Nothing cuts through the richness of winter stews and fried foods like a bright, zingy orange, and here we’ve enjoyed every part of the fruit. The orange zest adds fresh flavor to pasta sauce, pancake mix, and whipped cream; the orange segments offer juicy, refreshing sweetness; and, the dried peels are ground and good sprinkled over yogurt and as a finishing element over roasted mushrooms or winter squash. This post is an example of how one ingredient, an orange, can be used as an accent, star, and punctuation. The recipe for orange pecan spice is a warming note to many dishes.
Here you’ll learn how to enjoy every part of the orange, from the delicious juicy segments to the flavor-packed peels.
1) How to zest an orange.
The zest contains the fruit’s oils and adds a bright, fresh citrus flavor to foods. First, wash your citrus fruits well by scrubbing with soap and water. Grate or harvest the rind with a grater, vegetable peeler, or a microplane, which is ideal for its fine holes. To zest an orange, grate lightly across the fruit peel. Be careful not to go too deep—you want to avoid the bitter white membrane underneath.
2) Eat your orange.
The second (and best!) step is to eat your orange! We love oranges chilled, straight from the frig and cut into segments for breakfast, lunch, snack, or as a refreshing, light dessert. You can also squeeze the fruit for your morning orange juice or add to a smoothie. Or, you can pour the orange juice into popsicle molds or cups and freeze for fast and easy pops.
3) Dry your orange peels.
After eating the citrus fruit, rinse with water to remove any remaining pith and dry well. Then, put in the oven or toaster oven at low heat 325F for 20 to 30 minutes. Or, put them outside to dry on a sunny day for a couple of hours. The peels should be firm and tough, and might curl up.
4) Grind the dried peels.
Then, grind the dried peels with a coffee blender or food processor until coarse, pebbly pieces or finely ground. The smell and taste of the coarsely ground orange peels are like candied oranges!
How to use ground dried peels: Add to meat rub; sprinkle over yogurt; mix into a dukkah blend of finely ground espresso beans, pecans, cinnamon, cocoa powder, and sea salt; simmer in oatmeal; fold into whipped cream; finish over roasted butternut squash; add to coffee beans.
Note: The thick skins of navel oranges are perfect for zesting fresh, but its thick white layer is not as flavorful when dried and ground. Clementine peels are ideal for drying and grinding because of its thin, sweet peel.
You can buy dried orange in the spice aisle, but making your own is so much fresher. It brings in your senses too—the fresh candied-orange smell when freshly ground, the satisfaction and pride of a cooking win in the kitchen, and the incredible flavor and intrigue to otherwise everyday foods, like your yogurt snack.
Orange Pecan Spice
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This blend is a warming spice and good added to meat rubs, stirred into grains, sprinkled over yogurt, and as a finishing element over roasted vegetables. Toasted cashews or walnuts are great in place of pecans if you prefer those.
You'll Need...
- Dried zest of ½ orange
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ cup toasted pecans
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon cardamom
- 1 teaspoon finely ground espresso beans
- 1 teaspoon cocoa powder (optional)
- 1 teaspoon sugar (optional)
Directions
- Use a coffee grinder or food processor to whirl and grind the orange zest with salt. Add the pecans, sugar, cinnamon, cardamom, espresso, and cocoa and continue to whirl until it reaches a sandy, pebbly size. Store in a spice jar and use within several weeks.