03 October 2008

Maple-Garlic-Orange Sauce

Originally posted this over at Making Light, but realized this was likely enough a good place for it, too.

Peel, section, seed, and subdivide the sections of two oranges; toss these in a sauce pan of moderate capacity, three or four halves of a litre. (Mostly so it's wide enough to take the strainer later.)
Peel and pulp into the pot between a dozen and a score cloves of garlic, depending on whether they be good plump cloves or no, or if you take any particularly delight in garlic.
Add to the pot a goodly dollop of brandy and enough water to almost cover the oranges. Cast enough powdered cinnamon on it to cover lightly half the surface.
Put the pot on heat at the high end of medium. Stir; squish any of the orange sections that look a bit large.
When the water steams, stir in an eighth litre or so of maple syrup; from this point, if you stop stirring, the maple syrup will tend to fall out and stick to the bottom of the pot, so don't do that.
Once the mixture boils, turn the heat down and simmer another five minutes, stirring all the while.
Remove from heat; pour into a blender. Rinse the pot, and put it back on the (off!) stovetop ring.
Blend the mixture on 20% speed (2 out of 5 on my blender) until it is entirely homogenized. (Any seeds you hear at this point mean stopping the blender and fishing them out again. Ingesting ground orange seed = bad!)
Place a wire strainer over the pot; pour the mixture into the strainer. Give it a minute or three to finish dripping, remove the strainer, and turn the heat back on just below medium.
Stir, and stir in a tablespoon of tapioca starch already blended with a tablespoon of cold water. After a minute, turn the heat up to just below high, and keep stirring until the sauce thickens.
Remove from heat and serve.
Good over flesh or fowl; excellent with egg rolls. Can be consumed directly with a spoon. Good for what ails you.
Emphatically in the "either the entire company shall, or the entire company shall not" category, so far as the scope and magnitude of the garlic goes.

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