Wow I was really impressed by your cardamom suggestions! There was Hannah's desire to make cardamom icecream, Phil's tip to use the pods to infuse rice when preparing it in a rice cooker and Carol's thoughts to use it in a pear cake. S uses cardamom when mixing chai spice for her chai cheese frosting, and Lorraine adds cardamom to her Norwegian pancakes – both of which also sound positively delightful!
Training: Bike
Wednesday's are commuting days, so I was up at around 5.30am and on my bike just before 6.00am. It was actually quite a struggle to get out of bed this morning, and it took a fair while for my legs to warm up on the ride. The ride home was a lot better - and I completed the 31km round trip in approximately 1hr 20.
Followed immediately by a ‘sludge’ monster, made with spinach, oat milk, frozen cherries, chocolate protein powder and a spoonful of peanut butter.
Which despite all appearances was pretty damn tasty. Kinda like a choc-cherry thickshake, minus the calories but rich in nutrients!
Mystery Box
I have two meals remaining on this week's meal plan but I wasn't sure which one I wanted to cook this evening. After much deliberation, I decided on the first of the two - pork with orange and harissa.
Which had been inspired by the Mystery Box of course...
Orange!
Did you know? Oranges originated in Southeast Asia, and are hybrids of ancient cultivated origin, possibly between pomelos and mandarins.
When I drew Orange from the Mystery Box, I initially had grand plans of making something exotic like 'duck a l'orange’. But then I remembered that I don't even really like duck (unlike Mr BBB who would eat it for every dinner if he could), so I went in search of an alternative recipe to showcase this delicious fruit.
It didn't take me long to find a recipe that was both exotic and did not involve duck!
As directed, I removed the zest from the oranges and placed it into a saucepan with stock - and set aside to infuse.
Rather than use couscous (for obvious wheat reasons) I added quinoa to the orange infused stock and cooked it as normal.
I also made a marinade using the juice of the oranges, mixed with harissa, garlic and parsley.
In went the pork cutlets, which I then allowed to marinade.
After 15 minutes or so, I heated a little olive oil in a frypan and cooked the pork with some of the marinade for 2 minutes each side, then placed in in the oven for 5 minutes at 180C.
Just before serving I added pinenuts and parsley to the quinoa.
And then it was ready to serve! Presenting … pork with orange and harissa.
Served with orange infused quinoa.
And a side of veggies - because no meal is really complete without some green!
My oh my – I really enjoyed this dish. The pork was juicy, and had subtle citrus flavours from the orange and a good amount of spice from the harissa. The ‘crunch’ of the orange infused quinoa also added a nice texture to the overall dish.
What about you? Do you like to cook with oranges?
Happy Baking :)
Posts
I'm actually not a big pork chop fan! Pork tenderloin is good though, Maybe it is the texture?
ReplyDeletethat does look divine. I like to use orange zest and balsamic vinegar on tilapia.
ReplyDeleteYou know, whenever I do cook with oranges I love it, but I just don't do it very often! This looks delightful though.
ReplyDeleteI like orange zest in my baking, not so much my cooking. I LOVE it in cookies, cake, frosting, etc......... :)
ReplyDelete*shudder* Sorry love, but I just can't stand orange-flavoured things! The quinoa does look great, though, if I forget there's orange in it ;)
ReplyDeletei probably don't use enough oranges, as i eat one a day in the winter :) this looks like a terrific use!
ReplyDeleteWow, I'm always so amazed at how creative you are with new ingredients!
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to think of how I would eat oranges in a savoury meal... I can't. :) But! I do use some orange peel and grapefruit peel when I poach pears in green tea, and it's DIVINE! Like yesterday, I think this would make an *excellent* main. :)
ReplyDeleteI love using oranges with fish because I think the citrus is such a nice contrast. I also love orange, beet, and goat cheese salads.. plus eating them straight up! I love oranges. :)
ReplyDeleteI have never cooked with oranges but they are one of my favorite fruits!! Your quinoa looks awesome too :)
ReplyDeleteI love oranges. They are so diverse. We put orange juice in our french toast mix and it's excellent!
ReplyDelete<3 for oranges! I am drinking one in my smoothie now!
ReplyDeletebeautiful meal!! the quinoa looks so fantastic!
ReplyDeletewhen im cooking or baking and a recipe calls for orange zest (or lemon zest) i definitely cringe a bit because i hate having to take the extra time to grate them...but when im not lazy and i do it anyways it makes the food taste above and beyond! its worth the extra step ;)
XOXO
I am so glad they now sell free range pork.
ReplyDeleteI have been meaning to ask you what protein powder you use, I am on the look out for a new one as my current one doesnt taste so great.
Yum, green monster! Those chops look amazing!
ReplyDeleteWe make "orange juice ham" using orange and sprite.. it's so good!!
ReplyDeleteI've never used orange in anything besides baking. But using it to infuse rice sounds delicious.
ReplyDeleteYum, the quinoa looks delicious! I love your mystery box meals. I never cook with oranges, for no reason other then I think i forget abut them! But i do love a good flourless orange cake :)
ReplyDeleteHeidi xo
I like to cook my quinoa in the rice cooker, one less pan on the stove to worry about! Have you tried that yet?
ReplyDeletehey Lisa, i just found your blog and thought i'd say hello! nice to meet another Aussie blogger, lookin' forward to reading more :)
ReplyDeleteYep, quinoa in a rice cooker is the bomb (in fact, you'd be surprised what you can cook in a rice cooker) - love the orange zest too in this one, I'm on a bit of a *thing* with playing around with orange zest at the moment too.
ReplyDeleteOoh I hope you try the Norwegian pancakes-I'd love to know what you think of them! :) This sounds strange but I love orange zest but I'm not so taken with the juice itself. Odd I know! :)
ReplyDelete