Inductive citrus peels

We also served these candied citrus peels at our anniversary party, and they were a hit, at least with one partygoer. I am nothing if not devoted to my fans, so by her request, here's the recipe. I must confess that I got this recipe from the internet somewhere, but it was so long ago that I don't remember the source. Sorry for plagiarising!

Our anniversary happens to be Texas independence day, which I didn't know until our wedding day, but our anniversary party was vaguely Texas-themed. OK, it wasn't very Texas-themed at all, but we did receive a bottle of Tito's vodka as a gift (thanks!), and the citrus fruits whose peels I candied were all Texan. The grapefruits were from the produce market here, but they were definitely Rio Star grapefruits (I don't bother with that junk from Florida), and the lemons, Meyer lemons, blood oranges, and tangerines were grown by my aunt, who lives between Houston and Galveston. Go Texas!

Anyway, I'm a big fan of making food out of stuff that would be thrown away, and these peels are delicious, if a little labor-intensive. When done right, they are slightly juicy, sweet, and a little bitter. I find that the grapefruit peels makes your mouth feel slightly numb if you eat a lot of them. Grapefruit is kind of a scary food, what with its interactions with medications and all, so I'm not surprised that it has some sort of weird nerve chemical in it. Despite all that, I sure can't quit grapefruit.

How to make candied citrus peels

1a) To prep grapefruit peels, just peel a grapefruit and cut the peel into strips, pith and all. I will allow myself to go on a tangent about how I think there's a vast media conspiracy, funded by the powerful grapefruit spoon/knife lobby, to suppress the idea that you can just peel a grapefruit like an orange and eat it. It's true! That's how we always do it, and it's much easier to harvest the peel if you eat it that way. Tangent over.

1b) To prep non-grapefruits, you'll need to remove the pith. I don't know why grapefruit pith is different from the other stuff, but it is, and the other stuff has yucky pith. I take a small, sharp paring knife, put the peel on the counter, zest side down, and, with the knife parallel to the counter, try to get it between the skin and pith. It's imperfect, but you don't have to get it all.

2) I prep the peels immediately after eating the fruit and then store them in jars in the fridge until I have enough to candy. At that point, I dump the peels in a saucepan, cover them with water, and bring to a boil. Then drain and repeat this process until you've boiled and drained 5 times. This removes a lot of the bitterness. Then cover with water and a bunch of sugar. I just kind of guess at the amount of sugar, but I'd say a 3:1 or 5:2 ratio of water:sugar is probably about right. Bring this all to a boil and boil uncovered for about two hours. This gets the peels nice and soft and sweet. The liquid gets syrupy, and it makes a nice citrus-flavored simple syrup to use in cocktails.

3) Now put the peels into glass jars and cover with syrup. Store in the fridge until you're ready to use them. When that time comes, you'll want to drain the peels on cooling racks for a while to get them dry enough to roll in sugar. The time varies based on the humidity of your apartment. In Houston, I would usually leave them for 18-24 hours, but here, I've found that as little as 8 hours will work. You want them to be tacky but not wet for optimal sugar-coating. Dry them zest side up to prevent them from getting overly dry on the pith side. You can also roll them in a combination of sugar and "sour salt" (citric acid powder) for sour-sweet peels. I'm not as fond of those, but Jon and some of our friends really like them. I'd say about a 4:1 ratio of sugar:citric acid is a good starting point.

A note on limes: I have a dickens of a time getting the pith off of the lime zest, so I just skip the limes most of the time. Candied lime peel is really good, though, and I used to go to the trouble for my lime-loving friend Carolyn, but now we don't live in the same city, so I don't.

How to make salads and a grapefruit-avocado salad recipe

Like I said in my last post, we eat a lot of salads. In this post, I show some of the delicious salads we have eaten and talk about different things you can do to make interesting salads a part of your life.

Here's a pretty basic one. It has lettuce, grape tomatoes (for some reason I like them way better than cherry tomatoes or sliced regular tomatoes), cucumbers, feta cheese, croutons, and sliced almonds. Dressed with Italian seasoning, olive oil, and vinegar. We have this salad or a very similar one most nights.
Pardon the ugly flash on this next one. My old camera wasn't very good at food photography. This is a salad Jon made for a crowd who came over to our place one night. I think the presentation is very nice with the cukes, red peppers, and beets on the top. The beets are also a little out-of-the-ordinary and make it special.
This one is a little fancier. I added some greens from our garden (kale, herbs, baby lettuce) and took inspiration (and leftover pears) from our main dish, pear-caramelized onion pizza, to take it up a notch.
In this one, I raided the garden for two beautiful carrots in addition to some greens, and I added chopped-up daikon (enormous Japanese radish) for a little change of pace. I like the presentation on this one too. I put red pepper strips on the side for a little interest. The carrots are very striking, too. (Side note: I love the new salad bowls we got for our wedding.)

