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January is, without doubt, the most miserable month of the year – short days, long nights, frosty mornings and the ever-present threat of rain. It does bring a few silver linings for foodies, though, not least the appearance of delicious blood oranges in our supermarkets and greengrocers.
Blood oranges are at their best in January and February in the UK and prized by chefs for their sweet, sharp flavour, which has hints of raspberry to it as well as the usual citrus notes. Blood oranges are a natural mutation of the orange, which is itself believed to be a hybrid of the pomelo and the tangerine.
Sicilian Tarocco oranges (Arancia Rossa di Sicilia) are probably the best known of all as they’re PGI-protected, but you’ll see a number of different varieties at various points of the year – Sanguinellos are mostly grown in Spain, and Moro, Maltese and Delfino varieties are becoming more common.
You can more or less ignore the skin colour if you’re looking for ripe blood oranges – this has more to do with variety than ripeness; instead, choose oranges that feel heavy for their size. Once you've got a bag of them in the kitchen, don't just eat them on their own (even though they are delicious) – take a look at the sweet and savoury recipes below for some inspiration and incorporate them into your cooking.
Blood orange and chocolate tart
Lani Greenhalgh's stunning blood orange tart takes a bit of work, but the final result is more than worth it. The geometric arrangement of blood orange segments on top makes this tart very pleasing to the eye, but with a chocolate ganache filling and blood orange jelly hiding underneath, this tart tastes as good as it looks.
Blood orange curd
This is an easy way to make something delicious from your blood orange haul – just juice all your oranges and cook gently with eggs in a bain-marie to make curd. Once chilled, the curd will keep for a few weeks in the fridge, and you can incorporate it into all sorts of baking recipes (or just eat it on toast!).
Blood orange mousse with blood orange sorbet
The ruby-red innards of blood orange make for particularly eye-catching desserts, and Galton Blackiston's blood orange mousse and blood orange sorbet are two perfect ways to capture the unique flavour of this fruit when it's at its best. Both are fairly simple to make, though they do require a few hours of setting time – these are great micro-recipes to use for pairing with other desserts, too!
Seared scallops with salsify, blood orange and brown shrimp
Blood orange adds an extra dimension to fish and seafood dishes, so you'll often see the two paired together on restaurant menus. Blood orange and scallops go particularly well, and Richard Corrigan's dish does a great job hitting all the flavour touchpoints – sweet scallop, sharp blood orange, salty samphire and rich, buttery shrimp.
Fermented blood orange, whipped ricotta, walnut butter and radicchio salad
Chantelle Nicholson provides an interesting take on blood orange by quickly fermentation the fruit before making her dish. The juice and bitter orange peel becomes a blood orange marmalade, which accompanies homemade ricotta, fresh radicchio and fermented blood orange segments. This is fantastic, resourceful cooking that shows how you can use the whole fruit with no wastage.
Burrata and blood orange salad
Francesco Mazzei's colourful salad relies on fantastic ingredients – beautiful fresh burrata, tangy blood orange and bitter radicchio – but the flavours and combinations are spellbinding. The blood orange dressing, made with honey, lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil, is one we break out all the time for all sorts of salads – definitely a micro-recipe worth noting for salad-lovers!
Sea bass and blood orange ceviche
Nud Dudhia uses sharp, sweet blood oranges as the counterpoint to raw fish in his Baja-inspired ceviche recipe. A quick twenty-five-minute cure gives the fish a bit of texture and body, and he adds watermelon radish, spring onion and a salsa made from cascabel chillies to liven things up. This is a beautiful, refined starter to serve at a dinner party.
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