http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20100127/LIFESTYLE/1271003/1316/LIFESTYLE12?Title=Citrus-shines-in-winter

Citrus bin offers sunshine in winter

Meyer lemons, clementines, blood oranges, tangelos bring a sweetness to the season


Applewood Inn & Restaurant chef Bruce Frieseke prepares a bergamot infused citrus and guava ice at the Guerneville restaurant.

By DIANE PETERSON
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Published: Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at 4:02 a.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at 4:02 a.m.

In the dead of winter, when local produce aisles look barren, there's always a bright spot to be found in the citrus bin, where cheerful Meyer lemons and clementines, blood oranges and tangelos are ready to nourish, heal and sweeten your day.

Packing lots of perky acids and sugars, a zing of vitamin C and very few calories, citrus fruits are the perfect antidote for the post-holiday bloat, when you want to cut back on fat without sacrificing flavor.

And while lemons are the most common cooking citrus, there's a whole world of exotic citrus out there that barely gets acknowledged by most American supermarkets and home cooks.

"Citrus seems very much a reflection of life," Allen Susser writes in "The Great Citrus Book" (Ten Speed Press, 1997). "It propagates through families but can be crossbred or hybridized with other families with remarkable results. . . . It has traveled the globe full circle to propagate itself."

Because the citrus family now consists of hundreds of varieties and subspecies, it is considered the most commonly propagated fruit in the world.

Executive chef Bruce Frieseke of Applewood Inn enjoys exploring some of the more unusual citrus fruits at his restaurant kitchen amid the redwoods of Guerneville.

"In the past few years, I've had a passion for some of the off-variety citrus things, like the Seville oranges," Frieseke said. "That bitter orange is better for straight orange flavor than any of the other oranges, mostly because of the zest."

Frieseke worked at Restaurant Amphycles in Paris and Bizou Cafe in San Francisco before arriving in Sonoma County, where he has cooked in places like Farmhouse Inn in Forestville and Manzanita in Healdsburg.

In addition to the sour Seville orange, Frieseke likes to play around with kumquats (also known as "little gems"), the bergamot orange (best known for its starring role in Earl Grey tea) and the tangelo (a happy hybrid of the tangerine and grapefruit).

When working with citrus in the kitchen, the key is to preserve its aromatic freshness, Frieseke said. That means using the peel liberally and preserving the citrus flesh in a mostly raw, uncooked form.

"So much of the effect of citrus is in the aroma, and the experience of eating it is in the olfactory response to it," Frieseke said. "Whenever you're cooking with citrus, you really want to preserve those aromatic esthers (chemical compounds)."

For example, if you are using citrus to finish a dish or a sauce -- a trick that helps "fix" almost any dish lacking that je-ne-sais-quoi depth of flavor -- you would not add the citrus juice until the very end.

As an analogy, Frieseke cites the European style of serving espresso with a strip of lemon zest.

"You twist the peel over the top, and it sends the spritz of oils over," he said. "That's the perfect way to do it."

The sour orange originated in eastern India, China and Myanmar and was first brought to Europe by the Moors, who later carried it to Spain. It was also one of the first citrus brought to America, where it is often used as a rootstock for other citrus.

When blended with fine cognac, the sour Seville orange is magically transformed into the luscious liqueurs known as Grand Marnier and Cointreau. Its flesh and rind have been used to make marmalade for centuries, and it forms the acidic backbone of Cuba's famous "mojo" marinade.

The Seville orange has a golden rind and flesh, and is medium-size, with large segments and lots of seeds. They are grown commercially in most of the Mediterranean, especially around Seville, Spain.

"Usually, they are an early variety, " Frieseke said. "They have a short season . . . which is right now."

The small but flavorful kumquat -- genus Fortunella -- is native to eastern Asia and Malaysia and is regarded as the hardiest of all the citrus fruits.

Kumquats were brought from China to London by plant explorer Robert Fortune, and they made their way from Japan to Florida in 1855.

"You can eat the whole thing," Frieseke said. "They have a flavor that you can't mistake for anything else. It's citrus, but it has its own little trademark."

