Sometimes I worry that my blog reads like an advertisement for Sara Moulton, but I do absolutely love her. Her Cooking Live show is my first memory of watching the Food Network, and still my favorite. I just loved how calm, and real, she always seemed. I also own - and love - all three of Sara's cookbooks. Which gets me to my point. I already have a carrot salad recipe. It's Sara's. It starts with cumin seeds and olive oil, adds paprika and lemon juice, and finishes with golden raisins and sliced green olives with pimentos. It is my favorite carrot salad and one of my favorite salads, period. Whenever I make it, I have to stop myself from eating the entire bowl. I certainly didn't need another carrot salad recipe, and if it wasn't for the blog I probably wouldn't have tried this one, but here we are.
Paul's carrots have been doing great this year, so to start my salad I just had to go out to the yard to pick some. I love having carrots so readily-available (although I hate the 20 mosquito bites I acquired in the 5 minutes I spent in the yard!). As I was making the salad, it was all I could do to stop myself from adding the green olives. I continued to follow the recipe, using my fancy walnut mustard and adding golden raising and toasted walnuts. (Dorie recommended the mustard on OpenSky. It was a splurge but I absolutely love it). Paul took a bite of the salad, and commented on how great it was. I asked him if it was better than Sara's. First he said yes, he thought it might be. I gave him a look. Then he said no, he thought they were both good, but appreciated having this one as a change. I tried the salad. It was surprisingly good. Not as good as Sara's (at least in my opinion), but the walnut mustard and toasted walnuts did give it a nice flavor. I'm actually considering making it again for a barbecue on Sunday. I guess there might be room in my life for two carrot salad recipes!
Love how the walnuts and walnut mustard sound together! Great looking salad, Jora!
ReplyDeleteMmm...I would try it with olives, sounds good!
ReplyDeleteSara was one of the first food network shows I used to watch. I love how instructional she is and what a sweet persona she has.. I like the sound of cumin seeds... very interesting.
ReplyDeleteWell, Sara Moulton did learn from the best! I loved her show when it was on as well.
ReplyDeleteI loved Cooking Live, too! I got the Internet b/c of Sara...so I could print off her recipes :) I'll have to check out her carrot salad~
ReplyDeleteWhen you find someone that inspires you, there is no shame in touting that! I did enjoy her show - it seems like "way back" in the day...
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the labors of your garden!
I did not have a good year for carrots, so mine were store-bought. It's easy to get hooked on Food Network shows - we have some favourites here in Canada, too. We also get to see quite a few of the American shows, but I've not seen Sara Moulton. I'll have to look her up.
ReplyDeleteHow special to be able to use home-grown carrots in this one. I'm still searching for the perfect carrot salad and this one wasn't it for me. I'll check out Sara's. Maybe that will be the one.
ReplyDeleteJora, homegrown carrots in your salad...I am impressed, agian. I love the fact that you always use your own produce, wonderful! And your salad sounds delicious and refreshing - we loved this recipe as carrot salad is one of our favorite salads.
ReplyDeleteHave a wonderful Sunday!
That's tricky. I often find that the FFwD recipes which I am least impressed with are the ones for which I already have that perfect recipe. Sara's recipe sounds great, never would have considered olives in a carrot salad.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Sara Moulton was one of the originals on Food Network along with David
ReplyDeleteRosengarten. I loved her shows, so informative. Your salad looks great, and very delicious.
I did not care for my own, but Tricia's was great and I think it has to do with the grating of
the carrots.