Dinner Is Served

This is what I made as a side dish tonight after looking in the vegetable drawer at 1/2 bag of baby carrots and an aging sack of clementines. My inital thought was that the carrots needed a little rehydrating and thought that a nice glaze made from Clementine juice reduced with a little butter and ginger would be delish and do the trick. Unfortunately I found the clementines to be pretty dry and not too juicy either. So I added a quarter cup of water (OJ would have been good but we didn't have any... hey now that I'm thinking about it Triple Sec would have been really good in this!) to plump them back up. The result was delicious even considering the state of my ingredients. Simple (okay there was a little prep involved) and good and the perfect accompaniment to my Brown Sugar and Ginger Salmon.


Carrots in Gingered Orange Compote

1 pound bag baby carrots (halved length wise)
4 clementines (or 2 oranges) sectioned with membranes removed*
zest of 1 clementine (or 1/2 and orange)
1.5 T butter
1 T pureed ginger (I use a store bought kind in a tube but you could certainly use fresh)
1/3 c OJ (1/3 water and 1 T sugar... or 4T water & 2T Triple Sec)*
salt to taste

Lightly steam (or parboil) the carrots for 2-3 minutes, drain, and set aside

In sauce pan add clementine or orange segments (hint: section them over the pan to catch all the juice!), zest, OJ (or substitue), and the ginger. Bring to a simmer and reduce the liquid a bit (about 5 minutes). Add butter and return to gentle simmer. It should be pretty thick and pulpy with just a little liquid on the bottom. Add carrots and salt to taste. Heat through and cook until carrots reach desired tenderness (we like ours pretty al dente... about 3-4 minutes).


Makes 6 - 1 cup portions at 81 calories each
(or if you are me 4 - 1.5 c portions for 122 calories a piece)

Cooking Notes:
*Remove zest from orange using a zester, microplane, or the smallest holes on a box grater, and set aside. Cut ends off orange, and remove peel, pith, and outer membranes, following the curve of the fruit with a paring knife. Lift sections away from membranes, and set aside. Squeeze juice from membranes over sections before discarding. If your oranges are really juicy and you have a 1/2 c or more of juice in your pan you don't need to add any additional juice.

**heck if you've got it add 2T of triple sec either way


SUPER SIMPLE VERSION:
Hey Mrs F that sounds good but I don't want to section 4 clementines.

I hear you... if you have a large can of mandarin oranges (in juice or light syrup not heavy syrup!) in the pantry use those instead... juice and all. Omit the extra cooking liquid,the zest, and the sugar. All you need to do is add the ginger bring to a simmer and finish the sauce with the butter and salt. Boom. Pretty festive and flavorful and on the table in less than 10 minutes!


Also:
Hey Mrs F I don't want to steam the carrots first why can't I just cook them in the sauce?

You can but you'll need a little more liquid in the sauce to be sure you don't scorch your pan... it is not a very *saucy* sauce it should be pretty thick. I like to do this step first since it really only takes about 2 minutes to get a small amount of water to a simmer and steam them up... and it allows me to have more control over the doneness of the carrots. It also means I can let the sauce simmer away for as long as I like and put the carrots in right before I plate the food (ensuring they aren't over cooked!).
This is how I prepare most veggies. I'll cook them part way and then finish them off right before serving.