Slow Roasted Carrots with Coriander and Bay

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polar vortex or not, it's slooooooow cooking time. the time of year when the oven is fired

up shortly after breakfast and when pots are set to barely simmer throughout the day. in my

place usually involves stock making or braising a tough cut of meat. that's all great, but i've

recently began thinking about slow cooking vegetables. i usually belong to the high heat

school of vegetable roasting so i had to rethink my approach when going slow.

when i mean slow here, i mean really slow. roasting carrots might normally take 45 minutes to

an hour. for these carrots, i wanted to roast them for 6 hours. in order keep them from drying out

i had two secret weapons: olive oil and pig trotters. (i'll spare the photo for the squeamish.) using a 

fair amount of olive oil and adding a split trotter to the mix, the coriander coated carrots were

 kept at a comfortable 250°F for about 5 hours. covered with foil, they slowly cooked away, the

trotters helping to keep things moist. the last hour i removed the foil for some browning. the

result: the best carrots i've ever had. incredibly tender but still has some bite. sweet, but not

overly-so. just real carroty.

i made twice the amount you see here so these carrots are going to be around all week. their

first task: lightly smashed into toast with goat cheese and a touch of honey. 

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