Citrus Supremes

The fancy way of cutting off all of the membranes around citrus segments is called supreming. Since I recently posted a recipe calling for supremes, I thought it might be helpful to update with a step by step guide through cutting supremes.

But first, let me beg you t use a really sharp knife for this (serrated blades don't count) . If you don't have a really sharp knife, go get one sharpened. Without a sharp knife this will be an exercise in frustration.

1. Cut off the top and bottom. It might take a few slices until you get cleanly into the fruit.

2. Set the fruit on the now flat bottom and cut the peel away, in strips. Once you have cut one piece away from the fruit, there will be a nice line that you can trace to get the rest of the peel off neatly.

3. Trim away all of the remaining pith.



4. Scrape the fruit and interior skin away from the peel. Reserve peel for another use, such as candied peels.

5. Cut each segment on the left and right to separate the segment from the membrane. At the end you will have something like a book with orange membrane pages.


6. Squeeze the center skins over your bowl of supremes to get any remaining juice out

* I keep a bag of citrus peels in the freezer until I have enough to warrant making a batch of candied peels. Removing the fruit and membrane is very important for candying. If you do it right when you use the fruit, you'll be all set to candy later.

Crepe Roses with Blood Oranges and Cardamom

If you have studied classical French pastry, people often expect you to make frilly fantastical cakes. I, however, tend to turn my nose up at these fancy-for-the-sake-of-being-fancy confections. Not just because they're not my aesthetic taste, (and they're usually not) but more because I think that food, when executed well, can be stunningly beautiful without three layers of fondant and a marzipan bow. So when it is time to make something that needs a spectacular presentation, (a lovely dessert or decadent breakfast for your valentine perhaps?) I like to create ornamental presentations that work with the particular qualities of the food. Then the ornament is part of the dish, not just extra fluff.

I had a hunch that the pretty, irregular edges of crepes might just make a lovely leaf or petal. And I had also ran across a paper art technique that I thought might be useful in food. Put the two together and you get crepe roses! They look complicated, but they're really not difficult to make. And you won't need lots of special equipment, either. If you have a non-stick or cast iron pan, a squeeze bottle (reused ketchup bottles work well), paper coffee filters and a sharp knife, you're in business. The flavors in this dish were inspired by the classic crepes suzette. But my take is a bit lighter and brighter than its gloriously buttery grandparent. And I threw in some cardamom and orange flower water too, just because they are delicious.

Ingredients:

3 small Blood Oranges

Crepes:
1 egg
3/4 c. flour
1 1/4 c. milk
1 T. butter, melted
1 T sugar
pinch salt
the zest from 1 orange
1/2 t. orange flower water (optional)
1/2 t. vanilla extract

Cardamom Blood Orange Sauce:
2/3 c. blood orange juice
3 cardamom pods
1/4 c. sugar
2 T. Butter

Yield: at least a dozen roses, in this case that will serve two people.

Mix crepe batter: Beat the egg together with the milk, sugar,salt, zest and flavorings. Add the flour a little at a time, whisking vigorously to avoid getting any lumps. Once all of the flour is incorporated, whisk in the melted butter. Cover and refrigerate for a minimum of two hours. Overnight is even better.

Cut oranges into supremes: Cut two blood oranges into supremes. Set aside the supremes and the resulting orange juice. You can do this a day or so ahead of time, just store the orange supremes covered in the refrigerator.

Cook orange juice with spices: Crush cardamom pods and remove the seeds from their shells. Add cardamom seeds along with sugar and orange juice to a small saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil. Continue boiling until the mixture has lost about half of its volume, it should be slightly thickened and syrupy. Remove from heat. Let cardamom sit in the syrup to infuse while you cook the crepes.

Cook crepes: Place a non-stick or cast iron pan or griddle over medium heat. Lightly coat the surface with butter. Pour about half of your crepe batter into a squeeze bottle. It usually takes a few crepes to make sure that the pan is at the right temperature. Squeeze your crepe batter out in a spiral around the pan. I found it easiest to trace around the outside edge of the pan and then just move up and make a little hook in the center of the circle. You want your crepe line to be about an inch wide, but don't worry about making it perfect. The organic shape of the rose comes from these imperfections.

Remove from pan: Use a thin metal spatula to take a peek at the under surface of the crepe to see if the crepe is browning correctly. Ideally, your crepe should be golden in some parts and still pale in others. When your crepe has cooked through, run your metal spatula all the way around the spiral to loosen it form the pan. I found it easiest to fold the crepe in order to lift it out. Because of the shape there isn't a clear-cut folding plan, just fold things over until you can lift it all with your spatula. Immediately transfer to a round paper coffee filter. Once the crepe has cooled enough to handle, carefully unfold it and return to its spiral shape. Place another coffee filter on top of this crepe, so that you can stack the next one on top. Keep going this way until all the crepes are cooked.


