Tags
blood lime, blood orange, citrus, cumquat, grapefruit, lemon, lime, orange
One of the things that made me reconsider a few times before writing about gluts of apples and pears a couple of years ago, was that they are not a terribly common backyard tree in Australia, being seen as high maintenance, and the climate in much of the country is unsuitable.
I decided to write about them anyway as you might go picking at a pick your own orchard, or stock up cheaply in season from a market, and also because there are parts of Europe and North America for example, where apple and pear trees are much more common.
Citrus on the other hand are found everywhere. A lemon is the classic backyard fruit tree across much of Australia, apart from the most tropical zones. I live in one of the very few cities in Australia where it is too cool for many types of citrus, and even here many people have a Meyer lemon or navel orange in a warm spot.
Along the warmer and milder east coast, almost every house seems to have a whole orchard of citrus, sometimes looking quite neglected, but still groaning with fruit! A couple of my parents’ trees (very much not neglected) are pictured above. I realise this is certainly not the case in many other parts of the world, but perhaps you can console yourselves with gluts of blueberries or raspberries – the very though of which makes me nearly faint with envy!
The recipes categorised below link to dishes I’ve made, most of them several times. Many are separate recipes on the blog, the others are recipes elsewhere online. In a couple of cases I have modifications or alternatives to give you further flexibility – these are listed below each recipe. At the very bottom, I have listed a range of interesting looking recipes that are on my ‘to do’ list, but that I haven’t yet tested. Most are from very reputable sites, but I can’t guarantee them all. As I try them, I’ll move to the appropriate categories above.
In all cases you can substitute navel or Valencia oranges for blood oranges, or clementines/mandarins, and I often do, as different citrus have different seasons. Given we’re talking about trying to use up gluts of whatever you have here, the same goes for substituting lemons and limes for each other and for blood limes, though obviously it will be a different flavour.
Mains and sides
Grapefruit chicken with couscous
Lime-glazed chicken drumsticks
Yotam Ottolenghi’s roasted chicken with clementines and arak
– I made this with blood oranges and Galliano.
Nigel Slater’s celeriac, blood orange and grapefruit salad
Beetroot and blood orange salad
Salad with lentils, orange, beetroot, and feta
– I added avocado, mint and parsley, and left out the walnuts.
Desserts
Moroccan citrus salad (pictured above)
Baking
Blood lime, almond and coconut cake (pictured above)
Lemon and poppyseed drizzle cake
Blood orange, almond and ricotta cake
Lemon, almond, ricotta and polenta cake
Orange marmalade cookies with orange icing
Preserving
Blood orange and strawberry marmalade with rosemary
Lime, lemon or blood orange curd
Blood orange (or lemon or lime) cordial (pictured above)
Not yet tried
Honey rosemary grapefruit soda
Spanish orange and almond tart
Orange, Seville marmalade and almond cake
Olive oil and blood orange cake
Blood orange cake with curd and mascarpone filling
Roasted beetroot with citrus, feta and walnuts
Grapefruit, radish, beetroot and chicory salad
Mixed citrus salad with feta and mint
Winter citrus salad with black pepper, feta and mint
Avocado grapefruit edamame salad
Avocado, grapefruit and spinach salad
Watermelon, grapefruit and pickled radish salad
