Up-cycling Christmas Carrots

We rolled home from an evening of gorging and yes I do mean gorging in the literal sense at our diminutive Portuguese friends’ house. It’s a tradition, Christmas Eve is spent at the Luis house, whilst Georgina the septuagenarian matriarch spends hours at the stove, shaping rehydrated salt cod into quenelle fish cakes (six each are just never enough). Her approach to food is bountifully generous, if there’s ever a threat of a food shortage in the Shires, this is where I’m heading. There’ll be enough food to see us through to the next solar eclipse in gourmet style. Gut busting bacalao con nata (cod, cream, potatoes, eggs), baked duck rice, crusted whitebait, traditional simple salt cod, boiled potatoes and greens, roast beef all followed by six desserts...and a few glasses of rosé. My shirt protested and warned me never to put its seams under that much stress again and I found myself supine on the living room floor chastising my weak will. The next day would be another day of Christmas feasting, I wondered how I’d cope.

I think food generosity is a catchy thing. Fortunately since my childhood, I’ve only ever known there to be an abundance of food, enough for at least the next day and sometimes the day after. In the Maharani’s case food boredom can set in, so one has the challenge of upcycling leftovers. Christmas lunch came and went and left in its wake a bevy of vegetables, parsnips, potatoes, Brussel sprouts and just over half a kilo of carrots. Hmmm...a mix of earthy, woodland, sulphurous and spicy flavours might be better to separate them.

Faced with just over half a kilo of uncooked carrots and damp cold weather I reached for the warming kiss of cumin, chilli and curry powder fragranced by ground coriander and a touch of nutmeg. With the help of a blender and a bit of time the carrot surplus became a warming post Christmas curried carrot soup. Profuse, chunky, and piquant this spicy carrot soup is a little gem...now what to do with those pesky sprouts?