Hello, angels!
Well, it’s over! I simply cannot believe that it’s done, but also, yes, I can. If you want to skip my ramblings and get to the carrot recipe, I don’t blame you! Hop on down to the bottom. If you want some ramblings, here we go!
That picture up there is a page that fell out of the little notebook we got on set to write our recipes in after every challenge, so we could remember what we cooked when we went to film our interviews. I was more of a doodler than a recipe writer—I drew a lot of candles, for some reason, and wrote Robbie’s name with a little heart over the ‘i’—and I also wrote the word wonder, like, a lot.
It feels particularly cringe and cheesy to get into all of this, but I am cringe and cheesy, so whatever!
Like I said on the show, I never really saw myself making it as far as I did. And in my regular life, I don’t know that I do a good enough job of wanting things. Want. Desire. All of that—yearning—it leaves too much room for disappointment. And I really, really hate to be disappointed. My little heart can’t take that much of it. But wondering, now, that was something that felt good to do.
To me, wondering feels more real than dreaming, a little more whimsical than imagining, and decidedly more fun than just thinking. With wonder, there’s room for awe, for spectacle, and, selfishly, it feels just ephemeral enough to be able to shake off if what you’re wondering doesn’t come true.
And so, on the show, I let myself wonder. I wondered what would happen if I made it to the next episode. I wondered what would happen if I finally unpacked my bags. And I started to wonder with food.
I wondered if I could make seven different fish in under an hour (I got to six!). I wondered what would happen if I mixed polenta and spaghetti squash (meh…). I wondered if I could make a pavlova (I could!). I wondered, and I wondered, and I wondered, and then I wondered… what would happen if I won.
I wondered what my life would look like because I had finally started to feel, for the first time, like I was doing something very, very right. Being in that kitchen. Having fun with food. Even doing the demos—I wondered if that was what my life was going to be.
And, well, you know the rest! It isn’t (for now!). I have said it a million times, and I’ll say it a million more—no one deserved it more than Antoniette. (Sorry, Robbie!) Whatever way you slice it—past wins, on-camera charm, cookbook pitch, all of the above—it was Antoinette’s game, and we were just lucky to play with her. Don’t get me wrong, Robbie and I did very well, and we still deserve some things!! I’m not, like, an idiot (kind of); we just didn’t win.
And so, for those of you ~wondering~ (I really hope I don’t ruin that word for myself), what’s next… this is it! For now. I’ll be here weekly with new recipes and hopefully some fun stories about food and love and all things one-ish.
A great way to support that would be to forward this newsletter to other friends who like food and fun stories—and maybe even consider upgrading to paid. You don’t have to! But! Recipe testing costs money, and it would be very nice (but I promise I’ll still love you even if you don’t).
You can also cook these recipes! And let me know how it goes. I would honestly, genuinely love to know. Leave a comment, or DM me if you have questions. We can learn together! Maybe I’ll do a podcast or a web series, or I’ll figure out some way to make ‘Second Chances with Garrett’ a reality. I’d love to write a cookbook, obviously. There’s a lot I want and wonder about, and so here we go, baby!
But for now… carrots.
Garrett’s carrots
It needs to be said up top that Dan Souza named this dish. When I presented it to him and Jack, after I explained the dish, he said… “so these are… Garrett’s carrots.” And then I repeated it, and that’s what they kept in the show. I need to give credit where credit is due!
Anyway! If I’m being perfectly honest, the real way that I would cook this dish is on the grill. I’d drink a beer (or three…), have some friends over. I’d make the sauce, season and oil everything, toss everything on the grill in batches until they’re done (carrots first, then halloumi, then shishitos), then toss them in the sauce and serve them on the tray I brought everything out. We’d all probably do a lot of eating with our hands.
If you have a grill, I think that’s how you should do it! But most people do not have a grill, and because I love most people, this happens in the oven and on a stove. It’s still very good! Have fun!
Garrett’s carrots: ingredients
2 lbs carrots, peeled: Not all carrots are created equally. So I say 2 lbs, but I really mean like 10-12 carrots. For four people, that’s like two and a half carrots per person. If you’ve got really big carrots, cut them in half. If not, leave them whole. I would recommend looking for large to medium-sized carrots here!
IF YOU CAN GET CARROTS WITH THE TOPS STILL ATTACHED, DO THAT!! A late, breaking development to this dish is that you toss the carrot greens in salt and oil and throw them in the oven for the last few minutes of roasting (or for seconds on the grill!) and have a supremely delicious, crunchy, charred topping that really is very lovely. Zero waste! So good!!
8 oz halloumi cheese: I say 8 ounces, but really, get whatever size you can find. It can sometimes be hard to come by, but it’s popping up in more and more places. It can also be a little expensive, but I justify it because carrots, typically, are not! If you don’t want to spend the money, though, that’s fair. You can leave it out or drop some crumbled feta down on top instead. But if you’ve never had halloumi, you should really try it! The first time I made this, my friend Janou took a bite of the halloumi and said, “Wait, what vegetable is this? It’s so good.” I still really laugh about that all the time.
8 oz shishito peppers: Again, I say 8 ounces here because that’s usually the size they’re sold in.
1 cup salted corn nuts: Corn nuts are not just the best road trip snack of all time; they are also a very delicious ingredient! These are also a late-breaking addition—on the show, I’d wanted to top the dish with roasted pistachios, but someone (*cough* Marc *cough* ) had used them the previous week, and they hadn’t been restocked—so I topped them with nothing! I’ve since topped them with roasted, salted pistachios, and that’s amazing… However!! When I was shopping, I was walking down the snack aisle, and I saw corn nuts, and I thought… I BET THIS WOULD BE SO GOOD! And, dear reader, I was right! The crunch! The salt! The toasty flavor! Unparalleled!
The sauce:
1/3 cup dijon mustard: Sorry for all the notes about cheese and corn nuts; I’ll keep this brief. It’s just mustard.
2 tbsp honey: Just honey.
2 tbsp prepared horseradish: As a high-risk, high-reward girly, I use extra hot horseradish. Start with one tablespoon of whatever you use, taste, and go from there.
2 tbsp lemon juice: You could also use two tablespoons of white or rice vinegar. But you could also use the juice of half a lemon and then slice up the other half and use it for squeezing on top!
A big pinch of kosher salt!
Garrett’s carrots: method
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees! The real reason I love this on the grill is not just because I love grilling. It’s because I love the char a grill provides. We need a high heat because we’re trying to get some color on these babies!
Make your sauce. Mix the mustard, honey, horseradish, lemon juice (or vinegar), add salt, mix, taste, and set aside!
Prep the veggies and cheese. Peel your carrots, and if they’ve got tops, remove them but don’t throw them away! If they’re huge, slice them in half; if not, leave ‘em whole! Toss the tops in olive oil and salt and pepper, and set them aside.
Slice halloumi into just under 1/4 inch slices—you should get like 10-12 slices from an 8 oz block.
Once your oven is hot, put your carrots on a baking sheet and toss them in olive oil, salt, and pepper, and then put them in the oven. Set a timer for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, shake them a little bit so a new side can make contact with the sheet and get to browning, and put them back in for 5 minutes. After five minutes, scatter your oiled and salted carrot tops over the top, and roast for a final 5. This is to crisp up the tops! It’s like kale chips, but make it carrot tops and delicious!
You can do the rest of the prep and cooking while your carrots are roasting—just set timers! 10, 5, and 5. 20 minutes total! There are a few moving parts here, but it’s nothing you can’t handle. I promise! Don’t stress! It’s just carrots!
While the carrots are roasting, sear your cheese. That’s right, sear your cheese! (Only if you’re using halloumi.) Place a large large skillet (I used a 10-inch cast iron) on the stove over high heat. Once the pan is hot, drop in your cheese! It will not melt! It will brown! You’re looking for maximum browning here, it should take like two minutes a side. Once it’s browned on both sides, remove it from the pan and set it aside.
Finally, sear your shishitos! Toss them in olive oil and salt and pepper, and then drop them down into that same hot skillet! After you drop them in, turn the heat down just a bit. They should cook for 3-5 minutes, tossing every minute or so. Shishitos are pretty thin, so they cook pretty quickly—you’re looking for a good char and for them to soften a bit, but not too much. We want a little crunch, baby!
By this time, everything should be done! You can arrange everything on a nice serving tray, or, if you were me, just serve them on the sheet tray the carrots roasted on.
Set the crispy tops aside, and pour half the sauce down over the carrots. Next, nestle the halloumi down in amongst them. Then, scatter over the shishitos and drizzle down the rest of the sauce. If you’ve got carrot tops, add those. Finally, the corn nuts! Don’t forget the corn nuts!
And there you have Garrett’s carrots! If you can’t find halloumi or shishitos, don’t use them! The carrots and the sauce are enough! No corn nuts? Go for the pistachios. Feta instead of halloumi? That’s just fine! And to be perfectly honest, that sauce would be amazing on basically any roasted or grilled vegetable (just don’t tell the carrots).
Ok! That’s all! Hope you make the carrots!
xoxo,
Garrett