Civil as an orange

 

The above pun (Seville/civil, geddit?) some from my favourite Shakespeare play, Much Ado About Nothing. The same exchange also provides evidence that orange used to be considered the colour of envy, rather than green: The quote runs (roughly, I haven’t checked it) “A civil count, civil as an orange, and something of that jealous complexion.” Which is a long was to say I have been jealous of various Seville orange recipes which have been appearing on our hashtag recently. But now, I’ve finally managed to get hold of some myself.

First up, a cocktail. This was a Paradise Passion Martini I made for Confined cocktails on Saturday, mainly to use the passion fruits I ordered in a slightly random way on my last supermarket delivery. (I also ordered a large pack of Kit Kats, despite deciding I was going to have a healthy week. Oops.) As well as the passion fruit, it features apricot liqueur, gin and freshly squeezed orange juice – from a Seville, because that’s all we had, which turned out to work really well.

Next, main course: Nigella’s Seville Orange Chicken and fennel traybake. NB THIS RECIPE NEEDS TO BE MARINATED!! I slightly came a cropper on this one the first time I attempted to make it. I thought I was doing well remembering to take the chicken out of the freezer for dinner that night, until I read the recipe, which reveals this should be marinated for a day. Oh dear. Dinner plans were rapidly revised. Other than that, it’s not a complicated recipe. You slice the fennel, and put that and the chicken (skin-on bone-in thighs, as per the recipe) in a plastic bag along with oil, fennel seeds, mustard and Seville orange zest and juice. You then seal the bag and leave it for the required amount of time. You need to take the chicken out about half an hour before you want to cook it, to come up to room temperature. Tip the whole lot, including the marinade, into a roasting tin, and arrange the chicken so that it’s on top, skin side up. Then bake for an hour. The result is very delicious – not strongly orange flavoured, although it is in there. The chicken skin was especially good. And, the Goddess Nigella herself commented that it looked good in the picture I put on twitter, which makes me very happy.

Nigella-approved chicken

And finally, (after a delivery featuring the required double cream) I managed to make the recipe which really sparked my Seville jealousy in the first place: No-churn Seville orange ice cream. This is another Nigella, and it’s pretty simple. Mix zest and juice of oranges with icing sugar, then add double cream and whisk until it gets to the soft peak stage (although I am still unclear as to exactly what that looks like). I only made mine this afternoon, so can’t really comment on the final frozen product, but a bit of spoon/bowl licking suggests it will be good.

Freshly whisked and ready to go in the freezer

(Both of these recipes are on nigella.com by the way, if you want to look them up.)

I have three oranges left. Other than juicing them for cocktails, what should I do with them? (I have no more space in the freezer for ice cream.)