And..........unsubscribe.
No, I didn't put them together. But maybe next time....
The tangerines were for my husband, I made him Tangerine Granita.
The brussel sprouts were for my daughter.
Which family member was the luckiest?
Depends on who you ask.
I wanted to try a dessert out of the book, but not a baked one. I wanted something new, something I hadn't tried before. I always like the idea of granita. Ice-y crystals, sugar, pure flavor. What's not to like? So, I picked tangerine/orange granita for my husband. He loves citrus, loves sorbet - so there you have it. I squeezed a few tangerines (they were so ripe they collapsed in my hands) and a few oranges together in a bowl. Then I cooked a sugar syrup.
Wait, you thought I didn't eat corn syrup?
Sugar syrup is nothing like corn syrup. It is very simply, sugar - dissolved in water, and heated until a smooth slightly thickened syrup. The taste is so wonderful! I even use it to moisten my layers of cake before I frost them. Anywhoo, it took about 10 minutes to juice the oranges and make the syrup. Then you put it in a glass pan and throw it in the freezer. Every 30 minutes or so you give it a stir to break the liquid up into ice crystals.
Hmmm....I must have missed a step, that was TOO easy.
That's it. Really.
A few hours later:
I was surprised by the taste - extremely fruity. Really, really, tangerine. Not orange juice concentrate-y - which I don't care for. Pure tangerine. Not too sweet either. Why isn't it orange? Because I use raw sugar, which is golden brown, so my syrup comes out brown. If I would have used refined sugar I would have gotten a nice color, but felt awful.
But the real test came when my husband tried it. Having been around me for a while, his first question was "what's in it?" Raising his eyebrow and looking at me suspiciously for a second longer, he agreed to try it. It passed his taste bud test. Luckily there was enough for seconds and another day or two of leftovers. Now I am imagining all kinds of flavors, and he is imagining I will just leave it alone and not change the recipe.
Onto bigger challenges, 'cause that one was not hard enough.
Brussel sprouts. I know, yum, right???
My first taste of brussel sprouts as a kid was Jolly Green Giant Brussel Sprouts with Cheese Sauce. If I remember right, Jolly Green Giant soaked everything in cheese sauce. It was a lovely time in our culinary history.
Now, my daughter likes vegetables. But there are some vegees that other kids have told her they don't like and she hasn't believed them about it, but has not not believed them either. I know, was that a triple negative? Is that even grammatically possible? Sounds more like an algebra problem to me.
So, I bought a bag of frozen brussel sprouts. No cheese sauce. Sorry princess.
Now, I had the distinct advantage in the brussel sprout war, in that one of my daughters close friends like brussel sprouts. I could use that as ammunition too............
So brussel sprouts sauteed in garlic and baked was my choice.
Brussel sprouts are just little tiny cabbages! Seriously. I did not know that. No wonder I loved them, I love, love, love cabbage. Cooked, raw, doesn't matter. So after slicing these teeny tiny cabbages in half and not harming my myself, I heated up some olive oil and put them cut side down in the pan. Added in some sliced garlic - yum! The smell was all good. These were not the boiled brussel sprouts you grew up with as a kid that you were forced to eat, trust me.
As they lightly browned, I heated the oven and threw the skillet full of goodness in there.
10 minutes later, a sizzling pan came out of the oven and my daughter came into the kitchen. This was too easy.
Now, with a smoking hot pan full of food bits, you can do two things - you can put water in it to soak and scrub it out, or you can deglaze it. Deglazing is nothing more than adding liquid and scraping up the food bits to make a good glaze. Then you soak and scrape. This recipe called for adding a splash of balsamic vinegar before serving. But I like balsamic vinegar too much for just a splash. So in the pan it went. It thickened up nicely. So, here was the moment of truth....
She took a bite............. and slowly reached for the rest of the bowl and walked away. I managed to grab some and added more vinegar to them and dug in. They were so tasty. No yucky taste, no bitterness, just roasted goodness. And later that night, I threw them in my soup. I ususually end up throwing together some soup at the end of the week with my leftovers. That night's soup was vegetable broth, brown rice, cabbage, white beans, brussel sprouts and parmesan cheese. I also topped it off with some of the leftover bean biscuits for some body. It was divine. And the sprouts added such a deep, good flavor that I may keep a bag in the freezer from now on. Without the cheese sauce.
Oh yeah, I also tried no-mayo coleslaw. Good, I could see it with some peanut sauce and a Thai chile thrown in for some extra zing. We both agreed that it was o.k., but nothing special. I guess you need just o.k foods every once in a while ;-)
BTW, this weeks total for my meals was $38. And I have plenty of leftover ingredients in my pantry and freezer still. I made my choices for the week, time to go shopping!!!
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