Please forgive the tasteless title of this post but i could help myself and i am about to share with you a passion for one of my most favourite late winter fruits. The majestic, alluring and almost jewel like blood orange.
Between, February and mid March many of us have endured a long cold winter of soothing comfort food. Mostly of the braise, roast meat and autumn stored fruit variety. Withdrawal symptoms for seasonal variety and bright coloured freshness becomes a love sick moan. Few treats come into season until late February or early march. I'm already kind of getting sick of champagne rhubarb. Most of the time, when it is in season, alot still comes from Holland and not our native Britain. Still, we should be grateful because it is the first treat after Christmas. Blood oranges are now in full flight and they are already all over London's menus.
Skye Gyngell often will have then served simply as a dessert. Sliced like the wheels of a bicycle, the white pip lines resembling the spokes of a wheel. A good drizzle of honey, a sprinkle of pomegranate seeds and a few sprigs of rosemary. DONE.
The Ottolenghi teams new restaurant NOPI just opened today, serves then with gorgeously creamy burrata cheese and coriander seeds.
The Modern Pantry in clerkenwell serves them in a salad with nigella seed roast earthy beetroot, toasted walnuts, stile ton english blue cheese and a pomegranate dressing. A certain chef had a influential hand in this creation but had a little quiet huff to himself because i didn't get my psychedelic favourite Castel Franco radicchio placed into the mix.
Then off course, there is that famous Italian aperitif of blood orange juice, Prosecco and Campari.
I absolutely love it and when I'm working in the kitchen during a long shift, i will have possibly gorged on more of the fruit than of what eventually reaches the customer. It has this amazing dark deep red and orange colour that often greatly differs from what you get in the supermarkets to what we get in the restaurant. The later the season, the darker it will get. You cannot foul a chefs well tuned palette either. Compared to original orange it has so much more depth of colour and can be extremely acidic (even more than a hard unripe orange). Its flavour to me resembles, a cross between citrussy sherbet and a slight hint of pomegranate. I guess this is why, it is so suited to that versatile product pomegranate molasses.
If you can find the best of this fruit, cherish it as much as you can. It is quite a little treasure and can be strictly seasonal, even in these times of hugely air freighted supermarket produce. Enjoy it while it lasts.
