Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Blood Oranges

Blood orange season has arrived! Have you ever had a blood orange before? Their flesh is a deep garnet color and juicy and luscious, with hints of berries and red wine. So intoxicating.


And so different from any other type of orange, it’s hard to believe that they’re even in the same category. For me it was love at first taste. It was in California during citrus season, and I greedily bought up way more blood oranges than we could possibly eat fresh. That’s when I was inspired to create Blood Orange Syrup.

Blood Orange Syrup*
Printable Recipe

1 ½ cups freshly squeezed blood orange juice

Strain the juice through a fine mesh sieve into a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer for 18 to 20 minutes, or until thickened and slightly syrupy.

Yields about 1/3 cup. Don’t let the simplicity of this recipe fool you, it’s a party for your taste buds. The jewel-like color, super-concentrated flavor, and balance of sweet, sour, and bitter make it wonderful drizzled on everything from duck salad rolls to crêpes to vanilla ice cream, which is luscious in a dreamsicle sort of way. Also perfect in mixed drinks and delicious blended with maple syrup for serving over pancakes, waffles, and French toast. Though this syrup is so intensely tasty I could drink it straight up, a tiny bit goes a long way. Keeps for about a week tightly sealed in the refrigerator.


*For a related Duck Breasts with Blood Orange Sauce recipe and everything you ever wanted to know about searing, plus dozens of fabulous searing recipes, look for my book Seared to Perfection in stores in the fall of 2010.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Do you think that this is acid enough to can for long term? Imagine having a few half-cup jars of syrup on your shelf!

Half Baked said...

This looks divine! I can't wait to give it a try!

Lucy Vaserfirer said...

Jim,
I, too, have thought about canning this syrup. But we eat it up so fast that I've never had a chance to worry about it. It seems like the acid level would be high enough, but I'm not certain. I just know that in order for a food to be considered safe for processing in a boiling water canner, it must have a pH of 4.6 or lower. I've got to get myself a pH meter one day!

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