Chicken with Kumquats

Orange Seasonal Citrus

For December 8, 2011

Have you ever wondered why you got an orange in your Christmas stocking?

It might have to do with St. Nicholas (aka Santa Claus). As legend tells it, there once lived three young woman who were poor and had no dowries. But St. Nicholas stopped by their home and threw three bags of gold coins down the chimney. The bags miraculously landed inside the girls’ stockings, which had been hung by the fireplace to dry, and so the sisters’ dreams of marriage and happily-ever-after came true. Through the ages those bags of gold have been depicted in art and literature as golden fruit.

Oranges.

Of course it is also the case that oranges and their cousins -- tangerines, clementines, kumquats, mandarins and the like – reach their peak growing season beginning in November and through the winter. Which makes it the perfect time to use these colorful goodies both as stocking stuffers and also in the kitchen, where you can cook them into all sorts of delicious things to eat.

Orange citrus has a unique ability to refresh like a summer breeze, even during dark, cold, snow-blown days. The flesh is sweet, but also tart and acidic, so it complements robust and distinctive-tasting foods. Use the peel and juice in a quick broccoli stir-fry. Try orange or tangerine juice as a basting fluid for your holiday ham or turkey (stuff the squeezed fruit inside the cavity of the bird) or the next time you roast a duck or pork loin. Squeeze fresh orange or tangerine juice over seared scallops.

Oranges and tangerines also give flavor and energy to otherwise bland ingredients. Combine the pulp with fennel and red onion as a salsa for white-fleshed fish (such as halibut, cod, snapper and grouper). Use the juice in place of stock or wine to make a sweet-and-tart gravy that would be perfect for roasted chicken.

As for dessert, cookbooks are replete with recipes using orange citrus in tarts and cakes. And Ambrosia, with its cut-up oranges mixed with coconut is a dessert classic in the American South. In North African countries sugared, seasoned oranges are served as a salad, but Americans would probably prefer these preparations at the end of a meal: remove the skins and cut the oranges into thick slices. Drizzle with pomegranate molasses and garnish with fresh mint or sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar, rosewater and a hint of cinnamon. Or season the slices with cinnamon sugar and broil them briefly to caramelize the tops.

A few varieties of the orange-skinned citrus fruits are best eaten out of hand or with nominal cooking. Blood oranges, for example, whose richly-colored reddish flesh and sweeter, more berry-like flavor are delicate and would get lost in a complex sauce. For a simple no-cook holiday dessert, cut blood orange flesh into sections, combine them with soft Medjool dates, top them with a small blob of whipped cream and garnish with crushed pistachio nuts. Clementines are too tiny (and therefore too labor intensive) for juicing, so enjoy them as is.

Kumquats – they look like small, oval oranges – are the kind of fruit people love or hate. Take one bite and a bitter, orange-peel rush hits your tongue, but on second thought it’s sweeter, softer, more amiable. If you enjoy bitter fruit, eat a kumquat raw (skin and all) or chop it up to include in a marinade for flank steak or skirt steak. Or cut some into a bowl of greens: just a few thin slices kumquat make a world of difference to a frisee salad (use a sherry-vinegar dressing).

Kumquats truly come into their own when cooked, a surprisingly welcome ingredient for savory dishes such as braised chicken. They also mellow deliciously in chutneys and relishes that go well with winter pork, veal and lamb roasts or stews. On the sugary side there’s candied kumquats, which are devastatingly sweet and tart all at once, giving the kind of ying-and-yang one expects from a salted caramel.

We will all soon weary of winter. Turn to seasonal orange fruit. It’s nature’s way of helping us bring meals and mood out of the doldrums.

SIDEBAR: Citrus Primer

Valencia-type orange: the classic juice orange; thin-skinned, sweet and juicy, lots of seeds.

Navel orange: eating orange, although it can be squeezed for juice, which is sweeter and more perishable than Valencia-type; thick skinned and seedless.

Seville orange: not as widely available as other varieties, this is a bitter/sour orange primarily used for marmalade; delicious for citrus-custard tarts.

Blood orange: reddish-hued flesh, sweeter than Valencias, good eating orange.

Clementine: small, seedless, honey-sweet eating orange.

Tangerine: small, dark-orange, seeded citrus fruit with easy-to-peel skin; rich, sweet juice excellent for drinking or for use in sauces, basting fluids or marinades.

Mandarin: refers to a variety of citrus fruits, including tangerines and Clementines. They may be seeded or seedless and are sweeter than Valencias or Navel oranges. The skin is easy to peel. Good for snacking; sections work nicely in salad and pair well with shrimp for stir-fries.

Kumquat: several varieties but usually small, oval, orange fruit, seeded, bitter/tart skin and flesh. Slice raw into salad; delicious when candied, works well in savory dishes and when combined with other ingredients to make chutney/marmalade.