Made a ginger carrot soup with coconut milk but accidentally made it too salty, how do i fix it?

Question

I made a ginger carrot soup with coconut milk but accidentally made it too salty, how do i fix it?

From some google searches - one said to put raw potatoes to absorb the salt. I am not sure if that will work for the soup as it is a thick carrot soup. Adding water would make it watery. Does anyone have any other methods that would work for me? I would like to keep the soup thick.

Thank You

Edit - the butternut squash worked for me!

Answer

Steam a head of cauliflower, puree it. Add it to the soup. You might also consider some squash or sweet potato puree.

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Carrot soup and avoiding the use of a blender?

Question

Most recipes for carrot soup I encounter require a final stage of blending/whizzing to get the creamy texture. Eg:

recipe1

recipe2

recipe3

Can the blender/whizzer be avoided? How must the recipes be modified in that case?

Answer

One way to modify the recipes (but you won't get the smooth texture of the original recipes) is to cut the onion and carrot a lot smaller than the original recipe ask for. You want to almost dice it. When you are frying the onion and carrot in the pan, do it for like 1-2 min rather than the whole 5 minutes. And finally you will need to cook it in the stock for much longer than the recipe asks. You want to bring the stock to a boil then let it simmer covered to allow the carrot to become really soft. Then use something with a big flat surface(a large wooden spoon or something similar) to help you mash the rest against the side of the stock pot. The results will come out a lot lumpier than the orginal recipes but some texture and "unblended" bits of carrot is actually pretty good in carrot soup.

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What makes carrot bits turn green in carrot pineapple bread? (And are they safe?)

Question

Sometimes, a couple of days after its cooked, the carrot bits inside a carrot pineapple bread turn green.

Normally, I'd assume that a food that doesn't start green and winds up that way is moldy, but, A) it's only happening to the carrots, and B) it's happening inside the loaf, not on the outside, and it doesn't look like mold- more like the carrots themselves are changing color.

What's causing this, and is it still ok to eat?

In case it matters, the other ingredients are vegetable oil, cinnamon, salt, eggs, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, flour, and vanilla.

Answer

Here is a super in-depth analysis of what may cause the carrot to turn green:

http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/turngreen.html

Unfortunately, it doesn't come to any hard conclusions. It does make it clear that it's not simply pH though, as a carrot will remain green even in a 0.1 M solution of sodium hydroxide.

It does provide an anecdote about a baker that had a similar issue, and how they solved it:

[they overcame] it with a change in formula of baking powder and a good clean out of equipment.

Perhaps this could apply in your case? It might be a reaction from your cookware in combination with other factors? What if you remove the pineapple? Does it still happen? Perhaps trying a different brand of baking powder may work.

One thing is for sure, it's definitely not mold, and I'm very confident that it's harmless.

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Did I blanch baby-cut carrots correctly?

Question

The Cook's Illustrated How-to-Cook Library suggests blanching 3/4 lb baby carrots for crudités in boiling salted water until bright orange, about 15 s. I added a tablespoon of salt to almost four quarts of water and blanched almost 2 lb of baby-cut carrots for 15 s. They didn't change color in this time, but they seemed bright orange from the start. After shocking in ice water and draining, I tasted the blanched carrots against the original raw carrots. They tasted roughly the same. Maybe the blanched ones were slightly less bitter but I'm not sure I would consistently say that in a blind taste test. What difference in taste should I have noticed?

Did I do something wrong? Should I have left them in the boiling water for longer than 15 s? The National Center for Home Food Preservation suggests 5 min for small carrots, but that's for a freezing application rather than raw consumption.

Answer

My guess is that you dropped 2lb of carrots into the water. This drops the water temperature under the boiling-simmering point. So, you're not blanching correctly. You should have taken about 3/4lb portions and blanched them successively. (Or you should have used more water on a bigger stove top.)

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What is the best way to store carrots?

Question

The carrots that I buy come in a sealed plastic bag. In the store they are not refrigerated. I've tried keeping them in the bag in the place where I keep things like onions, garlic, and potatoes (a cabinet with metal racks, and an air opening in the back - I keep the carrots on their own rack). I've tried keeping them in the bag, but I've found that one often rots, from moisture or something similar, and causes all the rest of the carrots to go bad. I've tried taking them out of the bag, but they all quickly shriveled up and went bad. The only thing I can think of still trying is to keep them in the fridge... What is the preferred way of storing carrots? How can I keep my carrots in good condition and prevent them from rotting?

Answer

Store them in the bag in your fridge. Also, if you take the tops off they will last longer. I keep mine in the drawer at the bottom.

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How to spice up a carrot cake

Question

I have made a carrot cake several times, and I like the way the cake turns out but I want it to have more spice flavors. The recipe only calls for 1 tsp of cinnamon, but since I want it to have more spice flavors I have tried adding varying combinations of the following spices:

• cloves
• allspice
• nutmeg

I have tried amounts between 1/2 tsp and 1 tsp of each of the above spices but it seems the taste is always the same - good but not spicy enough. I'm afraid to go too far overboard and ruin a good cake, so does anyone have any suggestions on how much to add or other spices that would help the cake be more spicy?

Answer

Cayenne pepper.

I'm actually serious. I haven't tried it in carrot cake but a little capsaicin actually works well with a little sweet to offset it. Chile powder also works well in sweet things.

Cardamom is my wife's favorite and so it goes into many baked goods I make. It would work and be interesting but not spicy.

You can always put in a good extra dose of cinnamon if you want it to punch you in the face.

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