Memories of Petro - Yummy carrot salad!

We're attending the annual International adoptive family picnic this weekend and wanted to make a dish that reminded us of our stay in Petro. When Sven brought up the yummy carrot salad that we had enjoyed so much, I felt we were handed a challenge...first trying to find a recipe... and then, making it!!! The salad was so spicy, not at all like your typical raisin carrot salad here... We thought it would be like finding a needle in a hay stack. Well...success! (pictures to come!) We thought we would share the recipe and background for those of you who enjoyed it as much as we did during our stay in Petro: From Yulinka cooks Russian:


This spicy dish is known as “Korean carrots” throughout Russia and the former Soviet republics. How did that name come about? “Korean carrot salad, morkovcha koreyska, is a legacy of Stalin's mass deportations of ethnic Koreans from the far eastern Soviet Union to its western frontiers," ...
Method:

Make this salad a day before you plan to eat it. It needs to marinade overnight.

You will need about 1 pound of carrots, cleaned and peeled, the longer the better. Use a mandoline to slice them into thin, spaghetti-like strands. Place in a large bowl. Mince 2 garlic cloves; add to the carrots.

Sauté a small, diced onion in about ¼ cup of sunflower oil until the onion is soft and translucent. Add 2 tbs. of whole coriander seeds and cayenne pepper to taste (I used about ¼ tsp.) toward the end of the cooking time. When the onion is done, immediately add it and any leftover oil to the carrots; toss.

In a bowl, mix 3 tbs. of white vinegar, 2 tsp. of sugar, and 1 tsp. of salt. Add dressing to the salad, and mix well. You can also another handful of whole coriander seeds. Refrigerate 4-5 hours; preferably overnight.