Sunday, December 30, 2007

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.

16 comments:

MommyTime said...

These sound delicious and so much healthier than the ones I learned to cook in high school, which involved grating a whole bunch of carrots (already too much of a pain in the neck to do this now), sauteeing in like 1/2 a stick of butter, and then pouring on about 1/4 cup of honey (okay, I was cooking for 6 people, but still...) I can't wait to make these!

Mrs Furious said...

Mommytime,

okay I just changed it a little. 1/3 c liquid. And I'm calling it a compote since I feared some people might get a little nervous when there really wasn't much actual sauce!

calories: 81 for 6 portions
122 for 4 portions.

it really was fantastic and I can't belive I managed to make both old carrots and dry old clementines palatable let alone really good.

I actually thought of making them honey glazed... but am still avoiding it with Baby. Believe me I would enjoy your highschool version :)

Deb said...

Holy cow... you are amazing! I would have just trashed it all and gone to McDonald's.

Mrs Furious said...

Deb,

hey thanks!... I can assure you that has been known to happen but since Mr F was kind of in his stressy freak out mode all day I felt I had to be more pulled together and actually make dinner... you know to model sanity and stability for the kids (plus I already had the salmon thawed and there isn't a lot of flexibilty with that)

but now that I've got you here where you'll actually respond ;).... are those Hanna's and do you all wear them?
and did he buy the SF oreos on purpose or what?

katieo said...

box grater for zest?

Mrs F. Do you own a microplane grater?

Mrs Furious said...

Katieo,

YES. I'm writing this for normal people. I actually have a zester I like best for zesting. You know the kind that makes longer curls of zest. Well I like it best when I want a prettier zest component... (Which reminds me that maybe if you are using a microplane you should cut down on the zest since that produces more than what I used) But I've gotten feedback (okay from Angie) that I need to be very basic in my explanations and tool requirements... some people (Angie) are new to cooking and get frustrated when I talk over them (her)

I will ammend my notes to mention the microplane (although anyone who has one knows to use it)

katieo said...

Oh gotcha!

You would've gotten one in the mail from me had you said no...

Mrs Furious said...

Katieo,

lol... you could send one to Angie ;)

Danielle said...

Yum-O! :)

Mrs Furious said...

Danielle,

Oh it was good. If you make it let me know how it turned out so I can make any necessary changes. I didn't actually measure when I made it so these are my best approximations.

Did you make the white trash? I'm thinking of making some for tonight.... I keep seeing all the cereal boxes and they are taunting me!

Danielle said...

Yes, I DID make the WT and it did NOT disappoint-thank you! However, in the interest of my growing thighs, I did bag some up and take it over to the neighbors...a sort of "pay-it-forward" deal.

Mrs Furious said...

Danielle,
"a sort of "pay-it-forward" deal."
I'm sure they appreciated that ;)

when we made it we did a double batch... that was a huge mistake... I think I'll try and just do a single batch and immediately deposit half on the doorstep of our pregnant neighbor :)

Mrs Furious said...

... and then deposit the other half straight into my mouth!

Anonymous said...

I'm thinking of making some for tonight...

"Bring. It. On."

Anonymous said...

Yum, love your recipe idea.

Mrs Furious said...

Sally,
thanks for stopping by!

I just checked out your site... hey it even looks like you can actually eat this (minus the butter).

I'll try and catch up on your posts when I get a little time this week... looks like a great blog :)

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