Sunday, December 7, 2008

Citrus invasion


I am swimming in citrus fruits today. I excitedly bought my first box of clementines for this season (by far my favorite variety of orange), then before I knew it my lovely neighbor brought over a bunch of tangerines from her yarn (above) and my orange tree is nearly ripe. Having come from the cold midwest, I'm not used to this kind of bounty in winter!

I don't trust myself to eat all of the fruit before it spoils, so I figured that I should come up with a bunch of great citrus recipes to help things along. Last night I made some orange pecan waffles (I also have a nut surplus in my cabinets) and froze them. I'm still working on finding the perfect waffle recipe. This one worked out alright, but was perhaps a bit too runny and not fluffy enough. Still, very nice and will be great for easy breakfasts.


Next up, this morning I made friands with a bit of the tangerine zest, and gave a few to my neighbor in thanks for the fruit. One of my friends once told me that her mother never returns tupperware to friends empty--she always adds a nice little treat. I think this is a fantastic idea, so I thought I would return my neighbor's basket with a homemade goody made with her fruit. I hadn't heard of friands until I lived in Australia this past summer. These are great little cupcake-like creations made primarily with ground almonds. They should be oval in shape, but I only had muffin tins handy. It's a very nice, easy recipe that marzipan lovers will enjoy.


Finally, I made this Cous Cous Salad with tangerines, raisins, almonds, and a savory yogurt dressing. I left out the shrimp to make it vegetarian, and halved the recipe, since it's serving size is 24!! This was also very simple, and has a nice flavor combination. Quite like Indian Upma--of which I am a big fan.

As you might guess, I still have dozens of oranges, tangerines, clementines, lemons, and limes. If you have any great recipes to share, I would love to see them! I'm hoping that my orange tree will be good for juicing, but the early ones I tried had a slight bitter flavor--which might be ok--I'm planning to give it another try soon.

6 comments:

isolada. by design said...

Oh goodness. My mouth is watering just thinking about those wonderful tangerines & clementines. I've seen them in grocery stores just this weekend, but nothing like picking your own! Enjoy!

The Cous Cous Salad looks & sounds wonderfully fresh. I did make some farro with sauteed veggies today. Delicious! I really like the nutty flavor & the soft yet chewy, grainy texture. And there's plenty leftover for my lunch tomorrow. Is it Monday yet? :)

Anonymous said...

The Friands look great and I might have a go at making them as my husband loves almond cakes. Another fav of ours is Lemon drizzle cake, make a sponge cake and incorproate the zest of 1-2 lemons (depending on size of your cake!) then mix the juice with about 6 ozs sugar and when your cake comes out of the oven pour the sugary/lemony mix over the top and let it drizzle through the cake as it cools. Turn out of tin when cold. I have also done orange drizzle and I don't see why lime shouldn't work too!

Enjoy.

Hilary said...

Mmmm...I very much miss my parents' tangerine tree. It was just outside the front door, so easy to grab a snack as I was headed to school or ballet or whatever.

More flavored waffles -- YUM! Thanks again for the great recipe links.

Lisette M said...

I have a great citrus salad (Arab salad). I will send it to you through Ravelry, and that way I get to take a peek at your projects.

Ferndale said...

Is this the same Meghan that worked at Dr. Beyer's lab at the U of C? This is Emily Christensen. I randomly clicked on a link for your cardigan pattern. Very cute. What happened to molecular biology?

Meghan said...

Hey Emily, unfortunately I can't contact you directly since blogger doesn't give me the email addresses for the comments--so I'll write here in case you stop back! This is the same Meghan, and it's great to hear from you! You do come to mind every now and then (especially when I think of the phrase 'so long, suckers!') Biology is a thing of the past, but I'm still using quite a lot of science in my career (if not in my knitting). I'd love to hear about what you're up to sometime: megp47 at yahoo dot com.