Citrus rescue
Over the weekend I was walking through the parking lot of my local grocery store, looping around the back to get to the bike path that leads homeward alongside the highway. I always take a peek inside the dumpster while I’m there and see if there’s anything salvageable, which there usually is (as previous posts can attest). I was just approaching the dumpster when the back door of the store burst open and two employees pushed their way out behind a large cart of boxes. In avoidance of any confrontation, I did a quick about-face and pretended I wasn’t headed in that direction at all, but instead walked past, glancing sideways at what was in the cart. As I strolled nonchalantly by, the employees carelessly hurled two cases of oranges, a flat of lemons, and 2 large bags of grapefruit into the dumpster. I took a quick lap around the store and popped back to the dumpster a few minutes later, once they had finished their impudent citrus massacre. The fruit was 90% perfect, but being pre-packaged in large bags, that 1 squished or moldy fruit in each bag had dragged all of its compatriots down with it. Not today, lone citrus villains! Carefully removing each baddie from it’s baggie, I ended up with a veritable sack-o-citrus that was limited only by the sheer weight I could carry home.
What to do with this sea of citrus? After carefully scrubbing and rinsing each acidic orb, I took the ripest of the bunch for immediate consumption, but not before using a peeler to save all the zest: dried citrus zest is one of my favorite ingredients, and I’m constantly throwing the little twirls of orange or grapefruit essence into all sorts of dishes. Soups, stocks, and tea are the easiest application, but you can also grind up the dried rind to add to spice mixes, meat rubs, pasta sauces, salad dressings, and almost anything else you could possibly imagine cooking. Did someone say rosemary grapefruit biscuits with orange fennel sausage gravy? Yes indeed! Roasted cauliflower with a lemon-pepper dry rub? You bet. Lime-rind gin for summer cocktails? Somebody stop me before I go off the deep end! As you can probably perceive, I love dried zest. Easy to dry, simply spread the zest out on a tray or baking sheet and leave in the oven (turned off) for a couple days, until it's dried itself. If you need the oven in the meantime, just take them out and put them back once the oven is not longer hot (warm is fine). I keep dried zest in a ball jar with one of those little "do not eat" silicon packets to discourage moisture, but I use it so often the jar is never far back on the shelf.
Alright. Moving on. After the citrus had been peeled to its naked white pith, I cut the oranges into slices, soccer-mom style, and packed them into tupperwares for snacks. The grapefruit I cut in half and scooped out all the flesh and juice, to add to a breakfast chia pudding topped with coconut flakes and almonds. The lemon got juiced over a blender full of parsley, garlic, mayonnaise and greek yogurt and blended into a divine dip for potato and parsnip oven fries. I love parsnip fries, but they just don’t jive with ketchup. They need an aioli, preferably with extra lemon. As luck would have it, life gave me a lot of extra lemon to work with.
Now, what to do with the remaining legion of citrus large and small threatening to overrun my countertop? I could always juice them all together and have a lovely beverage, but that seems like the most work for the least result. Instead I’m thinking of an orange liqueur for baking and boozing, made by packing as much chopped orange into a quart jar as possible and pouring whatever liquor has the most dust on the bottle over the top. (Lest there be confusion, there are no fine vintage alcohols in my house that would merit dust on the bottle - dust on the bottle means it was a poorly chosen purchase that will not be consumed without significant alteration).
The grapefruit will likely get consumed with a spoon for breakfast or snacks - this was a favorite activity as a child, despite being unaware of the Grapefruit Diet and it’s cult following at the time. It was mostly a platonic obsession with the serrated grapefruit spoon that lurked in the back of the silverware drawer. Being a Grapefruit Spoon, you weren’t allowed to use it for anything other than grapefruit, and so I became a regular grapefruit consumer. Serrated spoons are still a particular fascination.
That leaves the lemons. There’s so much you can do with lemons it hardly seems necessary to give pointers. Chiefly, lemon is a good friend to my most favorite of foodstuffs, cheese. With the contents of my fridge I can summon savory lemon ricotta tarts with wild foraged mustard greens, lemon olive oil pasta with fine shavings of truffle pecorino, and a light salad of watermelon radishes and cucumber with lemon, dill and feta. Lemon and cheese are my peanut butter and jelly.
And there you have it, folks. When life gives you a sink full of citrus, be sure to make the most of it! And just for fun, plant a couple of those citrus seeds and see what sprouts…
What to do with this sea of citrus? After carefully scrubbing and rinsing each acidic orb, I took the ripest of the bunch for immediate consumption, but not before using a peeler to save all the zest: dried citrus zest is one of my favorite ingredients, and I’m constantly throwing the little twirls of orange or grapefruit essence into all sorts of dishes. Soups, stocks, and tea are the easiest application, but you can also grind up the dried rind to add to spice mixes, meat rubs, pasta sauces, salad dressings, and almost anything else you could possibly imagine cooking. Did someone say rosemary grapefruit biscuits with orange fennel sausage gravy? Yes indeed! Roasted cauliflower with a lemon-pepper dry rub? You bet. Lime-rind gin for summer cocktails? Somebody stop me before I go off the deep end! As you can probably perceive, I love dried zest. Easy to dry, simply spread the zest out on a tray or baking sheet and leave in the oven (turned off) for a couple days, until it's dried itself. If you need the oven in the meantime, just take them out and put them back once the oven is not longer hot (warm is fine). I keep dried zest in a ball jar with one of those little "do not eat" silicon packets to discourage moisture, but I use it so often the jar is never far back on the shelf.
Alright. Moving on. After the citrus had been peeled to its naked white pith, I cut the oranges into slices, soccer-mom style, and packed them into tupperwares for snacks. The grapefruit I cut in half and scooped out all the flesh and juice, to add to a breakfast chia pudding topped with coconut flakes and almonds. The lemon got juiced over a blender full of parsley, garlic, mayonnaise and greek yogurt and blended into a divine dip for potato and parsnip oven fries. I love parsnip fries, but they just don’t jive with ketchup. They need an aioli, preferably with extra lemon. As luck would have it, life gave me a lot of extra lemon to work with.Now, what to do with the remaining legion of citrus large and small threatening to overrun my countertop? I could always juice them all together and have a lovely beverage, but that seems like the most work for the least result. Instead I’m thinking of an orange liqueur for baking and boozing, made by packing as much chopped orange into a quart jar as possible and pouring whatever liquor has the most dust on the bottle over the top. (Lest there be confusion, there are no fine vintage alcohols in my house that would merit dust on the bottle - dust on the bottle means it was a poorly chosen purchase that will not be consumed without significant alteration).
The grapefruit will likely get consumed with a spoon for breakfast or snacks - this was a favorite activity as a child, despite being unaware of the Grapefruit Diet and it’s cult following at the time. It was mostly a platonic obsession with the serrated grapefruit spoon that lurked in the back of the silverware drawer. Being a Grapefruit Spoon, you weren’t allowed to use it for anything other than grapefruit, and so I became a regular grapefruit consumer. Serrated spoons are still a particular fascination.
That leaves the lemons. There’s so much you can do with lemons it hardly seems necessary to give pointers. Chiefly, lemon is a good friend to my most favorite of foodstuffs, cheese. With the contents of my fridge I can summon savory lemon ricotta tarts with wild foraged mustard greens, lemon olive oil pasta with fine shavings of truffle pecorino, and a light salad of watermelon radishes and cucumber with lemon, dill and feta. Lemon and cheese are my peanut butter and jelly.
And there you have it, folks. When life gives you a sink full of citrus, be sure to make the most of it! And just for fun, plant a couple of those citrus seeds and see what sprouts…
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