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Carrots a la King
Pare, dice and cook carrots till tender. Drain. Prepare 1 cup medium-thick white sauce to which has been added 1 teaspoon grated onion, 1 tablespoon each finely diced celery, minced parsley and pimiento. Arrange the hot carrots in serving dish and pour sauce over them. Serves six.
A plain vegetable dish built on a seasoned white sauce. The only real gap in the original is the amount of carrots, which is never stated.
- Quantity of carrotsNo weight is given. For six servings figure about 2 lb of carrots, which yields roughly 6 cups diced; 1 cup of sauce dresses that amount lightly rather than coating it heavily.
- Medium-thick white sauceIn books of this period that means 2 tablespoons butter, 2 tablespoons flour and 1 cup milk, cooked until it coats a spoon. A thin sauce was 1 tablespoon each, a thick sauce 3 or 4.
- Cook the carrots shortThe recipe says only "till tender" and gives no time. Dice of about half an inch is done in 8 to 10 minutes in salted water; drained and held hot, they should still have some resistance or the finished dish turns to mush under the sauce.
- PimientoCanned pimiento peppers, sold in small jars, still available in the same form. Drain and blot before dicing so the liquid does not thin the sauce; a piece of roasted red pepper substitutes directly.
- Grated onionThe recipe wants onion juice and pulp rather than pieces. Grate on the fine side of a box grater and add it to the sauce early enough to lose its raw edge, a minute or two of simmering.
- Celery stays crispThe tablespoon of diced celery is added to the sauce already prepared, so it is barely cooked; that slight crispness plays against the soft carrot, though the recipe does not comment on it.
- SeasoningNo salt or pepper is specified. Salt the cooking water for the carrots and season the sauce to taste; white pepper keeps the sauce from being speckled.
- ServingIt is thin fare on its own for six; over toast points, split biscuits or rice it makes a light supper, which is how "a la king" preparations were often sent to the table.