Orange, oranges, and Sunkist!

I attended a cooking event some time back with Sunkist and Cooklyn Inc and almost forgot all about blogging about it till I saw some pictures earlier! It was such a fun event and I feel awful that I didn’t share about it till now! I’ll let you in on a secret, I have always wanted to attend a cooking session at Cooklyn Inc, because I have heard so much about them from all my friends, and I somehow never get the chance to do it!

Sunkist oranges all dressed up and ready to party!

Before I attended this event, Sunkist oranges was just… Sunkist oranges! But what I didn’t know, was that there were different types of Sunkist Oranges! Do you know that? Sunkist have Navel Oranges, Valencia Oranges, Moro (Blood) Oranges and the Cara Cara Oranges. I tried the Navel and the Cara Cara and really loved the Cara Cara Oranges and they tasted quite different! The Cara Cara is out of season now and what you see in the supermarkets are the Navel ones, which are also sweet and most importantly, seedless!

I was super excited that day cos the husband was going to cook along with me! I was hoping that he can learn some cooking skills and assist me in the kitchen, and I was also raring to learn some new recipes.

Jerry intending listening to the instructions

Everyone was split into 4 teams to cook in groups and all ready to go! We had to cook our own lunch first, then followed by a competition between the teams. We even put on a chef hat & apron for Jerry too!

The Choo Family (minus Jerome who was sleeping in the stroller)

Jerome, who was sleeping away in his Lucky Baby Stroller. (Yes, he was still “Harry Potter” then)

All the ingredients we have to work with for our lunch.

Can you spot 2 different bowls of oranges? The redder ones are the Cara Cara oranges and the other ones in the foreground are the navel oranges. Now that they are placed together, I am sure you can easily spot the difference? I guess the reason why I never knew the difference in the oranges is that I constantly only see 1 type sold in the stores, based on their seasonality and they are all the same color and look the same. But now, I know better. 😉

Photographer: Jerry Choo. He took this while everyone else is paying attention to instructions and me, busy instagramming. — Photographer: Jerry Choo
He took this while everyone else is paying attention to instructions and me, busy instagramming.

Mervyn & Amanda from Cooklyn Inc doing a cooking demonstration, seasoning the salmon.

Our salmons, all seasoned and ready for the oven.

Der hard at work at peeling & cutting the Cara Cara Oranges.

Der torching our Cara Cara oranges. It looked so fun!

This handsome kid is caught playing with oranges. Heh heh.

Jerry enjoying his orange-filled lunch - sliced oranges with orange juice! — Jerry enjoying his orange lunch – sliced oranges with orange juice!

Salmon out from the oven and our various plating efforts. What do you think?

Nerdy der, not much difference from his usual.

The Iron Chef challenge begins. — And then, the Iron Chef challenge begins.
45 mins and a black box filled with secret ingredients.

The Sunkist Iron Chef Challenge - Revealing the secret ingredients — The Sunkist Iron Chef Challenge – Revealing the secret ingredients

The team got down to work, with orange crepes as the theme.

Meanwhile, Jerome Potter woke up and fingering everything in sight.

I played no part in cooking this, because my kids were all running around and I got tasked to do up the marketing poster instead.

Taking a group picture with our creations.

Winning table with their lovely orange-flavoured cupcakes.

It was an action-filled afternoon packed with fun for the family. Even the husband got a little inspired to help me out in the kitchen after this session and agreed that it was one of the most fun events he had joined me for. He really got his hands dirty cutting spices, tomatoes and of cos, Sunkist Oranges as well as eating on the job (!!).. I really enjoyed the session and hopefully, I get the chance to try out the other recipes using oranges soon.

I did try to re-create a simplified version of the salmon some weeks later and got the thumbs up from the husband.

Do you cook with oranges? Do share any orange recipe you have with me and I might try it and blog about it here! The domestic “goddess” in me aspire to try something new every week if I could. I tried baking cookies for the first time ever today and I think it was a hit with everyone that tried it!

P.s. I wrote this post damn long ago and I thought I published it already but I JUST found it in my draft folder. -_-”