This one has a carrot from the garden and a bunch of sprouts on top. (It uploaded sideways for some reason. It looks right in the folder I uploaded from, and I'm too lazy to fix it.)
Sometimes I use leftovers in my salads. This one that I brought into school has leftover cooked asparagus and some spinach, beet, or chard thinnings from my garden.
Sometimes I use a visual theme for my salads. For example, I cut all the non-lettuce vegetables into matchsticks or cubes. Or I use a color theme like this, one of my proudest salads. I went with a green-purple theme using baby beets, blackberries, red-tip lettuce and baby greens, herbs (including purple sage, Thai basil, and purple globe basil for their purple color), pumpkin seeds, and fresh garbanzos (coincidentally an upcoming post). Red and green is another good color theme. Or yellow and green. I bet orange and green would be fun, with carrots, orange peppers, and maybe even cooked sweet potato cubes. Or oranges or tangerines.
We don't do a lot with dressings. Usually I have my lemon-sesame dressing around, and it's a good all-purpose dressing. We also always have olive oil and a variety of vinegars, so we often just dress it to taste at the table. Or Jon will throw together a vinaigrette, often with mustard and herbs, while he's putting the salad together. We do keep some dressing from the store in the fridge at school for ease of salad-eating at lunch. In general, we dress them pretty lightly and simply because we like to taste the vegetables. And if we end up somewhere with salad and no dressing, we just eat the naked salad and enjoy it.

Sometimes I go a little further afield in my salad-making, like with this grapefruit-avocado salad. Often served over greens.
Sometimes with no greens.
This is a great winter salad, at least here where we get good avocados year-round. (I confess that I don't know their growing season. They're always in the grocery store here, and they're pretty much the same price year-round.) Grapefruits are really cheap and good here in the winter, so we eat this fairly often. This is barely a recipe, but I'm putting it here anyway. It's a pretty easy salad to assemble for lunch at your school or workplace if you have a knife. Just bring the whole grapefruit and avocado and make it in one bowl. It's more filling than most salads because avocados are so rich, so it can be a lunch in and of itself.

Grapefruit-avocado salad
Serves one if it's all you're having for lunch, two if you've got some other food.

One grapefruit
One avocado
Lettuce or baby greens, optional
Smoked Gouda or Parmesan cheese, optional
Extra-virgin olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Black pepper, optional

Peel the grapefruit. Remove as much of the pith and membrane as you feel like. Divide the grapefruit into segments. Cut the avocado in half. Remove the pit. Cut the avocado into thin wedges and remove from skin. Arrange grapefruit and avocado on bed of greens or plate. Add some cubes of smoked Gouda or shavings of Parmesan if desired. Dress with a little extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar with a little black pepper if you have it handy.

Lemon-ricotta-chard pizza

This post has been featured in the 38th Grow Your Own roundup! Thanks, Nate and Annie, for hosting! There's a lot of delicious and impressive stuff over there.

I made a big batch of ricotta last weekend because I had wanted to try several ricotta recipes. I made some ricotta gnocchi and some cute lemon-ricotta pancakes.
Both were nice but not anything really special, but this pizza was amazing. I knew that I wanted a ricotta-based pizza topping and that I didn't want it to be too complicated. My aunt gave me a bunch of home-grown Meyer lemons, which are big and sweet and juicy, and in a brilliant stroke of inspiration, I decided that they would be the perfect accompaniment to the ricotta on the pizza. Fiesta had some gorgeous bunches of Swiss chard, so I added that too. It worked nearly perfectly. Cooking sweetened the lemons even more, and the greens got a little crispy without burning. Next time I will peel the lemons because the white pith is a little too bitter. That change is reflected in the recipe.