Form roses: Take a spiral off of your stack and set it on a flat work surface. Starting at the outside, roll the spiral up toward the middle. Start rolling rather tightly, but loosen up as you go. When you are satisfied with how the rose looks, turn it over onto it's side and cut a flat place for the rose to sit. You can either place the rose exactly where you want to plate it now, or place it in a deep oven dish lined with parchment paper.

Mix sauce: Strain out the cardamom seeds and return your syrup to a saucepan. Rinse out your squeeze bottle. Reheat the orange syrup until boiling. Remove from the heat and throw in the butter. Whisk vigorously until the butter is incorporated. The mixture should turn slightly opaque. Pour the sauce into your squeeze bottle. You can make the syrup portion of this sauce ahead of time, but once the butter has been whisked in it needs to be kept warm.

Plate: Arrange roses and orange supremes on plates. If you like, you can reheat the crepe roses on the plate just before you serve them. Or you can heat them in the oven and transfer them to their plates. Squeeze sauce over the roses, making sure that some of the sauce gets into the petals.

Sangria Jam

It is tricky trying to throw a fabulous party on a thrifty budget. Sangria stretches your most expensive ingredient (wine), but it does it in a sneaky, deliciously fruity way. Yes, sangria is cheaper than your average glass of wine. But it's also festive, bright and delicious enough to avoid the bad rap that stretching recipes sometimes have. Peak citrus season plus inexpensive red plus a little time in the fridge and voila! Sangria-infused party success.

But then there is a slight problem... what to do with all of that leftover fruit? Sure some of the fruit should be attractively ladled into the punch bowl or pitcher, but there's inevitably a big pile of fruit left over. I might be the kind of person who enjoys eating a boozy piece of fruit or two from the bottom of my glass of sangria. So *ahem* I knew this fruit was still good enough to eat. I threw some of the fruit in the punch bowl, but kept most of it in the fridge in the hopes that I could turn it into something useful.

Turns out, this fruit makes a spectacular jam! Boil the fruit until it breaks down then strain out the peels. Add some sugar, pectin and another quick boil and the jam is done. This jam doesn't need any other flavorings to make it interesting-- the combination of fruit and unexpected spicy notes from the wine make this jam tangy, bright and rather addictive. Now you can have your sangria and eat it too.


Sangria

3 bottles of red wine
1/2 c. brandy (optional)
2 lemons
2 oranges
2 apples
1 lime
half of a pineapple (optional)
1/3 c. sugar (adjust to taste)
soda water (optional)

Slice Fruit: Wash all of the fruit thoroughly. Use a vegetable peeler to cut thin strips of peel off one of the lemons. Set these aside in a damp paper towel for garnish. Squeeze the juice of that lemon into your bowl. Slice the rest of the fruit into 1/4" thick slices, leaving the skin on everything except the pineapple. Pour in all of the wine and brandy. Add sugar to taste (start with less than 1/3 c.)

Infuse: Cover your sangria and leave the mixture to infuse in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours, up to one day in advance.

Serve: Use a ladle to transfer the sangria to a pitcher or punch bowl. Throw in a ladle or two of fruit, but keep the rest of the fruit for jam. Serve with a lemon peel garnish and a splash of soda water.




Sangria Jam

6 c. leftover sangria fruit
8 c. water
2/3 - 1 c. sugar
1 t. pectin (low sugar type)*
2 t. calcium water (comes with this type of pectin)
Yield: 2 1/4 c. jam

Boil Fruit: Add water to the fruit and bring to a full boil. Boil, partly covered, for 45 minutes, or until the apples and citrus fruits have completely broken down.

Strain off waste: Pour hot liquid through a strainer. Press gently to extract all of the liquid that you can. Discard the fruit pulp (or reserve for compost). Measure the resulting liquid. You want to have 2 c. If you have more liquid, return the liquid to the stovetop and boil until it is concentrated down to 2 c. If you have too little liquid, add water so that your total volume equals two cups.



Cook/Activate pectin: Rinse any remaining fruit pulp out of your stock pot. Mix pectin together with sugar. Add strained fruit puree and calcium water. Bring to a simmer and cook, covered for ten minutes.


Store: Pour into clean jar. Refrigerate.** Keeps several weeks in the refrigerator.


* Pectin is a naturally occurring gelling agent. With just the right conditions (the right concentration of acid and sugar) pectin will gel perfectly. Unfortunately, the right amount of sugar for gelling might not be the same as the right amount of sugar to produce the best taste. If you can get your hands on a low-sugar pectin (such as pomona's), you can bypass this whole problem. This type of pectin, in combination with a calcium salt solution, will gel with much less sugar.

**Since this recipe makes just one jar, I'm giving the easy instructions for making jam, so this jam is not ready to be stored out at room temperature. You certainly could sterilize everything and process it, but personally, I wouldn't go to that trouble for just one jar. And I'm pretty sure you'll want to eat this right away anyhow.