Seville Season

 It's Seville orange season here just now. We're well stocked on marmalade, but I have a couple of other recipes that I always like to make when the oranges have that extra tang and zest. I see that in 2010 I posted my "bottled sunshine". This year I am trying it with vodka instead of brandy, in the hopes that it will be something like an orange version of limoncello. On fishing out the old magazine page with the original recipe (I'd say it's at least 20 years old), I saw that it also included a Seville orange curd, so I tried that while I was at it. In all honesty I'm not sure how much different it tastes to lemon, perhaps a little sweeter, and without the colour cue it might be hard to tell the difference. But we've been enjoying it on homemade crumpets.

SEVILLE CURD 

Use sharp, tangy Seville oranges as an ideal alternative to lemons Makes about 280 ml (1/2 pt) 

The finely grated rind and juice of 4 Seville oranges

85 g (3 oz) butter, cut into cubes 

230 g (8 oz) caster sugar

 3 eggs, size 3, lightly beaten and strained

 Warm sterilised jars, covers and labels

 Put the grated rind and juice of the oranges into a heavy-based pan or double boiler with the butter, sugar and strained eggs. Heat gently, stirring all the time until the mixture has thickened – this will take about 30 minutes.

Leave to cool slightly, then pour into warm sterilised jars, cover and label. Leave to cool completely. Chill until required.

Hopefully I can drop some duck à l'orange somewhere into our meal plan over the next couple of weeks, too. 

I was busy on Sunday and forget to change my header. I have a couple of shots with some Spring bulbs in the folder for last March, but I settled on this one of a tree instead.