Carrots are often served with other vegetables. They may also be served alone, seasoned with butter and dill.

Carrots may be boiled, steamed, or braised. I generally find braising the most convenient, as in Simple Braised Carrots below.

This is an intriguing, simple recipe from Escoffier. He used it for glazed carrots, a standard for decoration at the time.

I have felt free to vary the proportions. Most of the time I reduce the sugar to a sprinkle, producing, essentially, buttered carrots.

For the record Escoffier used, for each pint of water, ½ ounce salt, 1 ounce sugar, 2 ounces butter.

This general method can be adapted for new potatoes (see index).

Halve, quarter or slice the carrots according to size. Place them in pan and cover with water. Add butter, sugar, and salt. If you want the carrots to glaze, use significant sugar.

Start with water perhaps one third the height of the carrots. Cover and cook carrots, adding more water whenever necessary. Contrive to allow nearly all water to have boiled off when carrots are finally cooked, leaving a syrup in the pan.

Boil water until carrots are cooked, and water has disappeared, leaving a butter-sugar syrup in the pan.

Sauté the carrots in the syrup, stirring and tossing, a minute or two. Melt in additional butter if desired.

Proceed as above, omitting butter and sugar. (Place carrots in a sauté pan, add water to one third height, cover and simmer until tender, 15 or 20 minutes. Let water almost disappear at the end, and pour juices over carrots to preserve flavor and nutrients.)

Melt butter on cooked carrots, and sprinkle with dill.

Barbara developed this dish in England in the 1970s. She loved parsnips, but none of her two daughters, son, or husband would eat them. Some readers may find this situation familiar. Barbara did not accept defeat, and developed a dish that they all did like. It was a favorite with here children growing up, and today they demand it at every holiday.

Flavors are important, but Barbara attributes success to two visual attributes as well. One is presence of colorful carrots, the other the fact that the vegetables are slightly crusted. This gives the presentation what Barbara calls definiteness or energy, important to acceptance. Something thrown together, this dish is not.

A marvelous accompaniment for any roast: lamb, beef, turkey, or chops. Barbara thinks it too strong for chicken.

Preparations ahead of baking may be done several hours in advance. Baked, it may be served immediately, or rest an hour. Leftovers may be refrigerated and reheated in microwave, refreshing with a little cream or yogurt and/or grated cheese.

Barbara works now for a real estate company at the corner of Shattuck and Vine, the heart of the Gourmet Ghetto. She enjoys the area, shopping as Europeans do, buying produce or bread for the day.

This dish has no known roots in English cooking. The English do eat parsnips, she says, usually plain boiled. They are missing something.

Per person

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Cut parsnips and carrots in half or, if large, in quarters.

Bring water to boil in pot. Add parsnips and carrots and blanch 1 or 2 minutes, enough to barely soften. (Or pan-steam for a slightly longer time.)

Lay the blanched vegetables on the rectangular baking dish. Alternate head to toe for a colorful appearance.

Brush with the best olive oil, preferably olive/basil, and slightly salt.

Add cream to surround the vegetables. Do not put cream over them. Sprinkle dill weed on top. Sprinkle generously with freshly grated nutmeg.

(May be done ahead to this point.)

To Bake

Cover with foil and bake about 30 minutes. Remove foil the last 10 to 15 minutes. Turn heat up so that the tops will brown a little, important for appearance.

The cream will mostly be absorbed into the vegetables. If diet permits, for the last 10 minutes add a little more cream to moisten.

Decorate with dill springs or parsley.