Orange You Glad I Didn’t Start With Octopus?

So, here we go…embarking on a bold new food adventure. Appetites: whetted. Palates: curious. With my trusty assistant, Mr. F, at my side, we headed off to the local farmers market.

Now this place is to farmers markets what boutiques are to retail. Sure there are some basic produce stands (Amish vs. Korean). But also a specialty cheese stand, a rockin’ deli, bakery, fresh seafood, etc. All way overpriced, of course. But I’m a sucker for the place. I could say it’s for the Belgian cheeses. But it’s mostly for the whoopie pies.

So there we stand, on the threshold of foodie heaven, and I look down to see this:

Not a fan of Ardmore Seafood.

Mr. F: Ewwww. What SMELLLLLLS?

So much for curious palates.

Once we relocate a sufficient distance from the seafood counter, I put Mr. F in the culinary driver’s seat. So what’ll it be?

After a few false starts (candy shop, bakery, other bakery) some bargaining and redirection, we found ourselves in front of the produce stand.

Mr. F: Orange.

Me: Orange? Really?

Mr. F: Orange.

Now, believe it or not, the orange does reside in the category of foods-my-kids-are-finicky-about. They have to be perfect, easily peelable, seedless,  not too pithy, not too juicy (?) and not too lumpy. And that’s just to make the first cut. Then, they usually end up taking a lick or two and deeming them too sour.

But if our goal is to explore flavors and try some different techniques, I figured this was a safe place to start. So home we went, jiggity jig, with a single orange that looked no different than the one I bought at Genuardi’s earlier that morning, but cost twice as much. And something tells me it may not have been locally grown out there in Amish country…

Florida's best.

Somehow or other, on the way home, Mr. F’s take on the Orange Experiment (don’t ask me how) expanded to include a dish with apple, marshmallow and chocolate, but without any orange. I did my best to keep him focused, but at the end of the day figured that great chefs take inspiration wherever they find it. So as long as my kids are dreaming up new things to try, I think I’m OK with it. Funny how often those ingredients come up, though…

So first things first. We get home, do some fancy knifework on the orange, proffer some to Ms. F, who has joined us by now, and do the requisite orange wedge smile thing. Which went over very well, as always. A classic!

The orange tasting itself was a bit of a surprise, as Mr. F seemed very excited about the fruit (apparently forgetting the countless times he’s rejected the poor species outright) and declared it quite yummy and delicious. Ms. F did not get past the poking it with her finger stage. But perhaps because her brother wouldn’t shut up about the marshmallow/chocolate/apple course to follow.

Pre-Caramelized Orange Slices

Still, I wanted to try another technique with the orange, just to demonstrate how temperature and ingredients can change things up. So we prepped a few wedges and sprinkled them with brown sugar and threw them under the broiler while we moved onto the our next fruit (and corn syrup) course.

I have to admit I went into this a little indulgently, but in the end, I was impressed by Mr. F’s creativity. He ended up putting together a quite sophisticated (looking) amuse bouche. I think he has a quite a knack for presentation.

Magical Mystery Marshmallow Tower

1 Marshmallow

1-2 oz chocolate

1-2 tbs cream or half-and-half (optional)

1/4 cup of diced apple

Magical Mystery Marshmallow Tower

Directions

1) Melt the chocolate by cutting it in small pieces and microwaving it for very short durations (30 secs), stirring after each round. When it’s mostly melted, stop microwaving it, as you don’t want it to scorch. For a creamier, ganache-like coating, use equal amounts of chocolate and cream or half-and-half.

2) Drizzle chocolate over marshmallow.

3) Artfully drop diced apples over chocolate.

4) Om, nom, nom…

MMMarshmallow Tower got a thumbs up from Mr. F, but a thumbs down from Ms. F. Though, to be fair, she was new to the thumbs-up/thumbs-down thing, so I don’t know if her vote can be counted.

At this point, we also taste-tested the Caramel Orange Slices (which only need to be under the broiler for a few minutes, so if you were following along, yours would have been crisped by now).

Though the broiler did give the slices a nice caramelized glaze, Mr. F said the sweetness of the sugar made the actual oranges taste more sour. I believe he was also kind of skeeved by the concept of hot oranges. Ms. F, again, politely (?) refused to partake.

To be honest, I wasn’t crazy about the oranges myself. Just not enough there to get excited about. However, I did find myself cutting up extra chunks of apple to “dispose” of the leftover melted chocolate…

Overall, though, success! No one screamed. No one cried. No one pouted. AND we managed to have a little fun.

Plus, when Mr. F was listing, recently, the few and paltry fruits he will actually eat, he actually included both oranges AND apples (with and without chocolate/marshmallow). SCORE!

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