seville marriage

'Civil' oranges, as someone here keeps calling them, are in the shops. For the nth time in January over the years, I have bought a bagful with good intentions of making something with them. Not marmalade as we don't eat it in large amounts, but something that celebrates the incredibly short Seville orange season and makes the most of their acidity and flavour.

So this year I haven't thrown away a mass of oranges after seeing them reproach me for weeks every time I open the fridge, and I haven't thrown any away in September when needing to reclaim space in the freezer. No, this year, I made a huge orange meringue pie using this recipe and used up a box of oranges and 500g of sugar in the process. And the next day I slid most of it into the bin.

I hadn't quite realised just how incredibly sour Seville oranges are. Tongue-blowingly, bitterly sour, with an almost chemical aftertaste. (I now know where they get the Toxic Waste sourness profile from.) So it seems the only thing to do is add enormous quantities of sugar to offset the acidity, and then when you think you've added enough sugar you should probably add some more.

Even with half a kilo of sugar in the pie, it was still toe-curlingly sour (not surprising when you squeeze eleven and a half oranges to get 400ml of juice - way too much), and matters weren't helped by the horrible, gloopy, cornflour-thickened filling (I've always totally avoided cornflour as a thickener but decided to stick to the recipe - I shouldn't have bothered). But you live and learn. And I've learned that Seville oranges and sugar are probably the best partners, and that marmalade probably is the best expression of this Seville marriage. Well, there's always next year. 

Comments

[Julie]

One recipe not to try then............
Julie

[Claire]

Now I feel better - I usually throw mine out of the freezer too - probably in September! Thank you.

[Deborah Taylor]

There is a very good recipe in Nigella Bites for orange ice cream made with Seville oranges.

[Cathy]

I wonder if you could do something like an orange curd or a sour orange sorbet with them. I just looked at the Wikipedia page for Seville oranges (bitter oranges). You could use the juice as the acid in a vinaigrette probably too. Here we have kumquats, which are orange the size/shape of large olives that you eat skin and all - they have a lot of pucker power. Recipes for those might give ideas for how to use the Seville oranges too.

[Jane]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'd already found the ice cream recipe and had considered making orange curd, but the paint-stripping acid levels in Seville oranges make me think both would be nicer made with sweet or blood oranges.

[Deborah Taylor]

I think you might be right Jane. I usually make the ice cream with sweet oranges and lime.

[Geraldine]

It's only marmalade in our house. I make loads for family and friends, and for fundraising at school.

[adele geras]

I love marmalade but only eat it in bed and breakfasts or hotels...I hardly ever eat toast and marnalade at home though I would like to...I fear I'd never stop. But I keep some nice OXford marmalade in the fridge for occasional use in cakes etc and the odd bit of toast...maybe I'll have a slice for breakfast tomorrow.

[Janet]

Years ago I found a recipe for marmalade in the handbook to my then new Kenwood chef, in which the oranges, sans pips, are chopped up in water before simmering for an hour or so, then adding the sugar and boiling to a set. It makes a delicious tasting marmalade, but not a particularly pretty one, and is a bit quicker than chopping peel by hand. I made some yesterday, as I adore the stuff, and also give a jar or two to my mother-in-law, as she (aged 92) no longer makes her own. Quantities are 1 kilo of oranges,1 lemon, 2 litres of water, 2 kilos of sugar.

[Penny]

I'm not a great one for Nigella but that Seville orange ice-cream mentioned above is, in fact, stupendously good. So good that a friend said it was the best ice-cream she'd ever had. Seriously delicious.

And the marmalade I made with frozen Sevilles turned out to be the most successful ever. Just bought a new load to freeze so I can indulge my marmalade-making craving come September...

[Fiona Lucraft]

A suggestion from the immensely knowledgable Jane Grigson is to add a squeeze of Seville orange to freshly cooked spinach, just before serving. It livens up the flavour wondrously.

[Jenny H]

I make masses of marmalade every year using the River Cottage Handbook recipe (the sliced fruit method, not the whole fruit one). Personally I adore the bitterness and almost medicinal aroma that comes off Sevilles. Demerara, rather than white sugar, makes all the difference, preferably an unrefined one. It adds a faint toffeish flavour which tempers the bitterness, but does not make it too sweet.

[Naomi]

I was about to suggest the Nigella Seville Orange (known as 'several' oranges in our house!) ice cream but see I have been beaten to it!

[gretchen]

You need Vin d'orange!
http://www.ciaosamin.com/2012/01/seville-oranges-ii.html