Roasted Sprouts & Beans, BBQ Mahi, Asparagus Soup, Cara Cara Marmalade, more

Roasted Brussels Sprouts & Green Beans
Outstanding dish!  Don't forget, or substitute something else for the Pecans, they really make the dish. Makes a great side for chicken or chops, or a main dish for two.

20-30 small to medium Brussels Sprouts, trimmed and halved
2-3 good handfuls of fresh Green Beans, tipped and trimmed
1/4 cup Pecan pieces
1 Lemon, sliced
1/2 cup Alfredo Sauce with Garlic, warmed
Salt & Pepper to taste (not much)
EVOO

Preheat oven to 425F and foil line a large baking sheet to make cleanup a LOT easier.

Put the sprouts and beans in a plastic bag and drizzle in a tablespoon or so of EVOO, and shake to coat.  Lay the veg out on the baking sheet and dust with salt & pepper.  In one corner add the pecans. spread out somewhat.

Roast the veg tray for 15 minutes or so; then switch the oven to Broil and broil for 3-5 minutes until you start to get some nice caramelization.

Transfer the veggies (not the pecans) to a serving bowl, then sprinkle the nuts over the top.  Sprinkle too with juice of half a lemon and add the wedges of the other half lemon, then pour the (microwave) warmed Alfredo sauce on and serve.


BBQ Mahi Mahi
Awhile back I got some beautiful fresh Mahi Mahi from Costco, used part for another dish, and froze three filets for another day.  Well, "another day" arrived when it was my turn to make Sunday Lunch.  Such beautiful steaks deserved something more than being chopped into pieces and folded into Plokk Fiskur, or turned into panko-crusted slabs.

I also have this wonderful Pepper Palace Key Lime Barbecue Sauce that Holly got me for Christmas -- www.pepperpalace.com.  I brushed the steaks with the sauce and let them marinate for an hour before grilling  (I used the broiler rather than firing up another kind of grill).

Served this with boiled purple potatoes and sweet potatoes for the starch, and steamed broccoli for the side veg.

Asparagus-Cowpea Soup
I'm spending this week at my boat.  Our last chance, for awhile, for some alone time.  The Poolside Cabana is booked almost solid for the couple months.   Sally wanted me to make her a soup for the week, that she could have as lunch or dinner.  I've been saving asparagus trimmings for just such a task.  Cowpea is the general name for Black-eyed Peas.

1 lb Asparagus Butts, chopped into 1/4" pieces
1 Sweet Onion, diced
1 large Shallot, chopped
1 can Evaporated Milk (not Sweetened Condensed)
1 cup dried Blackeyed Peas (yields about 2-1/2 cups of cooked beans)
Bacon or Goat Cheese crumbles, or toasted slivered Almonds for garnish

Cook up the dry black-eyed peas in 4 cups of water, until just tender.  This will take about 45 minutes.

While that's going on, put the chopped asparagus, diced onion and shallot in your soup pot with a splash of EVOO, and cook until the onion is translucent.  Add 2 cups of water and simmer for about 20 minutes until the asparagus is tender as well.

Remove most of the veggie mixture to a food processor and take it for a spin until you have a nice puree.  Return the mixture to the pot and stir into the left-behinds.  Add a can of Evaporated Milk and 1 cans of water and bring to a simmer. 

Continue cooking, on Low, until the black-eyed peas are cooked.  Drain the peas and add them to the soup base.  Stir to combine.

Ladle into bowls and garnish as desired.  Serve with a crusty baguette for sopping up the yumminess.

Cara Cara Marmalade
I ordered some Blood Oranges from our Produce Co-op, and got these strange looking things.  When cut open they looked more like a grapefruit than a regular orange, and definitely not a burgundy-fleshed Blood Orange in color or flavor.  Flavor was mild and sweet, not as acidic as the usual orange or grapefruit.

Turns out they are Cara Cara oranges, a special cultivar of the Navel Orange discovered in Venezuela back in 1976.  Apparently they are being introduced here as a variety that may be less susceptible to the Citrus Greening disease which is devastating our orange industry.

I gotta say they make a great marmalade!

Three (3) of these oranges will make almost 2 quarts of marmalade (they're that big).  Cut the fruit into pieces, and place in a food processor -- skin, pith seeds and all.      Take the fruit for a whirrrrrr until you get a puree that sorta looks like marmalade - small pieces of skin in the mix.

Measure into a microwave safe glass bowl (don't use plastic!).  Then add the same measure of sugar, cup for cup.  The kind of sugar doesn't matter, just don't use confectioner's sugar.  Brown sugar will affect the taste though.  Stir well to dissolve the sugar into the puree. 

Taste.  Too sweet, add a lime or half a lemon pureed to the mix.  Too tart, add a bit more sugar.

Microwave on High for 5 minutes.  Stir again and taste.  Adjust taste if needed.  Nuke again for 5 more minutes.  Carefully remove the bowl and spoon the contents into screw top containers.  Let them cool to room temperature before lidding.  Will last in the fridge as long as it takes you to eat it.

Not only good on toast, this goes great on firm white fish, stirred into cooking carrots, or sweetening up oatmeal in the morning.

This basic technique works with any and all Citrus fruit -- lemons, limes, grapefruit, oranges, pommelo, loquats, kumquats.  The pectin necessary for the cooked fruit to set up is in the skin and pith of citrus fruit.  Not enough natural pectin in mango, starfruit, strawberries or other non-citrus fruits.


Cajun Red Beans & Rice
This was a 'cheater' dish.  We needed something fast and filling.  Our Publix megamart has had a 'dollar a can' special on the many (over 40) varieties of Bush's Beanstm, including these New Orleans Southern Style Red Beans.  Nice 'gravy', but not nearly spicy enough, and no visible traces of The Trinity.

So while the Jasmine rice was working in rice cooker, I sliced and diced a bit of celery, onion and bellpepper, gave it a quick saute with some Tony Chacere'stm Cajun spice, and added that to the canned beans as they heated.