At the Applewood Inn, the chef uses kumquats to finish a citrus-cured salmon with roasted baby beets, or presses them through a food mill and blends them with olive oil, to make a finishing oil.

For a big splash of kumquat flavor, he slices off the sides of the small fruits, then cuts those flat ovals cross-wise into slices, and tosses the pieces into a salad. For the salad dressing, he reduces some orange juice with kumquats in it and uses it as the acid in the vinaigrette.

The bergamot looks like an orange wrapped in the peel of a lemon. This subspecies orange is small and round, with an extremely aromatic zest packed with oil.

"I use it in desserts," Frieseke said. "I make a simple syrup with bergamot and lime peel, then soak some citrus segments in the cold syrup . . . for an all-citrus compote."

The sugar and the juices in the citrus segments lighten up the syrup, creating a simple yet delicious dessert infused with all kinds of citrusy flavors and aromas.

You could use any kind of citrus in the compote, but Frieseke is particularly fond of tangelos, because their flavor is well balanced between sweetness and acid.

To add color to the compote, you could also use a Moro orange -- also known as a blood orange -- which is sweet and a little tart with a tinge of berry-like flavor. The blood orange is originally from Sicily and commonly eaten throughout Italy and France.

Another delicious orange is the Cara Cara, which originated in Venezuela and may be a cross between the Washington navel and the Brazilian Bahia navel orange.

The Cara Cara has a yellow-orange rind and a red pulp that tastes extremely sweet, with cherry undertones and low acidity.

You can find some of the more exotic varieties of citrus for sale at year-round farmers markets, or you can ask your favorite produce market to order them.

The following recipes are from Bruce Frieseke, executive chef of the Applewood Inn in Guerneville.

Kumquat and Beet Salad with Citrus Cured Salmon

Makes 4 to 6 servings

For citrus cured salmon

½ pound cured salmon
-- Zest from 1 lemon, 2 limes, 1 orange
1 bunch chives, cut into ¼-inch batons

For roasted beets:

2 bunches baby beets (preferably Chioggias)
2 tablespoons champagne vinegar
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 bay leaf
1 sprig fresh thyme
-- Salt and Pepper

For kumquat vinaigrette:

½ pound kumquats (about 2 cups)
1 cup orange juice
1 shallot, very finely diced
2 tablespoons champagne vinegar
½ cup olive oil
-- Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

For cured salmon: Lay slices of salmon out on a cookie sheet covered with plastic wrap. Sprinkle the mixed citrus zests over the salmon and cover with another piece of plastic wrap. Place in the refrigerator until service.

For roasted beets: To roast the baby beets in a packet of aluminum foil, remove beet tops and wash the beet roots. Lay them on a 12-inch by 18-inch piece of aluminum foil. Drizzle them with the olive oil and sprinkle with plenty of salt and pepper. Add the thyme, bay leaf and vinegar. Pick up the two long sides of the foil and line them up together to form a seam. Fold the seam over several times to make a good seal. Foil will be in the shape of a tube, with the beets in the center. Crimp each end, folding the foil over several times to complete the packet. Place in the oven on a cookie sheet and roast for 40 minutes.

For the vinaigrette: While the beets are cooking, make the vinaigrette. Take 8 of the kumquats and put them aside. Cut the rest in half and place them in a stainless steel saucepan. Add the orange juice and bring to a simmer over low heat. Reduce by half, strain and cool. In a mixing bowl (set on a wet towel so it won't spin), whisk the juice with the vinegar and a pinch of salt and pepper. Add the diced shallot. Whisking vigorously, slowly drizzle the olive oil, emulsifying it into the juice.

When the beets are tender, remove them from the oven and allow them to cool. Using a paper towel, rub all the skin off the beets. Cut them in half lengthwise and, laying the cut side down, julienne them lengthwise again to form thin strips that show the curvature of the beet. Put these in a bowl and drizzle them with a little of the vinaigrette. While these marinate a little while, retrieve the remaining eight kumquats. Lay a kumquat on the cutting board with the stem end away from you. Think of the core running down the center of the fruit and, with a knife, cut through the kumquat just to the side of that core. This should leave an oblong oval of fruit without any stem or core, and usually, no seeds. Do the same for the other side of the fruit, and for each of the other kumquats. Then, lay the oval pieces of fruit crosswise on the board and julienne each into ¥-inch strips.

