Peach Blood Orange Lemon. What??

Peach Crescents

Found this recipe in the newspaper the other day. Publix had some nice looking nectarines so I picked one up to experiment with, since I don't care for peach fuzz. The chiller section had tubes of crescent roll dough, so I picked up one of those, too. Cinnamon, butter and sugar are always on hand.

1 large, firm-ripe Peach or Nectarine

1 tube 8 count Crescent Roll dough

4 Tbsp softened butter

1-2 tsp Cinnamon, to taste

Granulated sugar for topping

Preheat oven to 375.

Mix together the cinnamon and butter. Chill in the freezer until semi-solid. Reserve. If using a peach, peel and it, and cut into 8 sections. Nectarines don't need to be peeled, just pitted as you cut them into eighths.

Separate the crescent roll triangles and lay them out on your work surface. Brush cinnamon butter on each triangle. Lay a fruit segment on the wide end of each triangle and roll up to the point.  Tuck the ends around to enclose the fruit. Place the rolls seam side down on a baking sheet, and bake 15-18 minutes, until dough is golden and the fruit has softened.

Remove to a cooling rack. Brush the rolls with more cinnamon-butter, then sprinkle with sugar. Best while still warm but good cooled as well.

Blood Oranges

My local Publix got in a new-to-me variety of Blood Orange, called a Moro. The usual dark read flesh, less acidic sweet taste and mottled darker orange skin. Also they peel easily, almost like a tangerine. If you've seen blood oranges and never tried them, please do. You're in for a pleasant and flavorful surprise.

While I was in the mood to experiment, I made two dishes, which "if you try it, you'll like it". The first dish was

Blood Orange Salmon

Simple enough.

2 Blood Oranges

2 Salmon filets

Everglades Seasoning tm to taste

Slice one orange into rounds to support the fish while it pan poaches. Put the salmon on the orange rounds. Dust with Everglades seasoning. Add water to come just below the fish.

Peel the second orange, and mince the skin. Add it to the water you put in the skillet, to make the courtbouillon.  

Courtboullion (pronounced coo-be-yon) is the liquid over which you poach something -- wine, water, herbs & spices, etc.

Section the peeled orange and reserve a couple wedges for garnish. Chop the other wedges and add them to the courtbouillion. Bring to a simmer, cover and poach for 12-15 minutes until the salmon flakes easily. Plate the fish, garnish with orange wedges and serve.

 Blood Orange Salmon ready to be plated.

Blood Orange Marmalade

My new favorite marmalade and toast/bagel/English muffin topper! This is simply fantastic. Better than my signature 1-1-1 Marmalade (one orange, one lemon, one lime).

Made the usual way by chopping then pureeing whole citrus fruit (skin, pips, meat and all), measuring into a microwave safe glass bowl, and adding the same measure of sugar (your choice; here I used plain white granulated). Stir, taste, adjust if needed. I used less than an equal measure of sugar because the blood orange is so much sweeter than a regular orange; I used about 2/3 cup sugar to 1 cup of fruit puree. Microwave on High for 10 minutes and ladle into screw-top jars. Cool on the counter before sealing and storing in the fridge.

Moroccan Style Lemon Chicken

In spite of the insanity in the Middle East and North Africa, this Moroccan dish is very tasty and a worthy addition to your repertoire. Traditionally the dish is cooked together with garbanzo beans and pimento-stuffed green olives and served over cumin rice. I was making chicken for Sally's lunches in the week, so it's just the meat and spices.

Ras el Hanut literally means "top of the shop". A fancy name for 'swept up leftovers'. I was usually made by combining the spillage as the spice merchant weighed, ground, shaved and otherwise prepared spices for his clients during the day. The 'fallout' would be swept off the blending table and combined with other days sweepings. The result was called Ras El Hanut. Fast forward hundreds of years, and today the flavor of Ras El Hanut is somewhat stabilized, somewhat like the "Curry Powder" in a red & white can...

2 Chicken Breasts, boneless, skinless

1 tsp Ras el Hanut spice blend

2 segments of Preserved Lemon (see below)

Dust the "show" side of the breasts with the spice blend. Oil a hot skillet and put the breasts show side down. Cook for 6-7 minutes. Turn the breasts over add about 1/4" water to the skillet along with at least two wedges of preserved lemon. Cover and cook another 6-10 minutes until the chicken is just cooked through.

 This is a file photo of Moroccan Lemon Chicken.  Since I was cooking breasts to slice for Sally's lunches, as the recipe above shows, I eliminated the olives and bed of rice.

Preserved Lemons

Got lemons? Now you can make something more than lemonade. These salt-pickled lemon wedges are great seasoning for chicken and pork dishes.

Lemons

Kosher Salt

Screwtop Jars

Cut several lemons into quarters. Pack some of the wedges in a jar. Add "some salt" -- say a palm-full. Repeat until the jar is full of wedges. Now add lemon juice (juiced from some of those other lemons you've got) until the jar is brim full. Place in a dark, cool-ish place for at least two weeks before using. To use, take out a couple wedges and reseal the jar before putting it back on the shelf. Will last a year or two in the jar, un-refrigerated (even here in Florida).

 

Two Updates 

Here's a photo of the latest iteration of my Savory Breakfast Muffin.  I got some nice paper baking molds and they worked just fine:

 Some folks wanted to know what a Scotch Egg looked like inside after it was cooked.  Here you go: