Orange-Rosemary Glaze: Your New Favorite Protein Topper

December 1, 2014

 

 

 

5 days before Thanksgiving, my husband announced that was going on Le Petite Regime. If you haven’t read about my husband and his annoying-ass regimes, you can do so here.

He always picks the damndest times to go on a reduction plan. One year he did it the week before Christmas, for heaven’s sake. This year, it’s Thanksgiving.

By now, I’m used to his antics and know that there’s nothing I can do. When the girly-man decides he needs to shrink a little, I just shake my head and tell him that he’s lucky he’s so charming and adorable, and then make a trip to the grocery store for bucketloads of high-quality protein and vegetables.  Thing is, though…protein and vegetables can get kind of boring. I can tolerate a few days of chicken caesar salad and grilled steak with broccoli, but then I start to yawn and fidget and make shameless eye contact with the box of pasta in the pantry.

Pasta and I can only be friends on a very limited basis, so rather than give into the lure of spaghetti, it’s time to bring out the secret weapons of Le Regime–spice rubs and sauces. Spice rubs and sauces can perk up a protein quite nicely, but of course, with sauces you have to be careful. Oftentimes sauces = backside suicide. Hollandaise, bernaise, mornay, buerre blanc–those are sneaky butter and cream bombs that (while delicious) have no place in Le Regime, petite or otherwise.

The trick to a flavorful, healthy sauce is reliance on the fresh stuff, like fresh herbs and fresh citrus. Sure, sauces like that may require a quick trip to the supermarket, but in the end, they brighten up a simple grilled chop or piece of fish with very little effort and a lot of payoff.

Even if you’re not on a regime of any sort, you should give this sauce a try. It’s a little sweet, a little savory and a lot of flavorful. It’s great on pork (which is the protein I chose) but it would lend itself nicely to chicken or fish, too.

If you’re feeling a little heavy after the Thanksgiving eat-fest, this is just the thing.

 

 

Orange-Rosemary Glaze

adapted from Rachael Ray

will glaze enough meat for 4 people

zest of one orange

juice of one orange

1 cup chicken stock

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 tablespoon orange marmalade

1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard

2 sprigs fresh rosemary, chopped

1/2 teaspoon chile flakes

dash of salt and pepper

1 tablespoon butter

 

Bring all ingredients except butter together in a small saucepan, whisk well. Heat over medium heat until boiling. Whisk again and cook until mixture is reduced by half, 5-10 minutes. Take mixture off heat and whisk in 1 tablespoon butter until sauce is glossy. Serve with pork, chicken or your favorite fish.

{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }

Jennifer December 1, 2014 at 10:02 am

This looks really delicious. You also get lots of wife bonus points for going along with this regime this time of year.

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Erica December 1, 2014 at 2:26 pm

Yum! I concocted a similar basting sauce for my turkey this year. It seriously made the best gravy ever! Which I’m sure is not part of Le Regime.

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elizabeth December 1, 2014 at 7:14 pm

I’m going to have to hang onto this recipe for when I need something new to put onto chicken thighs during the week. You’re 100% correct that finding interesting meat/salad combinations are key during Le Regime and can be so difficult to do, especially when our Sometimes Friend pasta beckons us oh-so-convincingly.

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Alison December 2, 2014 at 4:30 am

As always, looks amazing!

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Sherri December 2, 2014 at 8:49 am

Looks like a holiday glaze to me. I’m all over it! My hubby doesn’t do the regime, but… he and my daughter went off for massages and manicures when she was home for Thanksgiving from school. Just sayin’…. (you had mentioned something about a girlie man…..;)

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Arnebya December 2, 2014 at 1:40 pm

Now I’m hungry and thinking of orange rosemaried meat. Great. I’m not reducing nothing. Bring it all on. All of the foods, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and beyond, amen.

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Dana Talusani December 2, 2014 at 6:26 pm

Arnebya,

Says a girl with legs longer than the sexiest highway in America. :)

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Lisa @ The Meaning of Me December 3, 2014 at 9:10 pm

It’s more than a little weird that whenever I have something I need a solution for, you put something food-ish on your blog that solves the problem.
I have a ton of fresh rosemary left after a recipe and one humongous navel orange I bought for a recipe…but can’t remember what recipe and so now I have this one huge orange.
So this is going on my dinner tomorrow. But I may just use peach amaretto jam instead of orange marmalade because I can.

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Tiffany December 14, 2014 at 7:16 am

Does that say adapted from Rachel Ray??? The horror! But it does look good…

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