English Peas, Spring Onions and Roasted Almonds

Just cooked English peas, sautéd spring onions and roasted, salted almonds are a delicious combination of tender sweet, sweet pungent, and crunchy just salty. You can set this side dish next to grilled fish or chicken or mashed potatoes and a roast. It's...

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Fruits Category Archive

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Kumquats

Kumquats have a sweet rind and a zesty tart flesh.

You can eat them raw out of hand like a grape or slice them and toss them in a salad.

Kumquats look like small oranges. They are seldom larger than 1¼ inches (3 cm) across, about the size of a quail’s egg.

The rind is thick but tender, and the flesh is dry. The rind of a kumquat is not a separate covering from the fruit like an orange peel. The kumquat has no pith below its skin and for that reason is not bitter tasting. Kumquats sometimes contain seeds.

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Sour Oranges

Sour oranges are also called bitter oranges.

These are oranges that are not sweet tasting.

The best known sour oranges are Seville, Bouquet de Fleurs (also called Bouquet), Chinotto, and Bergamot.

Sour oranges are harvested beginning in late fall and the harvest continues through spring depending upon the region and climate.

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Blood Oranges

The blood orange is a type of sweet orange that has a red blush skin and a streaked to full scarlet, crimson, or purple flesh. It is juicy and has a sweet-tart taste that is rich, flavorful and often hints of berry.

Blood oranges are sometimes called the connoisseur's or gourmet's citrus. That is because the flavor of blood oranges is distinctive and refreshing with rich overtones of raspberries and strawberries.

You will find blood oranges at the farm market from early winter through spring.

Blood oranges are popular for eating out of hand, juice, and garnishes. Blood-orange sections can enliven any fruit mixture or salad, and the blood orange can be used as a garnish for savory or sweet dishes.

Blood oranges range in size from small- to medium-sized, and their skin is usually pitted but can be smooth. They contain few to no seeds.

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Navel Oranges

The navel orange is a type of sweet orange that is large, seedless and has a rich, juicy flavor that is delicious for eating out of hand.

There are several varieties of navel oranges. They all have thick, rough, bright orange skins that are easy to peel. The segments of the navel orange are easy to separate.

You will find navel oranges at the farm market from fall through spring.

The navel orange gets its name from a depression or hole at the blossom end of the fruit opposite the stem that encloses a small undeveloped secondary fruit. The depression looks like a human navel and thus the name. (As the secondary fruit enlarges, the navel enlarges.)

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Oranges: The Basics

There are three types of oranges: sweet oranges, bitter oranges, and mandarins.

Sweet oranges are mostly commonly used for eating fresh and for juice. Bitter or sour oranges are used for making marmalade and orange-flavored liqueurs, and mandarins--which are also called tangerines and are not really oranges but a separate citrus—are used for eating fresh.

The bitter orange originated in India and made its way to the Mediterranean region around 1000 AD. Today bitter oranges are mainly grown in Europe.

The sweet orange is believed to have originated in southern China and came to the Mediterranean region several hundred years after the bitter orange. Today sweet oranges are grown around the world but the largest crops are in Brazil, the United States and Mexico.

Mandarins are thought to have originated in southeastern China and spread throughout Asia in the tenth century and to Europe in the early 1800s. Today they are grown mainly in Brazil, the United States, Italy, Japan, and Spain.

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Eureka Lemon and Lisbon Lemon

The Eureka lemon and the Lisbon lemon are two bitter-flavored lemons.

The Eureka and the Lisbon can be used to flavor both sweet and savory dishes. They can be used in sauces or as an accompaniment to fish and poultry. They can be used in baking and desserts, and their slices or wedges can be used as a garnish.

The juice of the Eureka and Lisbon lemons can be used to tenderize meat, as a substitute for vinegar in dressings, and as a flavoring in drinks.

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Satsuma Mandarin Orange

From now until late spring, a host of mandarin orange varieties will be coming to market. The first or earliest harvested mandarin is the Satsuma mandarin which you will probably find at your farm market this week.

