Brandy-Glazed Carrots

Jennifer had a false alarm Tuesday and then nothing, and we are all collectively holding our breath in the way of families awaiting a baby — that particular suspended state where every phone call from an unfamiliar number makes you look at the screen twice. I put the phone on loud at night for the first time in years. Marvin asks about Jennifer every morning. Every morning I say, "Not yet, Marv." He nods. He asked me, on Wednesday, whether Jennifer was pregnant. I said yes. He had forgotten the question he had asked every morning. I told him yes, that David and Jennifer were having a baby, that it would be here very soon. He said, "David's going to be a wonderful father." He already is, I told him. "He has two children already." "Of course he does," he said, as if he had known this. Perhaps he had, and it had simply been briefly mislaid. I am learning to live in the ambiguity of not knowing exactly what he knows and what he doesn't.

Passover is in three weeks and the kitchen is entering what I think of as the pre-Passover ferment — not the actual chametz removal yet, but the mental ferment of list management and recipe review and the annual interrogation of whether the seder takes too long, which it does not. The seder takes exactly as long as it takes, and anyone who suggests abbreviating the Haggadah is welcome to host their own seder where they may abbreviate to their heart's content, and I wish them joy of it.

I made tzimmes this week — the same batch I make in pre-Passover preparation, using the leftover carrots and sweet potatoes from a grocery run, slow-cooked with prunes and apricots and honey. I brought a container to Rebecca when she drove out on Sunday. She sat in the kitchen and we talked about Marvin and the driving and the question he asked about Jennifer's pregnancy, and I watched her face as she heard it — the careful, measured expression of a person who loves someone and cannot fix what is happening to them. She is like her father in this way, holding the difficult things quietly. She ate two bowls of tzimmes. She said it was perfect. I know it was. Some things are not subject to revision.

The tzimmes I described above — the one I brought to Rebecca, the one she ate two bowls of — begins, as it always does, with carrots. Slow-cooked, honey-glazed, patient carrots that ask nothing of you except time and a low flame. This brandy-glazed carrot recipe is the simplest version of that instinct: the sweet glaze, the yielding texture, the kind of dish you make when the kitchen needs to feel like it is doing something useful while everything else is simply waiting. It keeps well. It travels well. It is, in the way of a few good things, not subject to revision.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 25 minutes | Total Time: 35 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

2 pounds carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch diagonal slices
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons brandy
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon light brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup water or low-sodium vegetable broth
2 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped (for serving)

Instructions

Start the carrots. Combine the sliced carrots and water (or broth) in a wide skillet or saute pan over medium-high heat. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, until the carrots are just tender when pierced with a fork. Drain any remaining liquid from the pan.
Make the glaze. Reduce heat to medium. Add the butter to the pan and let it melt around the carrots. Stir in the brandy, honey, brown sugar, salt, pepper, and cinnamon. Stir gently to coat.
Glaze and reduce. Cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 10 to 12 minutes, until the glaze thickens and the carrots are deeply coated and beginning to caramelize at the edges. Watch the heat — the honey can scorch quickly. Lower the flame if the glaze darkens too fast.
Finish and serve. Taste and adjust seasoning. Transfer to a serving dish and scatter the chopped parsley over the top. Serve warm. These reheat beautifully — simply warm gently in a covered pan with a splash of water to loosen the glaze.

Nutrition (per serving)

Brandy-Glazed Carrots — The Dish That Needs No Revision