Lemon-ricotta-chard pizza
Vegetable oil for sauteeing chard
Lemon zest, optional
1 bunch Swiss chard, stems removed for another use (if you're into that kind of thing), leaves cleaned well and coarsely torn
1/2 recipe pizza dough made with whole wheat in place of half the white flour
Olive oil for brushing
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 Meyer lemon, sliced into thin rounds, peel and pith removed
Coarse salt for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 400 F with pizza stone in it.
Heat oil in saute pan over medium heat. Grate a little lemon zest into the oil if you want. When the oil is hot, add the chard leaves and saute until wilted. You might cover them briefly to get some nice steaming action going. Remove from heat and set aside.
Roll pizza dough out into 12-inch round. Brush with olive oil. Top with ricotta, chard, and lemon slices. I added the ricotta in little spoonfuls, but you could also spread it thinly over the whole pie. Sprinkle with coarse salt. Carefully transfer to pizza stone and bake for 12-14 minutes or until the crust is done.

Clementine Negroni

This gorgeous red-orange drink was in the December issue of Bon Appetit, and it looked so good that I even bought Campari so I could try it. It has a decent amount of sweetness from the juice, but it doesn't taste very sweet because it's balanced by the bitterness of Campari. Jon made it for me for the first time a couple weeks ago after I had a long day. I got to sit at the table doing my crossword puzzle and sipping a negroni while watching him cook me a great dinner. It is a charmed life sometimes.

Clementine Negroni
This could make two drinks, but Jon usually pours the whole thing into one glass, and I drink it slowly.

3 clementines or tangerines, peeled, or about 1/2 cup orange juice
3 dashes orange bitters or other bitters, optional
1/4 cup gin
1/4 cup Campari
3 tbsp sweet vermouth
Ice cubes
Clementine slices for garnish, optional

Muddle clementines and orange bitters in a cocktail shaker until clementines are broken down. Add alcohols and fill shaker 3/4 full with ice cubes. Shake vigorously for about 30 seconds. Strain into one or two martini glasses if you have them (wine glasses for us). Garnish with clementine slices if you're fancy like that.

Lemon-sesame salad dressing

I have been in love with this dressing since the first batch. This was actually the first salad dressing recipe I ever tried. I had picked out several recipes to try and haven't tried any other ones because I like this one so well. Prior to this, we usually just dressed our own salads with oil and vinegar at the table, but since then I have almost always had a jar of this going. It's salty, citrusy, and thick. Plus, it's quite cheap, and you can adjust it to your preferences. This dressing is great on any kind of standard green salad, but it is also good on asparagus, broccoli, noodles, or a spoon. (Just kidding. Kind of.) I was initially reluctant to use it in a salad that had a strong cheese since I associate cheese with Europe and the dressing flavors with Asia and thought that they wouldn't mesh together. I was wrong.

Lemon-sesame salad dressing (adapted from Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home):

You should taste as you go along and adjust the amount of soy sauce and lemon to your tastes. And believe it or not, generic vegetable oil is the way to go here. The lemon and soy sauce are so powerful that you don't want a strong oil interfering.

Juice of two lemons, about 1/3 cup
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp or more dark sesame oil
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted

Whisk the ingredients together. That's all.

Tangelo-red pepper sherbet

I am having an "iron chef" party tomorrow night to celebrate the end of the semester and the end of qualifying exams for the first- and second-years. The theme ingredient this time is peppers. Yesterday I did a test run on the recipe I'm making for the party, a tangelo-red pepper sherbet. I saw a recipe for tangerine sherbet on a NY Times "Tiny Kitchen" video, and while I was brainstorming things to make for the party, I remembered it and thought that tangerine would pair well with red bell pepper. The grocery store didn't have tangerines, but I usually get tangelos anyway, so I went with those. We went the fresh-squeezed route, but the results would probably be fine with regular juice, even just orange juice or an orange-tangerine blend. I used gelatin. I know that it isn't vegetarian, but I've had it in my pantry for a long time, and I wanted to see if it helped with stabilization. It didn't really seem any different from other frozen desserts I have made, so I don't think I will use it next time.

I decided to "roast" my peppers in the microwave following a suggestion of Barbara Kafka in Vegetable Love. I wasn't too fussy about peeling them, and although the peel was definitely noticeable in the final product, it was not objectionable. The microwave technique worked, but I might do them in the oven next time since I'll have a lot more peppers, and microwaving plastic wrap for that long seems a little foolish.

