Orange You Hungry Yet?

Tonight's dinner is an almost late entry for the Weekend Cookbook Challenge. Again, I'm ignoring the cookbook rule for the most part (I have half a dozen, none are neglected…) and just sticking to the theme. The idea is to make something orange. Of course, I took it a step further and prepared an entire meal of orange colored dishes, complete with a glass of orange juice and white wine.

Since there is a lot of zest in these recipes, I figured now would be a good time to mention that if you're using the zest (the peel of citrus) it's probably a good idea to wash it very well or else buy organic. Typically the peel of such fruits is not considered food so growers are free to saturate it with whatever they want without concern for human health. Of course, take this with a grain of salt, but just like any produce it's a good idea to give it a good rinsing before eating.

After brainstorming orange foods (there's a lot more than I even utilized, I never really noticed before!) I decided on using salmon (I suppose it's kind of red…), oranges (of course), apricots, orange bell peppers, yam and carrots. For the main dish Shannon and I split a salmon fillet. Mint Orange Butter Salmon was, as Shannon described, "Like eating an Orange Julius" which is quite accurate. The minted orange flavor doesn't draw away from the fact that it's a savory dish, but it's definitely got its own unique quality. I also think it's a lot of fun to make compound butter.

A friend of mine has been pestering me to try quinoa with dried fruit, so I made an Apricot Quinoa Pilaf. Unfortunately, this was the only dish that neither of us liked. I thought that the flavor of the dish was overpowering in a very bad way. I think I might actually like quinoa (this was my first time trying it) but I definitely did not like it prepared this way. This recipe might be better off served as a breakfast with yogurt in place of oatmeal or something; it definitely needs something to neutralize it a bit. I put this in an orange bell pepper cup just to add another orange element to the plate, in case it was somehow lacking.

I found a recipe for potato brioche in The Silver Spoon and adapted it with yams to make them orange. From what I know of brioche they're actually more of a pastry, so I thought this recipe was kind of strange. I accidentally forgot to add the cheese, while wondering why the "batter" seemed so soupy, but they surprisingly turned out quite well. The Yam Brioche were very much like a baked yam, except in a nicer portion with a sort of quiche-like texture.

I pruned my baby basils today and wanted to make use of the discarded parts, so I added a Basil Carrots dish. Shannon described it as "a surprise in every bite!" since we don't typically eat basil and carrots together, but it was quite pleasant. Unlike carrots at all, really. A nice, light side dish that would probably have gone really well with the apricots (or raisins) that I put in the quinoa.