Shredded Carrot
Coconut Milk Variations

I've always been against the idea of grating food.
But if pressed to explain why I wouldn't have an answer.
I think on some level I had this samurai code
of wanting to rely on nothing but a sharp knife for my cooking,
and the idea of using a big ugly grater clashed with my sensibilities.

But lately I've felt a weird urge to try and see what I could do with grated carrots,
and how to include them in some of the summer salads I've been making recently.
For the second salad I tried marinating the shredded carrots in lemon juice
for a few minutes to sharpen up the flavor
and give it a bit more crispiness,
It didn't make the carrots too tart, and worked great.

I also started experimenting with coconut milk and have been having a blast!
I don't know why I never thought of it before, but coconut milk is awesome.
It's such a team player, it does so much to bring order to chaos in a dish.
It tethers possibly competing flavors and directs them in a single direction
better than anything I can think of.
I think it's due to it's versatility.
It's good when paired with sweet, savory, good cold, warm, hot,
thickened to a sauce, or diluted with stock or soup etc.
It's mild and smooth, yet specific in flavor,
doesn't taste heavy but still has a richness to it etc.

Given how much leeway the coconut affords me, I made a couple ballsy salads:





The first was made with grated carrots/radishes, cilantro/parsley, and tomatoes.
I poured on the coconut milk and accented it with
honey, chili sauce, orange juice and toasted pumpkin seeds.




The second was a mixture of carrots, blueberries, mango, tomatoes, and grilled julienned radish
(grilled this time to be more in line with the sweeter elements of this salad)
and the same coconut and accent bath as the last one (minus the orange juice).