[Sca-cooks] Oranges from Isabella
Lilinah
lilinah at earthlink.net
Sat Mar 29 11:44:50 PDT 2008
Isabella wrote:
>I have been curious for a long time about the history of all
>citrus, and have had a running "discussion" (;-) with Dan about which ones
>are in our period. The only one we have both agreed on was lemons.
You ought to be agreeing on Seville/bitter oranges, too. Clearly
period, as they are called for in a number of Arabic-language,
Spanish, German, and other recipes. We've discussed them numerous
times on this list.
If one doesn't have any fresh Seville/bitter oranges, one has a few
options for substitutions:
-- in sweet dishes: when i couldn't find them fresh, i've used bitter
orange marmalade, since traditional orange marmalade is made of them;
-- in savory dishes: i have tasted actual Seville orange juice and it
doesn't taste much like sweet orange juice. To me it tasted more like
a combo of tangerine, lemon, and grapefruit juices... only much more
acid. So i've used combinations of orange or tangerine, grapefruit,
and lemon juices for savory cooking.
For Maire and others who live where fresh citrus is too expensive, i
have no suggestions, other than buying some (Mexican? Spanish?) brand
of bottled Seville/bitter orange juice that has been recommended on
this list, but i haven't tried it, so i can't compare it to the
fresh...
Here in NoCal we have a veritable citrus orgy from December through
February, with Seville/bitter oranges, multiple kinds of blood
oranges and tangerines/mandarins/clementines and grapefruits and
lemons and limes, as well as "oddities" such as citron (especially
Buddha hand citron), bergamot oranges, pomelos, ugli fruit (now with
a "nicer" new name i don't remember), and various kinds of Middle
Eastern lemons and limes that are not sour. The key limes i've seen
are quite petite, although i haven't bought any yet - i guess they
are from Florida - i'll have to read the tag next time i'm in the
Berkeley Bowl.
The one citrus i long to find fresh is jeruk nipis, which is commonly
used in Indonesia for juice (to drink). The skin is the medium-dark
green of a lime, the meat is pale orange, and the flavor is somewhere
between orange and tangerine and lemon and lime. The closest i can
get is buying half-gallons of kalimansi juice (the Philippine
equivalent of jeruk nipis), but the fresh fruit would be nicer.
As for preserved/salted lemons, they are called for in a few
SCA-period Arabic-language recipes.
Making Moroccan salted lemons is easy. One needs a sterilized jar and
lid, non-iodized salt, lemons, and some lemon juice. Wash the lemons;
slice each from bud end to stem end, but not all the way through;
pack full of salt; squish back together; put into the jar; and
repeat, stuffing the lemons tightly into the jar - you want some
juice to come out; fill the jar with more salt and some additional
lemon juice, so that the lemons are covered; screw on lid tightly;
shake well. I've read both to leave them in a warm place and to keep
them in a dark place. I wasn't too fussy. I left the jar out,
although not in direct sun. Shake the jar every few days and use in
about a month. The lemon peel should be rather translucent.
The peel is generally what is called for in recipes - usually rinsed
first to reduce the saltiness - there's usually very little pulp
left, so i don't worry about it. I've used them in a variety of
dishes, not necessarily medieval or Moroccan - such as lightly
steamed broccoli tossed with good olive oil, sliced soaked sun-dried
tomatoes, minced preserved lemon peel, smashed garlic, and some fresh
herbs, minced, torn, or chiffonaded.
--
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita
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