Ten Facts About Seville Oranges

image source wikimedia commons

1. The Seville Orange (Citrus aurantium), or sour orange, is native to southeastern Asia.

2. Arabs are thought to have carried it to Arabia in the 9th Century, and it had reached Spain by the end of the 12th Century.

3. For 500 years, it was the only orange in Europe and it was the first orange to reach the New World.

4. Seville Orange are usually smaller and harder than eating oranges

5. Seville Oranges are generally in season in the UK from December to February, they can however be frozen.

6. Seville Oranges are usually too sour to be enjoyed fresh, their greatest use is in Scotland and the UK for making marmalade.

7. The juice can also be used to flavour meat and fish, or fermented to make wine.

8. Oil extracted from the peel is used as a flavouring in the liqueurs Triple sec, Grand Marnier and Curaçao, and also as a commercial flavouring in sweets, ice cream, chewing gum, soft drinks, and pharmaceutical products.

9. In Mexico seville oranges are eaten cut in half, salted and coated with a paste of hot chili peppers.

10. For more information see the very informative article here.

Carrot and Almond Chutney

We've been eating a lot of carrots recently. Partly through trying, as much as possible, to eat seasonal vegetables. At this time of year this results in a lot of coleslaw, which isn't a bad thing especially with the addition of fresh chives from the garden.
It set me thinking that there must be a way of using carrots in a chutney, after some searching it seemed that a lot of people were trying to replicate the classic M&S Wensleydale and caramelised carrot chutney sandwich. It's a few years since I had one of these, but I do remember them as being particularly good, Wensleydale goes very well with a sweet chutney.
There was a good looking Indian recipe at indianfoodforever.com which I'll have to try another time. I decided to have a go at this recipe for Carrot and Almond Chutney from the Chutney Recipes Blog, as I was intrigued by it's description as angel hair jam.


A selection of good big carrots were bought from the local veg shop, peeled, and then grated. I'd thought this would take ages and had considered using the food processor, but in the end it only took about 10 minutes by hand.
I'd had to adapt the recipe somewhat, mostly because I hadn't planned to well in advance and didn't have enough honey or fresh ginger.
See here for the recipe.

Recipe Costs

£1.70 1.5kg carrots (some weight is lost in peeling)
£0.21 125ml white wine vinegar
£0.60 2 lemons
£0.05 1 tblsp honey
£0.10 3 tblsp sugar
£0.05 1 tblsp salt
£0.05 2 tblsp coriander seeds ( I bought a bulk pack)
£0.80 85g fresh ginger
£3.56 Total
£2.96 per kg chutney


Grinding the coriander gave me the chance top use my favorite stone pestle and mortar, something I searched for ages until finding. It has just the right combination of heavy mortar and rough pestle.

The mixture was all stirred up and left overnight, it wasn't quite as moist as I would have expected, which made it quicker to thicken up when the boiling stage was reached.


At this point I realised that maybe if I'd grated the carrot finer it would better resemble 'Angel Hair'. Still it's a great colour, and smelt very gingery.


The chillies and almonds were added just before putting into jars, I had to force it into the jars a bit, as the carrots retained quite a bit of their structure, and I didn't want to leave to many air gaps. Maybe I boiled it for a bit to long, or it could have done with some more liquid.

Recipe Timings

30 mins First Preparation
12 hours sitting
10 mins Second Preparation
40 mins cooking
30 mins Potting

Taste test

I had thought the coriander would be the dominant taste, as 2 tablespoons seemed a lot to be adding, however the ginger is prominent, with a following up of chilli. The carrots retain a lot of bite, as do the almonds, so the texture is a slightly crunchy one. The colour is great, and certainly looks good in a sandwich.

Carrot and Almond Chutney Recipe

This recipe is adapted from the one at the Chutney Recipes Blog.

Ingredients

1.25kg carrots
85g grated ginger
250ml white wine vinegar
150ml water
juice and grated rind of 2 lemons
3 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp salt
2 tbsp ground coriander seeds
1 tsp ground ginger
2 large chillies
3 tbsp flaked almonds

Method

See here for pictures of the method.

Grate the carrots and mix with all the other ingredients, except the chillies and almonds, leave to stand overnight.

Bring to the boil and simmer for twenty minutes, then boil hard for ten to fifteen minutes or until thickened.
Finely chop the chillies and add them and the almonds to the mixture.

Pot in steralised jars.

Makes about 1.2kg (2.6lbs)

Glossary: Candied

Candying is a method of preserving where fruit is prevented from decaying by being forced to absorb sugar, therefore preventing the growth of microorganisms. The finished product is known as candied fruit and is prepared in a similar but quicker way to glace fruit and crystalised fruit.
The candying process usually involves boiling the fruit, then steeping in heated sugar syrup. The sugar slowly replaces the moisture in the fruit creating a high sugar environment unfavorable to microorganisms. This process takes several hours.
Fruits which are commonly candied include cherries, plums, peaches, apricots, pears, starfruit, pineapple, apples and citrus fruit or peel.

Citrus Syrup Cake

I made this cake last week, partly to use up some of the citrus flavoured sugar syrup left over from making candied peel. This recipe was adapted from one of Nigel Slater's published in the Observer magazine, I used less polenta and more ground almonds than originally suggested, I assumed that polenta is only really used for extra texture so this shouldn't make too much difference. The cake did need about an additional 30 mins baking at the second stage, so maybe the polenta also absorbs some of the moisture. After baking I poured over as much of my left over citrus syrup (heated up) as I could manage, about 250ml, this made the finished cake very moist and sticky, to the extent it was best eaten with a fork. No one complained.

Ingredients

210g butter
210g unrefined caster sugar
100g almonds
3 large eggs
175g ground almonds
100g ground polenta
a level tsp baking powder
finely grated zest and juice of a large orange

Method

Using a non-stick, loose-bottomed cake tin about 20cm in diameter, line the base with a piece of baking parchment. Set the oven at 180C/gas mark 5. Put the kettle on.

Beat the butter and sugar in a food mixer till light and fluffy. Put the almonds in a heatproof bowl and pour over enough boiling water to cover them. Leave for 5 minutes, then pop each nut out of its skin, squeezing between thumb and forefinger. Discard the skins.

Break the eggs into a small bowl and beat them lightly with a fork. You just want them lightly mixed. Pour a little of the beaten egg into the creamed butter and sugar, beating thoroughly, then slowly continue adding and beating till all the egg is used up.

Finely chop the almonds. Add the chopped and the ground almonds to the egg cake mixture. Stir the polenta and baking powder together then add it gently to the mix. Lastly, mix in the grated orange zest and juice.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes, then turn the heat down to 160C/gas mark 3 and continue cooking for a further 30 minutes, covering the surface with tin foil if it is browning too quickly. Remove from the oven but leave the cake in its tin.

Spike holes into the top of the cake (still warm in its tin) with a skewer, pour over the hot syrup and leave to cool.

For the syrup:

a large, juicy lemon
a large orange
100g golden caster sugar
2 tbsp liqueur, such as limoncello

To make the syrup, finely grate the zest from the lemon and orange over a measuring jug. Cut the fruits in half and squeeze their juice into the jug, then top it up to 250ml with water. Pour into a saucepan and add the sugar. Bring to the boil and keep at a rapid bubble until the sugar has dissolved and the liquid has reduced to about 175ml. Remove from the heat and add the liqueur.

Serves 8.

The cake was, as I mentioned before, very moist and sticky, but I have to agree with what Nigel Slater said last week:

I don't really mind a moist undercrust - pastry or cake sodden with juice being a good thing in my book.

I think the mixed citrus taste worked well and the polenta gave it a good bit of bite. We had one slice with a cup of tea while it was still warm, and some more for pudding later in the evening.
I'm tempted to make it again soon, not least as I have more of that syrup to use up.