Carrot pudding

It looks kind of gross but it tasted surprisingly good - like pumpkin pie, almost. I had grated one big carrot (about 2 cups worth) and melted some butter in the rice cooker. I stirred the carrot into the butter and beat an egg. Then I added milk, sugar and vanilla to the egg and poured that into the carrot and butter in the rice cooker. It smelled sort of like pie so I decided to add cinnamon, which made the egg mixture turn brown instead of off-white. I had no idea how long to cook it, since I'd gotten the idea from grated sweet potato recipes that baked for anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes, but I think it was in the rice cooker for about an hour. I took the lid off for a while to let some of the liquid evaporate because the carrots made it too wet.

I think I should not have stirred it (because I was afraid it would stick, but it didn't) and then the egg mixture might have set a bit more, rather than being carrot shreds with flan-like stuff mixed in. It didn't taste at all like carrots, but like pumpkin pie. The recipe I used called for 3/4 a cup of sugar, which I thought might be too much, but that's how much I used and it definately was not too sweet. Also, it was quite good chilled as a leftover.

grated carrot risotto

So I've decided. No more writing long detailed entries about how I made dinner on my Japan blog.

Instead, I'll write them here.

Today I decided to start using my carrots. I grated one in the morning. It weighed 300 grams (that's 2/3 of a pound). So to give you an idea, there were probably 3 to 4 cups of grated carrot when I started. I put garlic (3 small cloves, definately not enough) and olive oil and rice (I started with half a rice cooker cup and then added the second half when I realized the carrots were far more substantial than I realized). I added water periodically for half an hour and tried to stir it occasionally (I should have used the bigger pan). And then I declared it done. In my researching carrot risotto online, I found one that said to let it sit for 2 minutes after cooking, which I used to get out my dish and a leftover box and put cheese on the table. It didn't make much of a difference, but maybe that's because I used grated carrot instead of carrot puree or carrot juice, like most of the reciepes used. I was sort of expecting the carrot to disintegrate a little bit more than it did, but it got pretty soft. It was kind of bland except for the little garlic (which is why I think it needs more) but the cheddar cheese on top was tasty (that's why it looks especially orange in the picture).