Carrot and Orange Salad

I haven't made Moroccan in a long time, and I really miss it.  It's the fascinating combination of sweet and savory spices in the same dish, and on foods you wouldn't anticipate if you come from a Western tradition.

This is a pretty basic salad from Rose Dosti's book.  You can serve it raw in no time, well, if you have a food processor or totally cheat and buy the shreds.  I prefer my carrots blanched or cooked, and added a step of pouring boiling water over the grated strands.  To me, that brings out their flavor.  They aren't fully cooked, or even all that much softer, but they do end up more flavorful.

3 large carrots, peeled
*2 Tb lemon juice
*1/2 Tb orange blossom water
pinch of sugar
pinch of salt
*2 oranges, peeled and sliced
parsley for garnish, optional

1.  Grate carrots, either on a box grater on in a food processor.  Place shreds in a sieve.  Slowly pour 1 quart of boiling water over them.  Allow to cool until no longer steaming and the extra water has drained off.

2.  Into serving bowl, stir together carrot shreds, lemon juice, orange blossom water, sugar, and salt.  I actually used some of my orange blossom extract instead of the water.  Alternately, you could add a few drops of orange juice, but the flavor is not the same.

3.  Arrange slices of orange around the carrots.  The recipe does say sliced, not wedged, so that's how I did it.  It's different.  Chill for at least an hour, then serve, garnished with chopped parsley if desired.

Difficulty rating  π