Healthy zest for citrus
ONE OF MASTERCHEF’S FAVOURITE SONS WANTS US TO DISCOVER THE WONDERS OF WINTER FRUITS
If an apple a day keeps the doctor away, an orange, grapefruit or lemon should really send medics packing. Well known as an excellent source of immunity-building vitamin C, citrus fruits are also full of fibre, and help keep cholesterol in check.
Whether you draw on their beneficial properties in a virtuous juice, or bury them in a buttery, sugar-laden dessert, the uplifting zing and juicy flavour pop of these brightly coloured beauties is enough to summon a sense of wellbeing on the gloomiest of winter days.
MasterChef contestant-turned restaurateur Callum Hann is among those happily replacing summer stone fruits with winter citrus in their shopping basket. Ambassador for the Pick a Local, Pick SA! campaign, he offers three tips for making the most of winter’s brightly-hued bounty.
1 Branch out
Venture beyond ever-popular oranges, mandarins and lemons for a citrus hit with a fresh twist.
“Blood orange is incredibly versatile as it has the sweetness you would expect from an orange, that would see it used within a pavlova, cakes and other desserts, but also has the bitterness and more acidity that makes it perfect with savoury dishes,” Hann says. 2 Add it across the menu “Citrus is a versatile ingredient that as a chef I love using in surprising ways,” he says. “Whether that’s within salads or served with couscous and lamb skewers or thickly sliced with vegetables and used as a trivet with your next roast chicken.” One of the most popular staples at his Barossa winery restaurant, Lou’s Place, is whipped ricotta with rosemary focaccia: “We do this dish with ricotta creme fraiche, heaps of lemon zest, oregano, salt, pepper and olive oil whipped together. Once it’s smeared on the bread, the lemon zest has such a beautiful aroma and flavour”.
3
Fresh citrus fruits are useful in their entirety, either in one dish or a few. One of Hann’s use-all favourites is an orange cake which requires boiling a whole orange for an hour. “You simply remove the seeds, blitz it up in a blender with almond meal, egg and sugar, then bake it as a cake,” he says. “The depth of flavour, from the freshness of the juice to the aromatic skin, is brilliant.”
– All recipes by Callum Hann for
Pick a Local, Pick SA!