ALL ABOUT FOOD: The marvels of the orange

We remember a time in early spring when, driving down the freeway, the air was perfumed with the heady scent of orange blossoms. Now, where once there were orange trees, houses grow. Ah, progress!

But thanks to the Laguna Farmer’s market, we can still enjoy this luscious citrus fruit at a very reasonable price. Although oranges are sometimes perceived as a winter fruit, navels, the great eating oranges, are actually at their peak in spring when they are super-sweet. Valencias, the best oranges for juice, come into season in the early summer.

California is still the largest producer of eating oranges, while Florida grows the most juice oranges. Nevertheless, it is Brazil that is the leading producer of oranges. One half of all the world’s orange juice comes from Brazil and it supplies 80% of the worlds concentrate.

The orange dates back thousands of years. It was born a sour fruit growing wild in China, and its cultivation began around 2500 BC. Mysteriously, it was an Asian treat until the Romans, ever on the lookout for exotic produce, brought young trees on the long sea voyage back to Italy around the first century. They were planted across North Africa, and the Moors imported them to Southern Spain sometime in the eighth or ninth century.

Columbus carried citrus seeds from the Canary Islands to Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic) and the Spanish took them to Mexico in 1518 around the same time that the Portuguese brought them to Brazil. By 1565, they were in Florida, courtesy of the Spaniards.

Two dramatic developments in the world of citrus occurred in the late 1800s. A chance mutation in Brazil resulted in the Washington navel, the world’s best-tasting orange, and the ferocious freeze of 1894 in Florida destroyed thousands of trees. In the decade that it took for the harvest to recover, the navel orange took hold in California. Bad for Florida, good for us.

In addition to their value as fruit, the residue from making orange juice is worth millions of dollars. Discarded pulp, seeds and peel go into cake mixes, candies, soft drinks, paints and perfumes. Hundreds of millions of pounds of peel oil is sold for cooking and is the base for synthetic spearmint oil that is bought by Coca-Cola for flavoring. Even the dried orange-sac residue mixed with water into a thick coating is used by firefighters for dousing forest fires.

The beauty of the navel orange is that it is usually seedless, easy to peel, has firm rather than watery flesh and can be sweet as sugar. There are a number of purveyors at the Laguna Farmer’s Market but we prefer Tilden Farms. You may not recognize that name but you surely will recognize the smiling faces of Jimmy Moreno and his wife, Anita, who have been vendors there since the market’s inception.

If Jimmy isn’t selecting oranges for you, look for fruit that feels heavy, has taut skin with a bit of give and no bruising or soft, damp spots. Pay no attention to the color; oranges in the supermarket may have been dyed. When you get them home, put them in the refrigerator unwrapped, and they’ll last for several weeks or more. This is a fruit that does not ripen or improve in flavor after it’s picked. It can be stored at room temperature but will more quickly soften and develop a medicinal taste.

The health benefits of citrus fruits are well known. One orange provides all the RDA of vitamin C. It is an antioxidant, an anti-inflammatory, supports the immune system and lowers cholesterol and blood pressure. Less known is that an orange has one-eighth the RDA for fiber.

For cooks, a large ripe navel yields about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of juice and a tablespoon of zest. Cooking with oranges adds fresh and bright flavors to any dish.

Here are two simple recipes using the juice and zest of oranges to create a fresh new taste.

Pan-seared Salmon in Asian Orange Sauce

(Serves two)

1 pound skinless wild salmon filet. Sprinkle both sides with salt, pepper and sugar

pan spray

1 green onion, chopped. Keep green part separate for garnish.

1 tablespoon soy sauce

zest and juice of one orange

3 tablespoons sweet Asian chili sauce

1 piece peeled fresh ginger about the size of a large garlic clove

1. To make sauce, combine, soy, chili sauce, juice and zest in small bowl. Crush ginger in garlic press and add to bowl.

2. Spray 8-inch skillet. Heat until pan is quite hot.

3. Sear salmon one minute on each side

4. Add white part of green onion then add sauce. Cover pan and cook on medium low flame for six minutes. Test for doneness. Garnish with chopped green part of onion.

5. Serve with rice.

Carrots with Cumin and Orange

(Serves four)

1 pound carrots, sliced diagonally in ¼-inch pieces

1 teaspoon whole cumin seed

2 tablespoons olive oil

zest and juice of one orange

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

pinch of cayenne

1. Sautée carrots and cumin seeds in oil, stirring frequently for two minutes.

2. Add remaining ingredients, stir and cover. Cook over medium heat for three or four minutes until carrots are just softened. Uncover and on high heat, reduce remaining liquid if any until syrupy.

3. Taste for seasoning. You may want to add a pinch of sugar or more cayenne.

ELLE HARROW and TERRY MARKOWITZ owned A La Carte for 20 years. They can be reached for comments or questions at themarkos755@yahoo.com.