ Batson of Corac Studios
I wanted to share the recipe with you for the star of the Carrot 3 Ways dish, a carrot tartare. The inspiration for the tartare is an Ethiopian dish called kitfo. I posted the recipe for kitfo yeeeeeaars ago, but it's basically a hand-cut steak tartare warmed in a spiced butter infused with cardamom, black pepper, and cayenne. It is out of this world!! I thought the spices played really nicely with the sweetness of seasonal carrots here in lieu of beef. I served mine with dehydrated carrot chips and a brown butter carrot-sunchoke purée. Enjoy!
CARROT TARTARE
Ingredients
Serves 4 to 6
3 medium carrots, peeled
5-6 tablespoons unsalted butter
½ teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
¼-½ teaspoon cayenne
1 shallot, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
Salt, to taste
Chives, for garnish
Procedure
Bring a medium pot of water up to a boil and season heavily with salt. While the water is coming up, prepare an ice bath (a bowl of cold water with ice). You want to cook the carrots and then shock them in the ice bath to stop the cooking.
When the water comes up to a boil, add the carrots and cook until a fork slips easily into the thickest part of the carrot. That can vary depending on the width, so I would say anywhere from 6 to 12 minutes. Transfer immediately to the ice water to stop the cooking. Remove and dry thoroughly. At this point, you can move ahead or save them in the refrigerator for use a day or two later.
If you have a stand mixer with a meat grinder attachment, pass the cooled and dry carrots through the larger, coarse grinding plate. If not, you can use a ricer or a food processor to achieve a ground carrot texture. You don't want mush, so try not to take it too far!
Heat the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add spices and toast for a minute or so until fragrant and nutty. The butter should brown a bit. Add the shallot and garlic and cook another 30 seconds to a minute. Toss in the ground carrots until they are heated through. They should be warm and touchable.
Serve warm (you can use a ring mold if you like) and top with chopped chives.