Fruit in Season in September

Apples

Lady Williams

Cumquat

Grapefruit

Pink or Ruby

Lemons

Mandarins

Oranges

Blood

Navel and Seville

Papaya

Pineapple

Rhubarb

Tangelo

Orange Salad

I knew I could find it! With lots of cookbooks but no sensible system of keeping record of the recipes I’ve made over the years, sometimes I have to spend quite a bit of time leafing through them till I find what I’m after. It’s such an arduous task - Not!

Although this recipe sounds simple, and it is, it does depend on the best oranges you can find. It’s a pity really that orange salads, both sweet and savoury are rarely made. I guess we think of eating an orange, juicing an orange and … Anyway, this orange salad, Middle Eastern in origin, is a perfect accompaniment to those first BBQ’s of the season - think lamb cutlets and skewered chunks of haloumi cheese to complete a casual meal.

Ingredients

(For 4 people)

• 4 oranges - use blood oranges if you can - well scrubbed if zesting (See Tips below)
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) - use a rich, mild one, nothing too sharp (seeTips)
• 1 bunch flat-leaf parsley - well washed and dried - leaves only
• Black olives - say about 20 - ones kept in oil, not brine
• Salt and pepper

Method

1. Peel the oranges and remove all the white pith
2. Cut the oranges into 1/2cm rounds and remove any seeds and thick core
3. Stone the olives (see Tips) - or remove flesh from stone with knife -  cut into halves or quarters and scatter over orange slices
4. Add the parsley leaves
5. Drizzle with EVOO
6. Season with salt and pepper

Tips

• Taste the olive oils you are using - some are better suited to a particular dish than others - the more oils you taste, the more you’ll know what flavour you’re after.
• Buy yourself an olive stoner for all the times you need use olives in recipes. Most good kitchen shops have them.
• Zest the orange before peeling it, cook the zest in a little sugar syrup and then add to orange and rhubarb muffins or whatever your imagination comes up with.

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