[CH] Mardi Gras Doubloons
Rob Solarion (solarion@1starnet.com)
Fri, 22 Feb 2002 19:24:57 -0600
Yesterday I was at Walmart and found a vegetable called "Carotte Bordeoux"
that was pioneered by Texas A&M University. My French colleague emailed me
this morning that "Bordeoux" is NOT a French word, and that undoubtedly the
Aggies (bless their dumbf*** hearts!) just got "confused" and misspelled
the city of Bordeaux. I happen to be a "tea-sipper" myself.
At any rate, these carrots were too weird to ignore, so I bought a batch of
them. They are called "Maroon Carrots". They are purple on the outside,
but they have a golden-orange central core. When I cut one open and saw
this, the very first thing that came to my mind was ... Mardi Gras
Doubloons! Two colors in one carrot! Does Mardi Gras get any better than
this?!
There is a "tradition" in Louisiana for Mardi Gras Doubloons, which are
prepared for Mardi Gras feasts. The colors of Mardi Gras are purple, gold
and green. The people riding the floats at the parades toss out beads and
"doubloons" to all the screaming drunks. "Throw me something, mister!
Throw me something, mister!"
These culinary "doubloons" are round, sliced beets, orange carrots and
zucchini (or whatever you choose) in the colors of the Mardi Gras. One
time I made this and called it "Mardi Gras Doubloons & Rings", by adding
some sliced purple onion, yellow pepper and green pepper. It looks very
pretty when you combine all of this, very ... Mardi Gras.
The beet juice fades into the other salad dressing (this is served as a
salad of sorts), so you can experiment with various dressings to suit
yourselves. I can't remember what I did, but a simple garlicky Italian
dressing with the "bleed-in" of the beet juice color would be perfect. You
could garnish it with some diced golden bell pepper and parsley leaves.
Laissez le bon temps roulez! Roberto