From: Greg Atkinson

Serves 4

A recipe with as few ingredients as this one can be deceptively simple. Some serious but not too difficult prep work goes on behind scenes. Cutting the carrots is a lot easier if you have access to a mandoline, one of those guillotine-like contraptions that cuts vegetables into slices or strips. It’s important to use clarified butter because the whey in whole butter would burn, but I don’t like to clarify butter the old-fashioned way. I render it instead into a golden-brown ghee and keep the lightly browned butter right beside the stove for sautéing carrots or greens. The recipe makes more browned butter than you will need.

Ingredients

For the Browned Butter:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

For the Carrots:

1 pound organic carrots
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Directions

Make the browned butter. In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and allow it to simmer steadily. As it foams, stir it down. When all the water has boiled out and the foam on top is beginning to brown, remove from heat and pass the hot fat through a fine strainer.

Peel the carrots and cut them crosswise in half or into thirds to make short logs, about 4 inches long. On a mandoline or with a sharp knife, cut the logs into julienne strips, about ⅛ inch square, If you cut the carrots ahead of time, don’t put them under water or the water will leach out the natural sugars. It won’t matter if they dry out a little; they will perk up when they are sautéed.

Put ¼ cup browned butter in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat and add the salt, pepper, and nutmeg. When the spices are sizzling, add the cut carrots. Cook the carrots in the hot browned butter until they are heated through and barely tender, about 2 minutes. Serve at once.