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Too many clementines!


sara

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So is it time for cheap Clementines yet? They still seem to be pretty overpriced.

Buy 'em at the Asian markets. I saw a box at Grand Mart (DC) for $2.10 last weekend.

Edited to add, how perverse that this thread started as a plea for ideas to use up a glut of them, and has turned into "how do I get more for less?" Very eG :laugh:

Edited by eunny jang (log)
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On the only occasion that I've managed to have clementines for baking with, I made a gratin with clementines and an OJ/sparkling wine sabayon in a standard short crust. It was good.

I have a fifteen-year-old bottomless football player in the house. My last five-pound box of clementines lasted less than six hours. :blink:

“Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too.” - William Cowper, The Task, Book Three

 

"Not knowing the scope of your own ignorance is part of the human condition...The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger club.” - psychologist David Dunning

 

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Oh, my darlin', oh, my darlin'

Oh, my darling Clementine

You are lost and gone forever

Dreadful sorry, Clementine

~ First verse of traditional song

Well, certainly not lost for use in the kitchen. Over the years, I have played Clementine’s culinary “courtier” on numerous occasions to prepare various sweets – including an apricot-clementine oatmeal quick bread, a chiffon cake, a festive all-fruit mince pie, crêpes (in which I use tangerine marmalade, clementines, orange juice, and Mandarin Napoleon), custard (served with financiers), and a conserve. Clementines preserved in Armagnac have been appraised as “the best of Christmas preserves, to be eaten reflectively at the end of a special meal as dessert – with cream if you like.”

What are clementines; why are they so-named; and where did they originate? A fitting triplet of answers: “Tiny clementines come in at the beginning of the winter season – later they are nearer a satsuma in size – and you need to keep an eye open for them. They are called after Père Clément, a French priest in North Africa, who developed this fine-flavoured cross between the mandarin and bitter orange.” (Jane Grigson’s Fruit Book, p. 280) The priest full name was Clément Dozier and he created the fruit in 1902 in an orchard belonging to an orphange near Oran in Algeria that was run by the missionary-priest.

The clementine is the only Corsican fruit to be awarded an Appelation.

Harvesting the fruits is a “highly intensive process that calls for a large number of seasonal workers over four winter months.” (Culinaria France; Könemann: Cologne, 1999; p. 455) The 5-lb. cases I saw in the market last week were shipped from a grower in Spain.

My method for the conserve – a delicious marmalade to spoon from decorated jars that you’ve included in an elegant gift basket:

3 lbs clementines; 3 lemons 6 lbs. granulated white sugar; 3 quarts water.

Was the fruit well; put in a large saucepan with the water and poach until fruit is soft. Remove fruit from liquid and cut them into small pieces or slice thinly. Remove seeds from lemons and excise the white pith from the rind. Cut lemon peel into slivers. Return all lemon seeds & pith to the liquid and simmer for 15 minutes. Strain liquid, discarding seeds and pith. Add chopped fruit & sugar to juice. Over high heat, stir unitl a full, rolling boil is achieved, and boil rapidly until mixture reaches the setting point (220°). Remove from heat, skim, cool slightly and then pour into sterilized, hot jars.

Finally a note on zesting clementines: Because the peel of the clementine is so thin, it cannot be grated on a perforated grater (e.g., Microplane) as is done with some other citrus fruits. Instead, the clementine first should be washed and the entire peel removed. The small scar at the stem end should be removed discarded. The peel is then flattened, skin-side down, and the thin white pith scraped away with a honed paring knife. The peel can then be minced paper-cutter fashion with a chef’s knife. Or chopped very fine in a food processor. If the blades are not razor sharp, the peel may not chop easily; in this case, add some granulated sugar (taken from the recipe for which the zest is to be used) to the work bowl and the desired fineness will be obtained.

Clementine zest may be placed in small plastic containers and frozen. It can then be spooned out as needed – and used in place of, or in addition to, citrus zest in recipes that call for that ingredient.

"Dinner is theater. Ah, but dessert is the fireworks!" ~ Paul Bocuse

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i love clementines! every winter i get two or three boxes as often as i can until they start getting too expensive. i usually walk around with seven or eight in my pockets to snack on, hand out as calling cards, or leave at the scene of a crime :shock: but they are so good and good for you; last winter i ate one almost every day (usually two or more) and didn't get sick once...love it. and it's surprising how many people haven't ever had a clementine before; i used to et a lot of strange looks when i pulled handfuls of the magical fruit from my trench pockets...

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