To assemble: Lay the slices of salmon (marinade removed) artistically on a chilled plate, Place the beets around, along with some of the juice that forms when they marinate. Sprinkle the plate with a healthy amount of kumquat slices and chive batons. Finish with a drizzle of the pure kumquat vinaigrette.

"The juice of the bergamot orange is fairly astringent," Frieseke said. "It can be reserved separately, and added to your morning orange juice to make it really good.

Bergamot-Perfumed Citrus Compote

Makes 4 to 6 servings

For bergamot syrup:

1¼ cup sugar
1 cup water
2 bergamot oranges

For citrus fruits:

2 blood oranges

2 white grapefruit
2 Cara Cara oranges
2 Tangelos
3 Satsuma tangerines
-- Fresh Lemon Balm or Mint
-- Guava Ice (see recipe below)

For the bergamot syrup: With a vegetable peeler, peel wide strips of zest vertically down the bergamot oranges, and set them aside in a non-reactive, heat-resistant container that can hold at least 2 cups. Combine the sugar and water, without stirring, in a stainless steel saucepan over high heat. When all the sugar has dissolved and the syrup has come to a boil, remove it from the heat and allow it to cool for five minutes. Pour the warm syrup over the bergamot zest, leaving it to cool to room temperature before refrigerating. (In an airtight container, this syrup will last in the refrigerator for two weeks.)

For the candied zest (optional): In the restaurant, we use candied zest to decorate the presentation of this compote. If you wish to do so, peel a couple of thick strips of zest from each variety of fruit. Lay these pieces flat on a cutting board, with the white pith facing upward, and scrape away the any white attached to the colored zest. Blanch the zest briefly in boiling water, slice it into thin strips, and toss them in plenty of sugar.

For fruit segments: First cut the tops and bottoms off all of the fruit. Placing each piece, flat-side down on a cutting board, slice vertically down the side of the fruit, following the curve of the flesh within. The first cut is the hardest, but once you can see where the fruit meets the white pith, it is easy to guide the knife around the fruit and slice the pith right off. Continue in this fashion around the fruit until all of the pith is removed. It is important at this point to remove every part that is white. The remaining fruit should show only the thin interior membranes that separate the segments of fruit pulp.

Over a mixing bowl, with the fruit in one hand and a paring knife in the other, slice into the pulp right along one of these membranes, all the way toward the center of the fruit. This will free one side of a segment of pulp. To free the whole segment, make a similar cut along the other side of the pulp where it is attached to the next membrane over. The piece of pure pulp should drop into the bowl. Continue around the fruit until all the segments have been removed. The web of core and membrane that remains contains some juice that it is worth squeezing over the fruit. Once you have completed this process for all of the fruit, you should have about four cups of segments and their juice.

To finish: Lightly stir the cooled bergamot syrup into the fruit and let it rest, refrigerated, for at least half an hour. It will keep in an airtight container for two days.

To serve: Ladle the compote into deep bowls, or lay it out, carpaccio-style on a deep-welled plate. Spoon some of the juice over, and garnish with julienned mint and candied zest. A scoop of Guava Ice on the side mixes nicely with the tart fruit and completes the exotic effect of the dessert.

Guava Ice

1½ cup guava puree
¾ cup simple syrup (1 cup sugar and 1 cup water brought to a boil, and chilled)
3 tablespoons lemon juice
¼ cup white verjus

Whisk all ingredients together and pour into a metal or glass loaf pan. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the freezer. When frozen solid, (about two hours) gently rake the surface of the ice with a fork to produce uniformly fine, flaky crystals. Gradually dig deeper and deeper until all the ice has been shaved into a sorbet-like consistency. Transfer it to an airtight container where it can be stored in the freezer for up to one week.

You can reach Staff Writer Diane Peterson at 521-5287 or diane.peterson@pressdemocrat.com