Make A Carrot Butterfly and Carrot Flowers The Thai Way!
Sunday, May 18th, 2008My favorite restaurant is Morton’s the Steakhouse in Las Vegas. I’ve only been a couple of times, but enjoyed it thoroughly each time.
My second favorite restaurant - and infinitely more accessible to me - is the Thailand Cafe in Mount Airy, North Carolina. It’s an intimate restaurant with friendly wait staff, a willingness to prepare food to order, and consistent, fantastic food.
My favorite is Pad Kee Mao, chicken, hot, no tomatoes. It’s always piping hot, delicious, and beautifully garnished - usually with a carrot butterfly or with a carrot flower.
The good people at the Thailand Cafe agreed to show me how to make these beautiful vegetable garnishes. It looks easy, but believe me, it takes some practice.
We made videos of both how to make a carrot butterfly and how to make a carrot flower.
We also made one of me making my first flower. You will not be seeing that one! It did look like a flower, after a fashion, with two broken petals. And I needed some help before it would separate from the carrot. Let’s just say that I enjoyed the experience and look forward to practicing in private.
Supplies and Garnish Tools
To make these garnishes, you need some King Kong-sized carrots. These are huge monsters. If you can’t find them at your local market, try an Asian market instead.
You will also need a small, very sharp paring knife, with a blade no bigger than your index finger. In addition, you will need a large chef’s knife. And you will need a plain vegetable peeler.
The other two tools are specialty garnish tools. One looks like a cross between a shaving razor and a potato peeler. It is used to make groves in the surface of the carrot before you begin the carrot flower (save the shavings to use as backgrounds for serving food such as spring rolls).
The other tool is a wavy cutter. It looks like something you could make crinkle fries with. Both tools should be available at Asian markets or you can order them online.
How To Make the Carrot Butterfly Vegetable Garnish
Peel one gargantuan carrot. Cut with the wavy knife at an angle. Approximately 4 inches from the point, use a straight knife to cut straight cross the carrot.
Stand the carrot up on the end. With the point facing away or toward you, make one thin slice on one side and discard. Make another thin slice, but do not slice all of the way through. Make a third thin slice all of the way through the carrot.
Place your butterfly on a cutting board. Make two slits in the carrot according to this diagram.
Open the wings (the wavy end) and tuck the body behind the point where the wings join.
Make Carrot Flowers
Please a huge carrot and then use the special peeler to make ridges in the surface. Carve the carrot to a dull point.
Note: You may leave the surface smooth, but the petals will not have the pretty ruffled effect.
Hold the sharp paring knife with your thumb and fingers except index finger. The index finger remains on top of the carrot, pointing toward the tip, as a guide. To me, this was the hardest part.
Begin approximate 2 1/2 inches from the dull point of the carrot. Point the tip of the small paring knife slightly downward Cut a slice that begins thin and goes near the center of the carrot at the bottom, refraining from cutting all of the way through. You should be able to make five such slices around the perimeter of the carrot, creating petals.
When you cut the last petal, leave the knife in place and snap the flower from the remaining carrot. The carrot should be ready to cut the next flower.
I hope you were as amazed as I was at the skill that chef Sue Sisoukrath uses to produce these fabulous vegetable garnishes.
If you ever plan a trip to Mount Airy, North Carolina, birthplace of Andy Griffith, drop me an email. I’d be happy to meet you at the Thailand Cafe for great food with those darling garnishes. Any excuse will do!