Believe me, I’m just as shocked as you are that it’s already February! Lunar New Year snuck up on me again. We did celebrate by having baked beef buns made from leftover Crockpot Mongolian Beef. I added a side of stir fried Brussels sprouts and bok choy and the Husband had chicken wonton soup as his side. The veggies were too green.
The buns were really, really good! I used the dough recipe from the Woks of Life, but substituted the leftover beef cooked down in the cooking liquid for the filling. I added chicken stock and rice wine to give it a little more moisture for the buns. Also, some extra shallots and garlic. Here’s the bun recipe: https://thewoksoflife.com/chinese-bbq-pork-bu ns-cha-siu-bao/
Here’s the original Six Sister’s recipe for the Mongolian Beef:https://www.sixsistersstuff.com/recipe/slow-cooker-mongolian-beef/
I also made traditional almond cookies from The Foods Of China and it worked out much better than the first time I made them. They are addicting and I may hoard them like a cookie dragon.
I’ve been actually using my blood oranges this year for Lunar New Year inspired foods. Oranges are considered lucky, as is the color red, and I feel like we could definitely use some extra luck this year. A note, you may be able to find blood oranges as “Raspberry Oranges.” A friend of mine got some and I think they just rebranded them.
So far, I’ve made both sweet and savory items with them for a couple of different meals. I used them in this Winter Citrus Salad with Avocado.
It’s really not a thing you need a recipe for. Even the dressing was just blood orange juice, olive oil, and salt and pepper. I added iceberg, romaine, cucumbers, red peppers, carrots, crispy jalepenos, cheese, sliced almonds, and avocado to mine. It was very refreshing. I think It would be excellent with arugula too, but I didn’t have any on hand. I’m ordering some in our next grocery order though, so will probably make this for work one day.
I also made overnight oats topped with blood oranges. Recipe is here: https://www.themothercooker.com/blog/three-ways-with-blood-oranges
I would also like to try the donuts in that link as well, but haven’t made them yet and am running out of oranges. I’m not super fond of these. I have to add a lot of sweeter and heat them to get past the texture and at that point, I may as well just make regular oatmeal.
I was very fond of these Blood Orange Coconut muffins though, although I wish the glaze had been pinker.
They were quite delicious! I subbed pumpkin protein powder for a quarter cup of the flour to give them an added boost. The recipe is here: https://brownedbutterblondie.com/blood-orange-coconut-muffins/
I also made dark chocolate chunk orange scones, but ate them before taking a picture. I also apparently forgot to actually save the recipe I used… I do have one that I am intending to try as it uses Spelt flour and I have some that my older brother gave me for Christmas to try.
This Blood Orange Rosewater Mocktail was interesting. I think I would reduce the rosewater by half next time. It was a bit over powering. I did use ginger ale instead of sparkling water, as it was what I had open.
Probably my favorite two recipes were the Blood Orange Amaretto Sour and the Orange Cardamom Cake.
Isn’t it so pretty? The Husband actually had one with me, but he couldn’t finish his. He doesn’t drink often and this was pretty stiff even after I dropped the booze by two ounces. I thought it was lovely! Not overly sweet like they sometimes are, but not super tart either. Also, it’s just amaretto, lemon, and orange juice over ice. One of the simplest recipes I found so far.
Now the cake. Oh My Gosh. This was so dreamy and delicious. Extremely aromatic from the orange and especially the cardamom. The glaze wasn’t as thick as the recipe, so it didn’t look as pretty but it made up for it in taste. I think my eyes crossed when it came out of the oven because it smelled so good. I brought it into work and you could smell it every time you walked by it. Torture, sure, but such delicious torture! It got rave reviews from my coworkers too. I brought a whole cake minus a piece to work and brought back half a cake.
Do yourself a favor and make this cake, even if you don’t have blood oranges. You can thank me later. Recipe is here: http://thesweetandsimplekitchen.com/blood-orange-cardamom-cake/
Here are a few more of the recipes I didn’t get to try yet. Hopefully I can make a few more of them before I can’t find blood oranges anymore.
https://foodnessgracious.com/blood-orange-loaf-cake/
https://www.thekitchenmccabe.com/2015/01/08/coconut-rice-pudding-w-blood-orange-lime-vanilla-sugar/
https://www.craving4more.com/blood-orange-coconut-ginger-soup/
http://userealbutter.com/2019/03/12/blood-orange-sorbet-recipe/
https://www.baranbakery.com/dark-chocolate-blood-orange-cake
I’ll leave you with a picture of a spring roll wrapped Piggy. Someone gets a little cold during naps. 🙂 May your new year be full of peace, luck, prosperity, and joy!
