Back in August, I posted about the carrots offered up as a nibble at the now shuttered Brasserie Jo, and how I thought I had found the recipe.
Not so much.
I mean, that made a nice enough little dish o’ marinated carrot and parsley, but something was off.
THEN, I came across this totally tasty recipe for glazed carrots, which is pretty darned terrific, but doesn’t translate well into a cool, slightly crispy nosh.
*SIGH*
SO. Here I was, putting things together for our open house and really wanting something bright and fresh and crispy other than plain crudité to dip in stuff. I began thinking about making the glaze for the Carrots Vichy, sans carrots, and then tossing it over raw spears with some fresh parsley and allowing it to sit overnight.
Tempting; but I didn’t do it.
I had just made a pint of my new favorite Catalina salad dressing earlier in the week that was just a TOUCH heavy on the onion (it would seem that 1/4 of one, rather large, onion can be a might overpowering) to toss over romaine. Hmmmm. How would that extra little bit o’ bite work with sweet, sweet carrots?
BINGO!
THIS. WAS. LOVELY.
I tossed the carrots in the dressing the night before (dress lightly: orange dressing on orange veggies – it’s kinda hard to tell) and tossed with freshly chopped parsley a bit before I set it out to generally great acclaim (tho’ the under four-year-old set in attendance was not about to be tempted away from pretzels and chips and chocolate).
In truth, the onion bite had mellowed a bit in the dressing as it had sat for a day or two, so you COULD very well go for it with a large chunk o’ the old Allium cepa if you like – but I’m going to call for just an eighth, to be safe.
INGREDIENTS
Dressing:
•1/4 cup sugar
•1/4 tsp salt
•1 dash paprika
•1/4 teaspoon chili powder – the chili powder recipe I use is here
•1/4 tsp celery salt
•1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
•1/8 of a large onion, chopped – or, if you’re feeling frisky, live large, use 1/4 and let it all mellow for a day or so
•1/4 cup cider vinegar
•1/3 cup ketchup
•1/2 cup vegetable oil
Salad:
•Fresh carrots, peeled and cut into spears
•Fresh parsley, chopped
•Catalina dressing – maybe a couple of tablespoons, depending on how many carrots you’ve chopped. Yes, you COULD 
just buy that jar from the market – but trust me, this is WAAAAY better, you control the seasonings and additives (OH. RIGHT; there AREN’T ANY!), and it goes together in no time flat. Win. Win. Win.
First, the dressing: place the onion, vinegar and ketchup in a blender and puree until smooth. Add the remaining ingredients, except the oil, and mix. With the blender running, stream the oil in slowly through the removable knob to emulsify.
Store in a jar in the fridge.
Next, the salad: toss the carrots with the dressing and allow to sit, covered, in the fridge over night – this allows the dressing to seep into the carrots a bit and make them not-quite-raw crispy, so you get a pleasant crunch when you munch into them. Toss with the freshly chopped parsley a bit before serving and set out for people to look at with fear and suspicion while you calmly explain that these are NICE carrots that really don’t need to be sploshed into that blue cheese dip ober by dere.
Most did finally come around, try and like them – ermm, except for that critical slightly-under-four-year-old demographic.