- A friend who's self-employed and has resolved not to stir out of the house till she finishes a project says lunch and a long conversation with me is the carrot spurring her to get on with it and finish it.
- I had a packet of carrots unusually refusing to rot even after a week in a plastic packet in the fridge.
- A discovery in recent years has been carrot chutney, made to perfection by Aunt, often recreated to imperfection by yours truly.
Now with so many carroty references and occurrences, why I could only think of papaya and pumpkin when FIC-Orange was announced I can only attribute to a moment of absent-mindedness (Aside: if it's absent, can there be a mind? Why does that sound like a smart thing to say?) but blog-hopping rescued me from much thought when I discovered people were sending in carroty concoctions to the event, created by Sunshinemom.
Take 2 cups of diced carrot, boil till not quite tender.
Grind it on the lowest speed in your mixer with
- salt
- some tempering/talimpu/tadka (2 tsp of mustard seeds; 3-4 tsp of fried black gram dal; 1-2 tsp of cumin/jeera; 3-4 cloves of skinned/crushed garlic; 3-4 slit green chillies; a few curry leaves, all fried in 2 tsp of oil) and
- 3-4 pieces of soaked and softened tamarind
Check taste and texture and temper once again if it's not crunchy enough.
And when carrots are mentioned, can carats be far behind? Here's a quote attributed to American actress Mae West, who was also known for her quips:
“I never worry about diets. The only carrots that interest me are the number of
carats in a diamond.”
Here's another, by American humorist and social commentator Will Rogers:
"Some guy invented Vitamin A out of a carrot. I'll bet he can't invent a good
meal out of one."
(Well, this chutney's a good meal; just swirl it in some thick curds/yoghurt and you won't need anything else.)
Dreaming of carrots? Then prosperity and health is predicted; for a young woman to eat them denotes she will contract an early marriage and be the mother of several hardy children! Don't believe me, go here and find out for yourselves.
