Tag Archives: orange

Orange-Broccoli Tofu

11 Feb

Orange Broccoli TofuLooking for a vegetarian entree that’s a little different, or a parve Chinese dish? Try this Orange-Broccoli Tofu!

This recipe was featured by Huffington Post as one of the dozen best vegetarian recipes of 2012. It was provided by Adeena Sussman for a website called Kitchen Daily (www.kitchendaily.com).

The hardest part of the recipe is measuring out the ingredients – and getting the tofu dry enough that it doesn’t splatter when you brown it in oil. Drain it thoroughly, then squeeze it in paper towel as many times as necessary to draw the moisture out.

You might want to use reduced-sodium soy sauce, because it’s rather salty. I added a little bit of colored pepper to the original recipe to give it color.

This recipe would probably be good with chicken or beef too.

Ingredients:

1 Tbs. cornstarch
1 Tbs. warm water
¾ cup orange juice
1 Tbs. finely grated orange zest
¼ cup soy sauce
3 Tbs. rice vinegar
3 Tbs. honey
1 tsp. hot chili sauce or sriracha
1 pound broccoli florets
3 Tbs. vegetable oil
1 pound firm or extra-firm tofu, drained well and cubed
3 cloves garlic, minced

Directions:

In a bowl, whisk the cornstarch and the warm water. Add the orange juice and zest, soy sauce, rice vinegar and hot chili sauce and mix well. Reserve.

Steam the broccoli for 3 to 4 minutes until it is bright green but still very firm. Remove from heat.

Heat the oil in a very large, nonstick skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Add the tofu cubes to the pan and cook, browning on all sides, about 6 to 8 minutes. (Tip: use tongs to turn the cubes over; if you just stir, some of them won’t brown evenly.)

Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Add the broccoli and orange sauce and stir to combine. Cook until the sauce bubbles, thickens and reduces slightly – an additional 2 to 3 minutes.

Serve over rice.

Serves 4

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Green Beans with Orange Essence and Toasted Pecans

22 Oct

Green Beans with Orange Essence and Toasted PecansI clipped this recipe from the Costco magazine, but that information didn’t appear on the recipe and I couldn’t remember where I got it. When I checked by searching online, it turns out the recipe was developed by Cooks magazine in 2003. It’s kind of a “potchke” so when I make it again, I will use candied pecans from the store (Trader Joe has good ones) and save a lot of effort. The first time I made it our guests included someone who wasn’t eating gluten, so I substituted cornstarch for the flour, and it worked fine.

Ingredients:

¾ cup pecans, coarsely chopped
3 Tbs. unsalted butter or margarine
2 Tbs. maple syrup
Salt and pepper to taste
2 shallots, minced
⅔ tsp. grated orange zest
Pinch of cayenne pepper
2 Tbs. all purpose flour
1½ lb. green beans, trimmed
⅔ cup chicken broth
⅓ cup orange juice
1 tsp. minced fresh sage (or ½ tsp. dried sage)

Directions:

Toast the pecans in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium high heat, stirring occasionally, until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Off heat, stir in 1 Tbs. butter, maple syrup and a pinch of salt. Return skillet to medium heat and cook, stirring constantly, until the nuts are dry and glossy, about 45 seconds. Transfer to a plate and set aside.

Wipe out the skillet. Add the remaining 2 Tbs. butter to the skillet over medium heat. Add the shallots, orange zest and cayenne, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the shallots are softened, about 2 minutes. Stir in the flour until combined, then add green beans. Add broth, orange juice and sage. Increase heat to medium-high, cover and cook until beans are crisp-tender, about 4 minutes.

Uncover and cook, stirring occasionally, until beans are tender and sauce has thickened slightly, about 4 minutes. Off heat, season with salt and pepper to taste. Transfer to serving dish and sprinkle with pecans.

Serves 8

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Tuesday Tip: Make and store lemon (or orange) peel

22 Jan

ImageMy microplane is one of my favorite kitchen gadgets! It enables me to very quickly get that “rind of half a lemon” — or orange — that many recipes call for. Before I bought it, I would use a regular box grater, which was less than satisfactory because the rind tended to be mushy, and half of it would get stuck in the grater, which was then very difficult to clean.

If you’re like me, though, you often don’t have an orange or lemon on hand when the recipe calls for rind — or peel or zest, it’s all the same in recipes. I used to buy little jars of dried lemon peel and orange peel in the spice aisle of the supermarket. A jar containing 42 grams — less than 1.5 ounces — cost about $6. Then I realized how fast, easy and relatively inexpensive it was to make my own. I buy a few lemons when they’re on sale mainly for the peel.

Use a microplane to take the zest off all the lemons and leave the zest on a piece of waxed paper overnight. The next day it’s dry enough to store — I keep it in the same bottle the overpriced store-bought lemon peel came in. (The zest from four good-sized lemons will fill half the jar.) It can last many months. Use it in the same quantities you would use fresh zest.

As an added bonus, juice the lemons and use the juice instead of that stuff in the green bottle. My husband likes to drink hot water with lemon juice and says there’s a noticeable difference in the taste. In the summer, you can make fresh lemonade — yum!

Make sure the lemons are at room temperature before you start. After you take off the zest, roll each lemon on a counter before you juice it; this releases more juice.

My recipes don’t seem to call for grated orange rind as often as lemon, but when I start to run low, I just zest an orange, dry the zest and save it in my little bottle. Then I just eat the orange or use it in a salad.

By the way, an average lemon will yield 2 to 3 tablespoons of juice and 2 to 3 teaspoons of zest.

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