The Satsuma is a small bright orange mandarin with a delicate, sweet flavor. It is seedless and contains less acid than most other mandarins. If you have ever bought a can of imported mandarin oranges, you have probably tasted the Satsuma. At the farm market, the just harvested Satsuma has a loose puffy skin and is usually attached to a twig with a couple of deep green ovate-shaped leaves.

The Satsuma like many other mandarins are sometimes called zipper-skin oranges or kid-glove oranges. The references are to how easily the skin is pulled away.

The Satsuma was discovered in Japan in the sixteenth-century. Today 80 percent of the citrus grown in Japan are Satsuma mandarins. The Satsuma—of which there are at least 70 varieties--is more tolerant of cold than other citrus trees.

In the United States, Satsumas are grown where the winters are too cold for other citrus—in places like northern Florida, the Gulf Coast of Texas and the Sierra foothills of California. One well known Satsuma cultivar--‘Owari’—has a rich, tart-sweet flavor and is widely grown in California.

If you have a recipe that calls for oranges but you want a more complex citrus flavor, the Satsuma is a good choice.

Choose: Select a Satsuma that fills its skin, although the skin may be a bit puffy. Some growers recommend that you choose fruits that have stems or leaves attached if available. They say that fresh looking leaves indicate that the fruit is fresh. Other growers say they detach the stems and leaves to avoid stems puncturing the mandarin's thin skin. Taste one to make sure the flesh is not dry. Avoid fruit that is soft or dented.

Store: The Satsuma will keep for one week in a plastic bag in the refrigerator.

Serve: Great eating out of hand. The Satsuma will add a refreshing sweet taste to cottage cheese or yogurt and you can add to green salads or gelatin salads. Remove the peel a piece at a time and then separate into segments. If you find seeds, snip the center of the segment and gently squeeze. The zest can be used for baking.

Mandarins go well with apricot, banana, chicken, chocolate, crab, cream, duck, fish, hollandaise sauce, melon, passion fruit, scallops, shrimp, sugar, turkey, vinaigrette.

Nutrition: High in vitamin C and contains about 45 calories.

The botanical name for the Satsuma mandarin and most mandarins is Citrus reticulata (reticulata means ‘netted’ in Latin). The fibrous or netted strands of pith under the loose rind of the mandarin distinguish it from other oranges.

A History of the Mandarin Orange

Mandarins oranges—in all their forms--are probably descended from wild oranges that grew in northeast India as long as 3,000 years ago. From India, mandarins made their way to China and from China to Europe, North Africa and Australia before they traveled on to other parts of the world.

The first of these small, loose-skinned oranges were brought to England from China in 1805. From England, the mandarin made its way to Italy in the next decade, and from Italy it came into wide cultivation and spread to other Mediterranean countries including several in North Africa. From China, the mandarin was introduced into Australia in the 1820s.

The mandarin gained its nickname when it was introduced into England. Mandarin denoted the form of Chinese spoken by public officials and other educated people in China. The robes worn by public officials or mandarins in the Chinese empire of that time were deep orange and so this Chinese import was dubbed a mandarin.

Mandarins were introduced into the United States in the 1840s by the Italian consul in New Orleans. From New Orleans, the mandarin spread to Florida and California.

Several varieties of mandarins that are deep orange in color took the name tangerine when they were imported in great quantities into the United States in the late nineteenth-century from Morocco in North Africa. Those mandarin shipments embarked from the Moroccan port city of Tangier.

Grapefruit Varieties

Here’s a quick reference for grapefruit varities:

Duncan: lots of seeds, white flesh with great flavor; excellent for juicing; perhaps the oldest variety.

Flame: nearly seedless with red flesh and a slight rind blush.

Marsh (Marsh Seedless): nearly seedless, white-fleshed, medium-size with smooth yellow skin; it’s very juicy, tender and aromatic. You’ll find a balance of acidity and sweetness but somewhat less flavor than seeded varieties. This is a reliable old cultivar that’s great for juicing.

Redblush (also called Ruby Red and Ruby): seedless, pale-pink fleshed, and a yellow skin tinged with red. Red flesh fades to pink, then buff by end of season.

