I don't often enjoy 'fiddly' cooking, but these little carrot cups are somehow worth it, to me.
Ingredients for 8 little cups:
4 large carrots
1 clove garlic
half a stick of butter
a palmful of sugar
a palmful of salt
good quality goat's cheese
4 tablespoons pea puree
You're going to use the bottom inches of the carrot, The top end is too thin to stuff. Peel the carrots and slice off the very bottom, where it's dirty and has the root attachment. Then cut off two chunks from each carrot, each one inch long.
Use an apple corer to remove the center from each carrot chunk. Don't let the corer go all the way to the bottom - you are planning to have an intact 'cup'. You'll need to use a sharp knife to get the center out of the carrot - sadly it doesn't come away when you remove the corer.
Chop up the carrot that you've removed from the centers into little tiny pieces that wouldn't choke a mouse. Cut slim (about a quarter of a centimeter) slices of carrot for lids.
Bring a pan of water to the boil. I like to use a deep cast iron pan, but anything will do. Add salt and sugar to the water - a small palmful of each. When the water is boiling, carefully lower in the carrot cups, the lids and the tiny chopped pieces. Boil for exactly six minutes, Then quickly move the carrots into cold water to stop the cooking process.
Wrap everything in kitchen paper to dry the carrot. Refrigerate the paper bundles.
Stir together 2 tablespoons of soft goats cheese, the tiny carrot pieces and the pea puree. Ideally you want to stop stirring while it's still marbled, not completely blended. Taste the result - sometimes goats cheese is very salty and you want to season it at the end to suit your own tastebuds.
Use a teaspoon to drop the goats cheese and pea puree into the carrot cups and pop the lids on top. Serve.
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