Seville Oranges

[MobyP]

I was following my spouse through Waitrose yesterday, when I came across a display of 'Organic Seville Oranges.' Suddenly, in what can only be described as an 'eGullet flashback,' I heard the voice of Adam Balic (whom I have never met) saying "Of course, the Seville Orange season is very short..." So, to cover embarassment, I grabbed a few bags, and ran for till.

Thus - am now stuck with 3 kilos of organic Seville oranges, a possible psychological condition, and a lack of recipes.

Other than marmalade, what can I use them for?

[Adam Balic]

Freeze them and you can use them all year.

Juice is excellent for making citron tarts, several Spanish recipes use the juice for sauces (eg. hake, salmon). Dry the peel to add to stews, also when grated it is good for terrines.

Also the juice is good for Persian Koresh type meat stews.

[Akiko]

Can you describe the taste please?

How is a seville orange different?

Thank you Moby, I'm going to be visiting Waitrose this weekend in search of the oranges... which one were you at?

[MobyP]

Thank you Moby, I'm going to be visiting Waitrose this weekend in search of the oranges... which one were you at?

Gloucester Road - Kensington. But the packaging is Waitrose, so if there's one near you, should call. They should have them.

It says on the packet "do not eat uncooked."

[Jonathan Day]

I'm in the same situation, Moby -- there's a big bowl of Sevilles sitting on the counter now, shouting "do something with us before it's too late."

I have made some very good Seville orange sorbet in years past. It's "adult sorbet" -- refreshing rather than sweet. It's nice in that you can add enough sugar (e.g. taking it to 18 degrees Baumé or more) to give it real body and mouthfeel without it becoming cloyingly sweet or forcing you to add acid to balance the sweetness.

Seville orange marmalade is also useful for more than putting on toast. It can be added to sauces, for example, or turned into a dessert sauce, or put into or onto a creme brulee -- or even converted into a sorbet. Adam's Persian ideas are also good.

Some people advise that they should be soaked in water for 24 hours before using.

I bought mine at a fruit vendor on Northcote Road. No "do not eat uncooked" sign! I suspect that this is because an uncooked (more precisely, unsugared) Seville orange has a somewhat bitter taste. I don't think that the uncooked fruit is in any way poisonous. Or is it?

[MobyP]

It says also on the attached recipe to use 'preserving sugar' for marmalade - what is this? Does it contain pectin?

I love the idea of drying skin for future braises. The citron tart, as well. That's definitely on the cards.

[jackal10]

Sauce bigardes

Seville oranges are bitter, and with thick peel

Marmalade is the traditional use, although I've stopped making it, since we don't eat that much, and there is still marmalade from the year before last in the cupboard. Also you can buy good marmalade, sand you need only buy a jar at a time..

[Adam Balic]

Seville oranges are known as 'bitter oranges', but any bitterness is in the peel and membrane bits just like regular oranges, the juice isn't bitter. What makes them interesting is that they are sour, not sweet, so they can be used anywhere lemon juice is used.

"Bigardes" are another type of sour orange (ie. a different variety to the 'Seville' orange) and it is from these that Neroli oil is extracted. This give a clue to one of the nice things about sour oranges, they have more perfumed skins then most regular oranges and their flowers are especially perfumed, hence their use in making orange flour water and why I dry the peels.

They were the original orange in the Middle-East before the introduction of the sweet orange (from China) and it is from the Persian word for them that we get our name 'Orange' and 'Tangerine'.

Make the citron tart, it's great.

[GG Mora]

It says also on the attached recipe to use 'preserving sugar' for marmalade - what is this? Does it contain pectin?

See here.

[MobyP]

Thanks, Jack, Adam, and GG!

[trillium]

I just posted some cocktails I like drinking with Seville orange juice over here. On the savory side, I like using them for food from the Yucatan, a favorite is pork marinated in sour orange juice and achiote, wrapped in banana leaves and cooked in the oven (my version of cochinita pibil). You need a squirt of juice for the xnepic or salpicsn that you eat with the cochinita. I think they're the original orange in orange duck (which makes more sense to me). The dried skins can be used in Chinese desserts or for making lap cheong if you're very ambitious. For other sweets, they make a nice curd, with a little more astringency than lemon curd, ditto for a tart. They pair well with chocolate, where you add the zest to the cake and make a glaze for the cake with juice, zest and sugar. The candied peels are really good in panforte or pannettone. They make a nice infused liqueur too.

regards,

trillium

[Betts]

Nigella Lawson has a Bitter Orange ice cream using Seville oranges and if I were handier with a computer I'd give a link but it is very good with chocolate sauce.

[tighe]

Adding to what Trillium said....

The main place I've seen seville oranges used is in Yucatecan food. There's a recipe call Tikin Xic where you marinate a whole fish or fillets (snapper, grouper, whatever..) in anchiote paste and sour orange juice (what they call seville oranges) and then grill it on banana leaves. The one time I've done it, it turned out great. There are many recipes for Tikin Xic online and I believe Diana Kennedy has a recipe for it in one of her books.

[ducphat30]

Seville oranges are not readily available here in CHicago, but I am wondering if anyone has tried to cure them, Moroccan style, seeing as they are very tart?

[fifi]

Seville oranges are not readily available here in CHicago, but I am wondering if anyone has tried to cure them, Moroccan style, seeing as they are very tart?

Now THAT is an idea. I have a jar of lemon that I started last week and I have another jar that needs filling. I wonder if the peel would add too much bitter?

[MobyP]

How would you cure them - and then how would you use them?

[fifi]

The method I use for lemons I got from Patricia Wells At Home in Provence. It is really just lemons sliced into 1/8 wedges, salt and added lemon juice. You need to use a jar with one of those clamp down glass lids or put plastic wrap inside a regular jar lid. You leave it on the counter and turn when you think about it for at least a couple of weeks to a month or until the lemon rind looks transleucent and the liquid gets thick looking. You can add some olive oil if you like. It keeps forever in the fridge.

Paula Wolfert also has preserved lemon in her The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen that is similar.

It is used in stews and braises, minced and mixed with olives for muching.

Both of those books are terrific.

[trillium]

Just fyi, I think Judy Rogers mentions in her book that she has experimented with preserving many other citrus and found that limequats where the only ones worth doing that way. I recall her describing other attempts as running the gambit from so-so to really strange (I'm paraphrasing).

regards,

trillium

[edsel]

Nigella Lawson has a Bitter Orange ice cream using Seville oranges and if I were handier with a computer I'd give a link but it is very good with chocolate sauce.

Bitter Orange Ice Cream

The link thingy is actually pretty easy to generate on egullet (much easier than sites that make you type it all by hand). Clicking the button labelled "http://" prompts you for the address. Maybe they should label the button "link". Just copy the location of the page you want to link and paste it in the window.

I found the ice cream recipe when searching for the slow-roasted pork recipe in this thread - it was part of the same Holiday Menu story. I wish I had some Seville oranges for something like this:

On the savory side, I like using them for food from the Yucatan, a favorite is pork marinated in sour orange juice and achiote, wrapped in banana leaves and cooked in the oven (my version of cochinita pibil).

Yum!

[fifi]

Just fyi, I think Judy Rogers mentions in her book that she has experimented with preserving many other citrus and found that limequats where the only ones worth doing that way. I recall her describing other attempts as running the gambit from so-so to really strange (I'm paraphrasing).

regards,

trillium

I wonder what a limequat is. I just got back from the store. They had bags of those little key limes on sale. I am going to give those a try. I love those things. They make the most wonderful margueritas. But you go nuts squeezing out enough juice for a good one.

Hey... How about a maguerita made with seville orange juice?