I hadn't expected to wind up on-screen when I went to Sunkist's cooking demo at Sur La Table.
But that's why we bloggers were there, not just to watch but to cook along with chef Robert Danhi (at top) as he demonstrated how to use the Cara Cara navel orange.
Sunkist is promoting the Cara Cara as "The Power Orange," because it's so full of good stuff--vitamins A and C, foliate and potassium, fiber and lycopene, an antioxidant.
I'm not into science, so I'll just say that it tastes good--sweet and a little tangy--and the flesh has a beautiful ruby-orange color. I've bought navel oranges that had lots of skin and little juice, but the Cara Cara isn't like that. It has plenty of juice, and no seeds.
If you're wondering how the orange got its name, it's from the place where it was discovered in 1976, the Hacienda de Cara Cara in Valencia, Venezuela. Cara Caras grow in California now.
As the cameras worked--the demo was streaming online--we peeled, zested, cut up and squeezed oranges for three dishes.
Danhi had us put diced oranges into pico de gallo (above), along with tomatoes, chiles, red onion and cilantro. Compared to the usual salsa, this was a burst of color in a bowl.
Thank heavens there were plenty of chips so we could snack, to the envy of the viewers. "I hear mumbling, and I hear crunching," Danhi observed.
If anyone had camera nerves, the next recipe took care of that--a sparkling drink loaded with Cognac-flavored syrup and sparkling wine.
We put zest and juice into the syrup and bits of orange into the cocktail. The flavor was punchy, sparkly and assertive enough to stand up to the spicy pico de gallo.
Happily, there was enough for refills, and we poured those later, after the cameras were no longer spying on us.
The last dish was a Vietnamese style crab, vegetable and rice noodle salad, with orange juice in the dressing and grilled orange wedges on top.
Danhi brought lemon grass from his garden to cut up for the salad, and tossed in mint, carrots and cucumber too. The Thai sweet chile sauce that he had concocted for the dressing was designed to mirror the color of the Cara Cara orange.
The salad was perfect to end the demo, because it was lunch time, our work was finished, and all we had to do was eat and enjoy what we had made.
You can get the three recipes and see the video session at the Sunkist site. For starters, here is the pico de gallo.
CARA CARA PICO DE GALLO
1/2 cup Cara Cara orange segments, diced
2 medium roma tomatoes, diced
1 tablespoon red onion, diced small
1 teaspoon minced jalapeño chiles
2 tablespoons cilantro leaves, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
Combine the diced oranges, tomatoes, onion, jalapeño, cilantro and salt. Toss gently to mix thoroughly. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Recent Comments