Cooking with
citrus fruits

Citrus fruits are not only a great source of vitamin C, they also make a wonderful addition to a whole host of dishes, from sauces and salads to delicious desserts. Carla Mills shares her ideas to put the zest back into your home cooking…

Clementines

• Squeeze and add a little fresh lime juice for a zingy morning juice.
• Pan fry segments with butter and sugar until syrupy; serve with mince pies, pancakes or muffins.
• Add segments to a salad with rocket, toasted almonds, roasted red onions, cooked chicken breast and mustard dressing.
• Add chopped segments to a dense sticky almond cake recipe and serve with a cheesecake flavoured frosting of clementine juice, cream cheese and icing sugar.
• Poach with vanilla sugar and serve warm with ice cream.

Oranges

• Add juice and zest to cranberry sauce.

• Add zest to icing sugar and whipped butter for a sweet butter to serve with mince pies and Christmas pudding.
• Whip juice and zest with sweetened cream and white wine for a creamy syllabub.
• Combine juice and zest with sweetened cream cheese and whipped cream for a speedy festive cheesecake with crunchy ginger biscuit base.
• Add orange zest to shortbread dough before baking.
• Add zest to homemade chocolate mousse recipe.
• Layer segments with vanilla or chocolate sponge cake drizzled with Cointreau with vanilla custard, whipped cream and grated chocolate for an instant trifle.

Lemons

• Add juice and zest to a steamed sponge pudding batter, to serve with lemon flavoured custard.
• Combine juice and zest with olive oil, garlic and herbs for salad dressings and marinades.
• Add zest and juice to buttery cous cous with chopped parsley and toasted pinenuts to serve with fish, chicken or lamb tagines.
• Flavour butter with zest and use to stuff chicken, turkey and fish before roasting.
• Whip with sugar and double cream before baking in ramekins for a zingy lemon dessert pot.

Limes

• Whip with condensed milk and eggs, pour onto a crisp buttery digestive biscuit base and bake until set for zingy key lime pie.
• Combine juice, zest with chilli and ginger and bake with salmon.
• Make a quick Thai style dressing with coconut milk, chilli, sugar and fish sauce.
• Combine with sweet chilli sauce and honey, baste chicken thighs and bake until golden, serve with steamed rice.
• Blend juice with avocado and cream cheese for a creamy dip.
• Mix with minced pork, chopped chilli and coriander before shaping into burgers or mini meat balls.