Recipe: Broccoli side dish is quick and delicious
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| Broccoli can be bright and fresh, really. (Photos: Kathy Morrison) |
Oranges and other citrus are a godsend in winter, when we need a dash of brightness, both in color and flavor. They're great in baked goods and salads, of course, but also in vegetable dishes, where the orange adds highlights without bumping up the calorie count.
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This broccoli dish comes from a favorite source, "The Sunset Cookbook," the big one with the orange cover, published in 2010. The editors credit a reader, Laura A. Flynn, for creating this side, which speaks so much of California cooking: a few fresh seasonal ingredients, a little Asian influence and a light hand in the cooking. It's ready in less than 10 minutes once the ingredients are prepped. Keep the broccoli pieces fairly small so they cook quickly and the broccoli remains bright green.
Orange and walnut broccoli
Adapted from "The Sunset Cookbook"
Serves 4 to 5
Ingredients:
1 large navel orange
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1 tablespoon soy sauce
5 cups (12 ounces) broccoli florets, cut in bite-size pieces (some stem is OK, but not wide pieces)
Black pepper, optional
Instructions:
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Zest the orange using a citrus zester (see photo) or grater, being careful not to grate the white pith as well. A Microplane zester can be used, but the orange zest will be much smaller -- the larger strips are ideally what you want in this dish.
Juice the orange and reserve 1/4 cup juice; save the rest for another use.
Heat oil in a wok or slope-sided sauté pan over medium-high heat. Stir-fry the zest, walnuts and ginger just until the edges of the zest ares lightly brown, about 2 minutes.
Stir in the 1/2 cup orange juice and the soy sauce. Add the broccoli florets and cook, stirring occasionally, until the florets are just tender, about 5 minutes.
Season with freshly ground pepper, if desired, and serve.
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Garden Checklist for week of May 12
Get your gardening chores and irrigation done early in the day before temperatures rise.
* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. Time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.
* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.
* Harvest cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions. This heat will cause leafy greens and onions to flower; pick them before they bolt.
* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters.
* Plant dahlia tubers. Other perennials to set out include verbena, coreopsis, coneflower and astilbe.
* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia and verbena.
* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.
* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.
* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.
* Got fruit trees? If you haven't already done so, thin orchard fruit such as apples, peaches, pears, pluots and plums before they grow too heavy, breaking branches or even splitting the tree. Leave the largest fruit on the branch, culling the smaller ones, and allow for 5 to 6 inches (or a hand's worth) between each fruit.
* Thin grape bunches, again leaving about 6 inches between them. For the remaining bunches, prune off the "tail" end, about the bottom third of the bunch, so that the plant's energy is concentrated in the fruit closest to the branch.
* As spring-flowering shrubs finish blooming, give them a little pruning to shape them, removing old and dead wood. Lightly trim azaleas, fuchsias and marguerites for bushier plants.
* Add mulch to the garden to help keep that precious water from evaporating. Mulch also cuts down on weeds. But don’t let it mound around the stems or trunks of trees or shrubs. Leave about a 6-inch to 1-foot circle to avoid crown rot or other problems.
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