If you bought sour oranges, don't be discouraged. After all, there is a special variety of citrus fruits, calamondins, for the preparation of which a number of recipes have been invented. In addition, the sour fruits of wild oranges are often used in Mexican cuisine.
Calamondin recipes
Calamondins are a hybrid of kumquats and tangerines, similar in taste to a very sour, small orange, but with a sweet skin. Calamondins are often eaten whole by spitting out the seeds. Candied calamandines can decorate not only confectionery, like candied sweet oranges, but also appetizers and side dishes. To prepare such candied fruits and sour oranges you will need:
- 1 cup of peeled oranges;
- 1 cup of sugar;
- 100 ml of water.
Peel the oranges. Cut into slices across the wedges, remove seeds. Boil sugar and water syrup and boil orange slices in them. Cook for about 20-40 minutes, until the oranges are translucent. Using a spatula, place them on a piece of parchment and leave to cool.
Ready candied fruits should be stored in a hermetically sealed container at room temperature.
Also, from calamandins, and therefore sour oranges, you can make liqueur, jelly and marmalade, bake meat and fish with them, doing with fruit slices the same way as with lemons.
Mexican recipes with sour oranges
In Mexican cuisine, the juice and fruits of wild oranges, which have a pronounced sour taste, are often used. The most famous dish is Cochinita Pibil - pork baked in sour orange juice. Its recipe has survived from Mayan times.
It is this dish that Johnny Depp's hero from Robert Rodriguez's Once Upon a Time in Mexico orders all the time, convincing everyone who dines with him to try it.
You will need:
- ¾ glasses of achiote pasta;
- 3 tablespoons of sour orange juice;
- 1 teaspoon of wine vinegar;
- 2 cloves of garlic;
- ¼ teaspoon dried oregano;
- 1.5 kilograms of pork (shoulder);
- 1 banana leaf;
- 3 yellow onions, cut into quarters;
- ½ glass of water.
Achole pasta - a mixture of spices, also a "legacy" of the Maya Indians. It includes annatto fruits, oregano, cumin, cloves, cinnamon, black and allspice, garlic and salt. The banana leaf can be replaced with foil or multiple grape leaves.
Combine the achiote paste with sour orange juice, vinegar, minced garlic, and oregano. Thoroughly grate the pork with the resulting spice mixture, wrap in plastic wrap and remove to marinate for 12-24 hours. Let the pork stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before cooking. Wrap the meat tightly in banana leaves, grapes, or foil. Place the onion quarters at the bottom of the brazier, pour in the water and place the pork roll. Preheat oven to 180C. Roast the meat for 3 - 3 ½ hours, until it begins to break into fibers. Remove the pork from the oven, crush the meat with a fork and serve with salsa, corn tortillas and pickled red onions.
