The Jewels of Winter

Winter is here!  Did you notice?  There's a lack of fruit in the produce section;  the mangos are sorry, we're tired of apples, and I always wonder why they think canteloupe belongs here in December!  Turn your cart and revisit that citrus section:  oranges, lemons, grapefruit.  Clementines!  Blood oranges!  The colors are so happy, so warm in this cold season.  This chill gives these fruit their perfect balance of sugar and acidity. 

Citrus gets a bad wrap.   Besides a carton of OJ, most people bypass these gems:  they're messy! Exactly!  Citrus are juicy, dripping, squirting, pooling nectar that gives you a powerful punch of immunity, intense flavor, and a sinless dessert all at once.  Everything else is dying or sleeping.  These bright orbs wake you up!

You don't have to juice these winter fruits to enjoy them.  Citrus have a myriad of disguises, each one yummy.

One of my favorite transformations is candied peel.   This is not the only way to eat the skin of a citrus, just the sweetest.  A process of simmering and soaking your orange peel, (or grapefruit, or lemon) in a stew of sugar, water, and its own juice produces, after days of saturation and another day of drying, a sweet, juicy little something that looks perfect next to a cup of coffee, a cognac, a chocolate truffle.  These make great love presents.  They just scream:  "I spent DAYS making these!"  (Don't be surprised if you get some for Christmas.) Open a date or dried plum and nudge a candied peel inside, sandwich style.  Yum!  Want even more yum?  Add a slightly melted square of chocolate.  Heaven....oh my.

Somewhere in my gadget drawer lies a grapefruit knife, waiting for this season to kick in.  I cut them in half, myself half-asleep.  Like geodes, those Red Rubies shimmer. I like a powdering of brown sugar, and then I get to pull out my blow torch--at 6:00 in the morning, no less!--and caramelize that acid with that sweet.  Mmmmm. We may squeeze an orange over that grapefruit and slurp it for snack.  My French man drizzles grenadine, Chambord, or Creme de Cassis.  Dessert!

If your knife is sharp, pull it out and carve that peel and pulp away from your lemons, grapefruit, oranges.  Sculpt those "supremes" of citrus into a trio .  Add a blood orange or two and OH!  Spectacular!  On a bed of mesclun, it's an awesome salad.  On top of vanilla ice cream, its an original dessert.  (I dare you to add a little Cointreau!)  Squirt some juice over these beauties and you have a small course to add to your celebration, a sophisticated after-school snack.  Sprinkle those pomegranite seeds...this just looks like a party!

Layer thin slices of oranges (yes, you will need that really sharp knife again!) in a piecrust and bake it, just like that, for a Christmas Day tarte.  Use those blood oranges for this special occassion.  Ooh!  A little gingered whipped cream and it will disappear faster than that wrapping paper.

Of course, you could just juice them.  Any combination becomes interesting and so pretty in that glass your children will widen their eyes no matter how sleepy they are.  Forget that honeydew.  Just because it's sitting there doesn't mean it's in season.    Pick up a new yellow, a pink!, or simply, an orange and imagine the possibilities!