Lemon and orange chicken

Last week when with the help of a friend I was cleaning out and sorting a high kitchen cupboard where I store preserves I discovered I had a jar with some syrup from a jar of Stephanie's Spiced Oranges.  I have used it in the past for basting roast chicken and talked of doing that again.  However, this time I chose to cook some chicken Maryland individual pieces rather than a whole chicken.  And the result was delicious!

Ingredients

2 portions of chicken Maryland
1 dessertspoon citron salt
6 dessertspoons of spiced oranges syrup


Mode

Preheat oven to 210c.
Arrange the chicken in a baking dish
Sprinkle with citron salt
Roast for 30 minutes
Remove the chicken from the oven and spoon over the spiced orange syrup
Return to oven and roast for another 20 minutes.

Osso buco - with a touch of orange

Yummy, yummy osso buco! I'm always very open to temptation when I go shopping. I can reframe that easily into meaning that I cook things seasonally and like trying new things. On Monday I went shopping and saw lots of osso buco in the meat section of Piedimonte's. I hadn't cooked osso buco for ages and thought it a great idea for a cold, wet week here in Melbourne.



I thought I had all the basic ingredients: osso buco, tomatoes, red wine. But I found when I checked out a few recipes that that I had forgotten the gremolata and didn't have any parsley. This meant I had to be a bit more creative about the recipe. So I looked at some of my Greek stifado recipes and finally got inspiration from the use of lemon and pickling spices in some of the recipes I had been reading.



I would try a new flavour by adding some of my Stephanie's Spiced oranges and the spicy liquid! I also cooked the dish over two days for a minumum of 2.5 hours and added some carrot and parsnip in the last half hour of cooking. This recipe is definitely not your traditional Italian osso buco apart from the meat used, but it is delicious. Tomato and orange and carrot go so well together, and the little taste of orange that comes through is a lovely taste sensation!

Ingredients

4 pieces of osso buco
Plain flour
Olive oil
Pepper
2 onions
5 cloves of garlic crushed
1 can diced tomatoes
4 quarters spiced orange
2 dsp Spiced orange liquid
Glass red wine
2 cups water (or more if needed)
1 carrot
1 parsnip

Mode

Heat oil in stovetop pan or casserole which will be large enough to contain all ingredients
Pepper some plain flour
Coat osso buco lightly in flour
Seal in olive oil and remove from pan
Cook roughly chopped onion and garlic until tender
Add red wine to sear pan
Return meat to pan and stir
Add canned tomatoes
Chop the spiced orange and add spiced orage and liquid to pan
Add water to cover all ingredients
Bring to boil and simmer over low heat for about 2 hours checking regularly that meat doesn't stick and adding more water if needed
About half an hour before serving peel and slice the carrot and parsnip
Add vegetables to pan and stir to integrate
Cook for another half hour
Serve with mashed potatoes

I cooked this over two days, about an hour the first night and then 1.5 hours the next day. The flavours intensify and the taste improves over a couple of days!

Spiced Orange Roast Chicken

It really is feast or famine with me! I can't think when was the last time I cooked a roast chicken before I was enticed into it on Sunday. Though there are still some leftovers from Sunday's delicious Librarians' Lemon Thyme Chook, when I was walking home tonight in the wet and was approaching Piedimonte's I was struck with the desire to do another chicken!



So what would I do this time? The Librarians' one again or just Stephanie Alexander's normal one with fresh lemon and rosemary? What else could I try? Suddenly I thought of my stock of Spiced oranges high in the pantry. That was what I was going to try.



