[Sca-cooks] Candied Citrus Peel

[Lilinah]

>Wow! Where did you find Seville Oranges? Here in Los Angeles we can 
>only get California oranges, most Navel, along with the occassional 
>blood orange.
>
>I've candied grapfruit peel - it's wonderful but needs at least 3 boilings.
>
>Renata ::whose Mom's blood orange tree, planted 25+ years ago has 
>never grown an inch, put out or lost any leaves and has never 
>flowered... :( ::

The Berkeley Bowl has them every year in January and February 
(sometimes a bit longer). They're grown in California, and I bet you 
can find them in LA if you go to a specialty produce market. I only 
gave them three boilings and three soakings, and they taste pretty 
good, although i suspect they'd be more tender with a longer period 
of processing.
http://ripetoyou.com/Availability.aspx
If you click on each type of fruit, it takes you to a page with a 
photo of that fruit and some info about it.

They even sell on-line, for those of you not in California who want 
to try the unbelievable number of different kinds of citrus they 
have. However (from their website):
>Please note:
>The Arizona and Hawaii Agricultural Departments prohibits the 
>shipment of any citrus fruits into their states.
>The States of Texas, Louisiana & Florida prohibit the shipment of 
>any citrus fruits with leaf attached.

Meanwhile, back at the Berkeley Bowl - it has several different kinds 
of blood oranges, a vast multitude of different kinds of small 
orange-like things (tangerines, tangelos, mandarin oranges, 
clementines, etc.), two kinds of kumquats, Meyer lemons, thick 
skinned lemons, limes, Key limes, Persian limes (look like lemons, 
only are not sour), Palestine sweet limes/lemons (haven't tried these 
yet), Buddha hand citrons, bergamot oranges, about 4 different kinds 
of grapefruits, pomelos, and the usual standard Valencia and navel 
oranges. When in season they have kaffir limes (the lumpy green 
citrus fruit which leaves and grated peel are used in Thai food)...

But no ugli fruit :-(

No jeruk nipis... but they do sell calamansi juice in the cooler 
case. Calamansi is the Pilipino name for what is called jeruk nipis 
in Indonesia. These look like limes, but are rounder, until you cut 
into them, because the pulp is orange, and the flavor is a wonderful 
combination of lime, lemon, and tangerine, but the juice needs to be 
sweetened.

Given the long list of citrus available from "Ripe to You", i bet The 
Bowl gets a lot of their citrus from them.

I used two different kinds of lemons and gave them two boilings and 
two soakings, before the syrup boil. The Meyer lemons made FABULOUS 
candied peel. But the more generic thick skinned lemons, which 
smelled fantastic, tasted medicinal and a bit like Pledge... i think 
if i sugar coat them (literally), they'll be tolerable.

I'm not sure how the Bergamot oranges will turn out - bergamot is 
what gives Earl Grey tea its distinctive flavor. Because i've been 
sick all week i didn't start making the peels long enough ago. I 
wanted to do the 9 day thing, but have only done a 2-1/2 day thing. I 
made slices leaving the pulp in. They've been partially candied, i 
need to give them another boil in intense syrup. I've already tried 
them, in their incomplete state. The pulp and pith taste delicious, 
but the outer skin tastes resinous, bitter, and medicinal. They'd 
probably have benefited from the 9-day method.

-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita