How do I cook carrots so they are glazed rather than watery?

Boiled carrots tossed in butter are wet carrots with butter sliding off them. A glazed carrot is cooked in what becomes its own sauce, and the technique — a cartouche or a lid, a small amount of liquid, then a hard reduction — works for any dense root vegetable.

Step by step

1. Cut them evenly and not too small.Batons, thick diagonal slices, or halved and quartered lengths depending on size. Even thickness matters more than shape. Very thin cuts overcook before the liquid has reduced.
2. Use a wide pan, in one layer.A wide pan gives you the surface area to reduce the liquid quickly at the end. A deep saucepan means the liquid boils away slowly and the carrots overcook while you wait.
3. Add butter, a pinch of sugar, salt, and only a little water.For 500 g of carrots: 30 g butter, a teaspoon of sugar, a good pinch of salt, and water to come about a third of the way up the carrots. The sugar is not to make them sweet — it helps the glaze form and turn glossy.
4. Cover and simmer until nearly tender.8–12 minutes depending on the cut. A lid, or better a cartouche — a disc of baking parchment sitting directly on top — which lets a little steam escape so the liquid reduces as they cook.
5. Take the lid off and boil hard.Raise the heat and let the remaining liquid reduce with the pan uncovered, shaking or stirring, until it goes from watery to syrupy and clings to the carrots. This takes two or three minutes and it is the step that makes the dish.
6. Watch it at the end.The window between glazed and caught is short, because it is a sugar syrup. Once it looks glossy, take it off the heat. If it starts to catch, a splash of water lifts it immediately.
7. Finish with something sharp or aromatic.Chopped parsley, tarragon, thyme, a scrape of orange zest, or a splash of cider vinegar to cut the sweetness. Black pepper and a final pinch of salt.

Tips

• Honey, maple syrup or marmalade can replace the sugar, but they burn faster. Add them in the last minute of reduction rather than at the start.
• The same method works for parsnips, turnips, swede, shallots and radishes. Adjust the water and the time to the density of the vegetable.
• Roasting is the alternative route to concentrated carrot flavour — 200°C, tossed in oil, 30–40 minutes — and needs no attention at the end.
• Vichy carrots, the classic French version, use only butter, sugar, salt and water in exactly this way. There is nothing else in it.

If it doesn't work

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