Ingredients

1 fresh chicken
2 cloves garlic
Spiced oranges (orange and syrup)
4 potatoes
1 orange sweet potato
Olive oil


Mode

Preheat oven to 220c
Quarter potatoes, chop sweet potato and place in bowl
Dribble with olive oil
Pull up your sleeves and mix vegetables to coat with oil
Rub the chicken inside and out with several pieces of the spiced orange
Place remnants of spiced orange inside cavity
Crush the garlic cloves rub over chicken
Sprinkle several spoonsful of the spiced orange syrup over top, bottom, sides and cavity of chicken
Place chicken in baking dish on its side
Arrange vegetables around
Rub chicken with remaining oil from bowl
Place in centre of oven and cook for 20 minutes
Bring out of oven and turn chicken to other side
Turn the vegetables
Cook for another 20 minutes
Bring out of oven and turn chicken onto back (ie breast facing upwards)
Turn the vegetables
Cook for another 20 minutes
During this final 20 minutes of cooking prepare salad or vegetables to accompany.

The orange sauce provided the basis for a lovely glaze and the trick was to ensure that it didn't burn. I served it with a simple rocket, parmesan, oil and balsamic vinegar salad on the side. It was yummy! And I am sure it will be yummy cold as well. What will I try next? Something with plum sauce is very tempting!

Stephanie's spiced oranges - my reprise

I got quite over-excited about Stephanie's spiced oranges and went out to buy the ingredients yesterday. Today I followed the recipe using eight oranges. I used Stephanie's recipe except, yes there is always at least one except ;>). Well except that I used raw sugar not white sugar. I know that she doesn't specify but I always assume white sugar unless otherwise specified. And except that I misread the recipe and put the cardamon pods in whole, not the seeds thereof.



The eight oranges filled three jars, but I still had a lot of syrup left. So I started off again with another eight oranges.



With the syrup I topped it up with a bit more golden syrup and some more cloves and black peppercorns. I followed the recipe for cooking the oranges in water, cooling, and slicing and then added them to the syrup and simmered for 30 minutes or so.



The oranges are now cooling before I put them away up high to be preserved for summer months. Meanwhile I can enjoy Marg's spiced oranges. Maybe she is making some more in Canberra today?

Stephanie's spiced oranges and other Canberra goodies

Yes, I know you are all saying: what has Stephanie Alexander to do with Canberra? She's a Hawthorn woman. And you are both right and wrong. This week I was in Canberra for the funeral of my cousin who died of @#$% breast cancer. One of the pleasures of being there was that I stayed with my friends Marg and Tony, and Marg sent me away with her produce.

Marg has a prolific orange tree and last winter she made a vat of Stephanie's spiced oranges. We had some with cheese on Tuesday night - luscious. They highly recommended it with cold meats as well. I have Marg's bottle to eat immediately but I decided that I needed to lay in stock for myself. So as navel oranges are in abundance at present, I have bought a batch and all the other ingredients and will be making my own vat tomorrow. This is Stephanie's recipe and the photographs are mine but of Margaret's spiced oranges.

Ingredients

Oranges
8 oranges (preferably pipless navels), washed
1 teaspoon salt

Syrup
1 kg sugar
1/3 cup golden syrup
1.5 cups white wine vinegar
seeds from six cardamon pods
1 cup water
1/4 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 teaspoon whole allspice
1 teaspoon cloves
1/2 stick cinnamon

Method
Put oranges in large non-reactive pot, then cover generously with cold water and add salt.
Settle a plate down over oranges to keep them under the water.
Bring to simmering point, then simmer for about 50 minutes until the oranges are tender.
Lift gently into a colander and drain.
Discard water in pot.
When oranges are cool enough to handle, halve them using a serrated knife and cut each half into 4-5 wedges (do not peel).
To make the syrup combine all ingredients and heat to simmering point in a non-reactive saucepan, stirring until sugar has dissolved.
Simmer for five minutes, then remove from heat.
Put orange wedges into syrup and and return to a moderate heat with pan resting on a simmer mat.
Simmer for about 30 minutes until orange is tender and skin can be pierced easily with a fine skewer.
Using tongs fill sterilized jars with orange pieces, then ladle in syrup to cover.
Seal and leave for as long as possible before eating (at least a month).
The fruit will darken over time.

How lucky am I? I can cook my oranges tomorrow and, while mine are steeping in the syrup, I can eat Marg's 2007 oranges! Thanks, Marg!