Rio Red: seedless, distinctly reddish skin and deep red flesh; firmer and smoother than Redblush; sweet-tart taste; excellent for juicing.

Star Ruby: seedless with the reddest flesh; clean and crisp tasting; easy-to-peel skin; smaller and less acidic than other varieties.

Grapefruit-Pummelo Hybrids

Melogold: grapefruit-pommelo hybrid developed in California; seedless with a sweet-tart flavor; bigger, heavier and thinner skinned than the Oroblanco; needs less heat than the true grapefruit.

Oroblanco: fruit is smaller, lighter and thicker skinned than Melogold; sweeter than Melogold; seedless with white flesh.

Rio Red Grapefruit

The first recorded mention of a grapefruit came in 1750 when it was found growing in Barbados—the easternmost island of the West Indies.

Yearly temperatures average 79ºF (26ºC) in Barbados. That tells you something about what it takes to grow a grapefruit—which is thought to have gotten its start as a cross between a sweet orange and a pummelo, also called pomelo.

Grapefruits grow best in places like Florida, South Texas, Southern California, Arizona, Israel, Argentina and South Africa. In climates similar to its native region, a grapefruit can ripen in as little as six months. Grown elsewhere, the grapefruit can take a year or even 18 months to ripen.

Grapefruits—which can measure anywhere from 4½-11 inches (11-17 cm) in diameter--come to market at different times of the year. If you look at a weather map, you can pretty much figure out where the grapefruit at your market is coming from by following the daily average temperatures for a week or so. In the United States, Florida and Texas grapefruits are in the market from October through June, and California and Arizona grapefruits are in the market from February through November.

The Rio Red grapefruit at your market this week probably came from South Texas somewhere along the Rio Grande River. It’s grapefruit harvest time there right now.

The Rio Red is a seedless grapefruit with a yellow to deep ruby-pink flesh and a sweet-tart flavor. It is a large and firm grapefruit with a smooth and distinctly reddish skin. The Rio Red is excellent for juicing.

Grapefruits in general are dived into natural types: there are common white or yellow-fleshed grapefruits, and there are pigmented or pale pink to ruby red grapefruits. There are also seeded and seedless grapefruits. Beyond flesh color and seeds, you can generally say that seeded grapefruits are more flavorful than seedless.

Obviously, grapefruits have a sharper flavor than oranges. The heat a grapefruit grows in has much to do with how long it takes to reach maturity and ripeness and can affect the sweet-tartness of the fruit. In hot regions, the grapefruit can mature in as few as six to seven months. Grapefruit grown in costal areas can take as long as 18 months to ripen. Costal grown grapefruit will taste more tart and have a thicker rind.

By the way, the grapefruit took its name from the French word for “clusters” which is grappes. Grapefruits grow in grapelike clusters on trees that reach to 30 feet (9 m) tall.

Choose: A grapefruit should be heavy for its size (which means more juice), quite firm, with a fine-textured, tight, shiny skin. Seeded grapefruits are said to have the best flavor and are easier to separate into segments. To the touch, a grapefruit should be springy; avoid fruits that are overly soft. The more blush of pink or red on the skin, the deeper the color of the flesh.

Store: A grapefruit will keep for up to two weeks when stored loose in the refrigerator. Don’t leave a grapefruit at room temperature for more than a day or two.

Serve: The grapefruit can be served fresh, halved or segmented as a breakfast fruit with a sprinkling of sugar. It can also be added to green salads, fruit salads or served with cheesecakes, flans or sorbets.

Grapefruits are easier to eat if the segments are first loosened with a curved grapefruit knife or serrated spoon. When segments of citrus are separated from the membranes holding them together, they are referred to by some cooks as supremes.

Grapefruit can also be grilled and served with duck, chicken, pork or shrimp.

Tip: Grapefruits are more difficult to peel than oranges. If you want to remove the white pith easily, drop the whole grapefruit in a pot of boiling water. Then remove the pot from the heat and let stand for 3 minutes. Remove the fruit and let it cool. Then peel the grapefruit, and you will see that the pith will easily come off the fruit.

The botanical name for the grapefruit is Citrus x paradisi.

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