This week’s feature is oranges and lemons (say the bells of St Clement’s), with an odd lime for company! I wonder if clementines get their name from this old nursery rhyme?
We might easily forget that citrus fruit season in the northern hemisphere is in winter, with oranges and clementines from who-knows-where available all year round.
But the one, divine variety of citrus is still strictly seasonal, as it comes to us mainly from Italy and Spain: blood oranges, whose season peaks in late February. It is a burst of vibrant colour in the middle of drab English winter, so we should enjoy it to the hilt when it’s available. Here’s a selection of recipes featuring citrus, and only a few of them desserts.
This blood orange loaf cake is bursting with flavour of those late winter seasonal beauties. The zest, the juice and the segments of blood oranges make up a wonderful dessert, mixed into a very easy, buttermilk and olive oil batter.
Blood orange posset is the easiest, three ingredient dessert which is also a traditional English classic. Blood orange season is long enough to make this gorgeous pudding several times, not least an individual, microwaved version in a mug for one.
Mixed citrus and radicchio salad is an explosion of vibrant flavours. Peeled and sliced blood and regular oranges, grapefruits, and zesty radicchio, this bitter sweet symphony is perfect for a light lunch or as a colourful side at dinner. Also, rich in vitamins and antioxidants!
Citrus and radicchio salad
RECIPE
Raw, thinly sliced fennel and filleted orange salad with the natural dressing of orange juice plus a little oil. This is a marvellous salad to serve with fish, and if you’ve never tried raw fennel you’ll be in for a treat.
Fennel and orange salad
RECIPE
Orange chicken, spicy, fresh and sweet, ready in twenty minutes including all the chopping, is an easy stir fry lighter and healthier than the orange chicken from American Chinese restaurants. Especially delicious topped with caramelised orange segments.
One saucepan, a loaf tin and zest from five oranges! Dan Lepard’s orange and walnut loaf cake, with additional flavouring from cinnamon and fresh ginger, is a wonderful combination of flavours.
When the new potato season starts, this recipe, though unconventional, is an excellent way to prepare them. With lemon quarters, whole cloves of garlic and sprigs of thyme new potatoes gently poached in oil are incredibly flavoursome and super easy to prepare.
Garlic and lemon new potatoes
RECIPE
Mango and lime loaf cake, an easy, no-mixer recipe for a simple and delicious dessert with tropical flavours. Diced ripe mango plus grated lime zest and juice make this easy cake taste refreshingly cheerful.
Lemon and olive oil cake is mixed in one bowl, baked in an hour and scoffed in a flash! Deliciously zesty, it is also tender and moist thanks to the olive oil in the contents and a small addition of white chocolate.
Lemon and olive oil cake
RECIPE
Salmon stir fry with green vegetables and caramelised lemon segments is best served with noodles. Lemon also makes the sauce for the salmon, with fresh ginger and a pinch of palm sugar.
Stir-fried salmon with lemon and ginger
RECIPE