Tangerine Juice

It is Tangerine season, the wonderful sweet and flavorful fruit that can be eaten by hand, juiced and made into a multitude of things. This time of year, I spend a lot of time squeezing tangerines and making juice. We drink the juice just as it is and also use it in cocktails such as margaritas and screwdrivers. I love to reduce the juice down and use it as a finishing sauce, adding just a bit of butter, tangerine zest and fresh herbs at the end of reduction.  If you have more than enough tangerines, you can make a terrific syrup which can be used on french toast or pancakes by making a simple syrup from three cups of tangerine juice and 1 cup of sugar, cook it down till it is reduced to about 1 2/2 cups and put into a bottle. This will keep refrigerated for about a month. The reduced juice can also be used in place of vinegar in a salad dressing. The zest is great in rice and grain dishes, especially those with pine nuts or pumpkin seeds..

Squeeze On!

And here is one of my favorite recipes for a Pork Loin with Tangerine Curry Sauce perfect for a holiday supper:

Pork Loin with Tangerine Curry Sauce

3 cups tangerine juice
1 carrot, finely chopped
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
3 tablespoons chopped fresh curry leaf (optional)
2 leaves of fresh kaffir lime finely chopped
3 tablespoons grated peeled fresh ginger
2 large garlic cloves, sliced
1 jalapeño chili or 4 Hawaiian chiles, seeded, minced
1 tablespoon toasted and ground cumin
1 tablespoon Thai red curry base
1 tablespoon palm sugar (or brown sugar)
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup Thai red curry base
1 tablespoon grated peeled fresh ginger
1 1/2 pounds pork tenderloin, trimmed
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) chilled butter, cut into pieces

Combine tangerine juice, carrot, cilantro, curry leaf, kaffir lime leaf, grated fresh ginger, garlic, minced jalapeño, ground cumin, palm sugar and Thai red curry base in heavy medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Boil mixture until carrot is very tender and liquid is reduced by half, stirring occasionally, about 12 minutes. Puree sauce in blender or processor in batches until smooth. Strain sauce and return to same saucepan.

Stir molasses, soy sauce, curry base and ginger in large glass baking dish. Add pork tenderloin and turn to coat. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to 4 hours.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Remove pork from marinade; discard marinade. Heat oil in heavy large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork and cook until golden brown, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer skillet to oven and cook pork until thermometer inserted into thickest part registers 160°F, about 25 minutes. Transfer pork to platter. Tent with foil to keep warm.

Bring sauce to simmer. Remove from heat. Gradually add 6 tablespoons butter, whisking just until melted. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Cut pork into 1-inch-thick slices. Serve with sauce.

Recipes from the Ono Sunday

Basa with Tangerine Macadamia Nut Sauce and Purple Sweet Potato Mash

Serves 2

Note about Basa: from Oz, this mild skinless filet goes great with many sauces. Any mild, skinned fish filets will do for this recipe.
Note about Okinawan Sweet Potatoes: These can be found in an Asian Produce Store. If you cannot find them, you could substitute yams or white sweet potatoes.

Basa Ingredients:

2 Basa Fillets
½ Cup XX Flour
2 eggs
1 cup milk
2 cups Panko Crumbs
Salt, Pepper and Piment d Espelete Powder (this may be difficult to find, you can also use good quality paprika) to season the crumbs. If you like a little kick, use hot paprika.

½ cup canola oil for frying

Sauce Ingredients:
Juice from 4-6 large tangerines (should equal about 1 cup)
Zest from 2 tangerines
2 shallots, finely chopped
¼ cup Macadamia Nuts roughly chopped
6 sprigs of lemon thyme

2 tablespoons canola oil (macadamia oil would work too if you can find it)

Sweet Potato Mash Ingredients:

2 Cups of peeled cut up Okinawan (purple) Sweet Potatoes cut into large chunks
Water or Chicken Broth to cover potatoes
1 Tbs Salt (I use a smoked sea salt that I make)
1 cup of milk (approximate)
2 Tablespoons of butter
4 Tablespoons chopped scallions or chives
Additional salt and pepper to taste.

Method:

Place the potatoes in a pan with water & salt. Boil till tender (about 15 minutes) then drain and remove from heat.

Start sauce by sautéing the chopped shallots till they start to turn color. Add the mac nuts and toast a bit, then add the juice, zest and thyme. Turn down the flame to as low as your stove allows and allow the sauce to reduce by half.

Put out three dishes for breading, first one has flour in it, the second has the eggs and milk and the final one has the Panko Crumbs. Add oil to pan and heat on medium flame to about 350 degrees. Dredge the fillets through the flour, then into the egg wash, then into the panko crumbs. Add to hot oil and gently sauté till golden on each side (turn carefully with a large spatula). Drain on a paper towel and keep warm.

Mash or rice the sweet potatoes ( I used a sick blender because my ricer is somewhere over the Pacific right now) with milk and butter. Season to taste. I also add Piment d Espelete. Heat to desired temperature. Garnish with chives.

The Gleaners... more from Ono Sunday

Another Ono Sunday story… Yesterday (after the 7am Farmer's Market in Volcano) we met up with our Punaweb Friends Jim and Carey and Liz and Mike at the Onemea Farm Lots to glean the fields for the Hilo Food Pantry which provides food to anyone in need.

The machines and pickers had already gone through the field taking out the “perfect” potatoes for export to Japan and domestic vendors. The remaining potatoes would normally have gone to waste in the field. Carey and Jim are pretty much experts at this. They brought the trailer, tubs made into sleds, crates and other equipment for the harvest. They also provided some excellent fresh orange lemonade! And they shared some wonderful grapefruit and tangerines from their trees at home. Carey met the owners of the farm and when they found out that there were potatoes going to waste and hungry people in Hilo/Puna she used her ingenuity to gather together a few people to harvest them. The gleaning has to be done as close to the time that the pickers have gone through as possible, as they start to decay quickly. Jim and Carey organize these outings about once a month.

We hiked out into the fields and for a few hours, we were “pickin’ and grinnin’ “. Well at least we were laughing and talking and having fun while we were doing something good for our fellow islanders. Of course as a side benefit, we also got to bring home some sweet potatoes for ourselves and our neighbors. I used them as a mashed potato last night (recipe followson my next blog post) and I used some of Carey’s tangerines as a base for the sauce I made to go on some basa fillets (recipe also follows).

Now I intend on playing with the Okanawa Sweets and figuring out some fun recipes to do with them. I used to have to go to China town to find these gems on the mainland. I only really used them for baking and an occasional potato salad or to make chips for parties. Now I am going to have to dig deeper and figure out some other ways to use them. I love a challenge like this!

As a side benefit we were at the Volcano Farmer’s Market yesterday morning quite early and since I knew that we were going to be getting the potatoes later in the day, I lamented that I did not have my mandoline here, as it is still with most of our goods, floating across the pacific. Then we walked past the table with the kitchen items for their rummage sale and there was a German Mandoline in perfect condition for sale for 75 cents! Naturally I grabbed that immediately. I will use it to make some Purple Sweet Potato Chips tonight. It will also come in handy for making scalloped sweet potatoes. I can see using some of my fresh sage in that dish. And I may play with julienning some veggies too. The German mandoline is made from plastic but has sharp steel blades and it sure will be easier than doing the tricks with my knife.

Thanks to my friend Sonia, I was able to find a small nursery that has most every kind of herb plant and I have most of them planted already and the rest are awaiting our container’s arrival, as I brought many of my pots on it. So I will have those to use as I experiment with the sweet potatoes. If any of you readers have sweet potato recipes that you would like to share with me… send them on to me!