I actually own three ice cream makers of various types right now. How excessive. They were all given to me by relatives who don't use them much. I made this one in a little ice cream maker with a canister you freeze for several hours. It's Donvier brand, probably bought by my grandmother in 1973. It doesn't freeze things very solid for me, but it's convenient, and I just wanted a small batch. It makes about a pint at a time. Tonight I am going to make the "real" batch for the party using my more traditional Waring ice cream maker that makes about 1 1/2 quarts and uses ice and salt. It will probably freeze a little better. If you don't have an ice cream maker, you should borrow one of mine or freeze it in a metal pan and scrape it with a fork every once in a while. After it's frozen, you can whirl it in a food processor to incorporate some air.

Jon and I both really enjoyed this, so it's not just my crazy hippie tendencies talking. Or maybe we're both crazy hippies. I decreased the sugar slightly from the tangerine sorbet recipe, and I liked it. It would probably even make a good palate cleanser between courses of a fancy dinner if I were the kind of person who made fancy dinners that required palate cleansers. Jon suggested maybe adding some lemon juice the next time for a bigger citrus presence, but I don't think I will. The success of this idea has led me to brainstorm a lot of other slightly odd sherbet, sorbet, and ice cream flavors, and now that I have the little ice cream maker out and remember how easy it is to use, you might see some more weird ice cream creations on here.

Tangelo-red pepper sherbet (inspired by "Tiny Kitchens" from the NY Times):
1/2 tsp gelatin
2 tbsp water
1 1/2 large red bell peppers
3/4 cup tangelo juice (about 3 tangelos for us)
zest of 2 tangelos
3/8 cup sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream

Sprinkle the gelatin in the water in a small saucepan. Leave it alone for a while as you prepare the red peppers. Cut out the cores, remove seeds and white stuff, and cut into large pieces. Remove whatever peel is convenient to remove, more if you don't want peel in your sherbet. Put all the pieces on a large plate or bowl, cover tightly (I used plastic wrap, but I don't know if I should be advising others to put plastic in the microwave for long periods of time), and microwave for three minutes. Maybe add another minute for good measure if they don't seem roasted enough to you. Transfer the peppers to a food processor and process until quite smooth. You should end up with about 3/4 cups red pepper puree, but the volume isn't that important.

Now go back to the saucepan with the water and gelatin in it. Put some low heat under it and stir it gently until the gelatin is completely dissolved. Add the tangelo juice, zest, red pepper, and sugar and stir until blended. Remove from heat and transfer to refrigerator until cold. Combine this with the cream, which should also be cold, and freeze in whatever way you normally freeze ice cream. This recipe makes about a pint. If you have a large ice cream maker, you should probably double it.

**Update, 05/07/09**

In case you were curious, here is the recipe I ended up making for the party. It makes about 1 1/2 quarts of sherbet and got good reviews.

2 1/4 cups tangelo juice (from 11 tangelos)
zest of 4 tangelos
4 large red bell peppers
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups cream

Get Jon to juice the tangelos. It takes a while. Meanwhile, broil the red peppers, turning often, until they are soft and a good amount of the peel has turned black. Place in a large bowl and cover with plastic wrap until the peppers are cool enough to handle. (You can help Jon juice and zest the tangelos while you're waiting.) When the peppers are cool, peel them and puree them until quite smooth. Combine juice, zest, pepper puree, and sugar in a large bowl and chill. When it is cold, add the cream and process according to ice cream maker instructions. It's nice if you can freeze it for at least an hour afterward to get it to harden up.

Gordon's cup

I'm not a big drinker, and I mostly drink beer, but we recently acquired the start of a liquor collection, and I enjoy trying new things. Jon has made me a couple Gordon's cups, and I must say I like them quite well. We got the recipe from an issue of Bon Appetit. The first time, he went by the recipe. The second time, he increased the simple syrup just a little and added a splash of club soda. The first one was a lot stronger, both in alcohol and the herbal, almost peppery taste of gin. The second one was less intense, and I really liked the slight fizz. We will be making these again. Here is the recipe, with our changes in italics.

2 1/2" slices of cucumber, peeled
Juice of 1 lime (we decreased to 1/2 lime)
1/4 cup gin
1 1/2 tbsp simple syrup (we increased to 1 3/4 tbsp)
ice
splash of club soda

Muddle the cucumber with the lime juice in a cocktail shaker. Add gin, simple syrup, and ice. Shake, then strain into glass. Add club soda.