Darina Allen's Campari and Blood Orange Sorbet

Ingredients

  • 700ml (1 1/4 pints) of blood orange juice
  • 50-150ml Campari
  • 225g caster sugar
  • Garnish mint leaves
  • 1-2 blood oranges

Preparation

Mix the orange juice and Campari with the sugar, and Campari stir to dissolve.

Taste add more sugar if necessary

Make the sorbet in one of the following ways:

Pour into the drum of an ice-cream maker or sorbetiere and freeze for 20-25 minutes

Scoop out and serve immediately or store in a covered bowl in the freezer until needed

Pour the juice into a stainless steel or plastic container and put into the freezer or the freezing compartment of a refrigerator. After about 4 or 5 hours when the sorbet is semi-frozen, remove from the freezer and whisk until smooth; then return to the freezer. Whisk again when almost frozen and fold in one stiffly- beaten egg white. Keep in the freezer until needed.

If you have a food processor simply freeze the sorbet completely in a stainless steel or plastic bowl, then break into large pieces and whizz up in the food processor for a few seconds. Add one slightly-beaten egg white, whizz again for another few seconds, then return to the bowl and freeze again until needed. Chill the serving plates or bowls.

To Serve Segment the oranges for garnish. Scoop out the sorbet and serve in chilled bowls or plates. Garnish with blood orange segments and fresh mint leaves.

Serves 10 approximately

Allen’s Old-Fashioned Seville Orange Marmalade

A brilliant recipe for a traditional Seville orange marmalade. Seville and Malaga oranges come into the shops after Christmas and are around for 4- 5 weeks.

Makes approx. 3.2kg (7lbs) 900g (2lbs) of Seville oranges, organic if possible 2.3 litres (4 pints) water 1 organic lemon 1.45kg (3 1/4lbs) granulated sugar

Preparation

Wash the fruit, cut in half and squeeze out the juice.

Remove the membrane with a spoon, put with the pips and tie them in a piece of muslin. Slice the peel finely or coarsely, depending on how you like your marmalade.

Put the peel, orange and lemon juice, bag of pips and water into a non-reactive bowl or deep saucepan overnight.

Next day, bring everything to the boil in a deep saucepan. Cover and simmer gently for about 1 1/2 hours until the peel is really soft.

Then cook uncovered until the liquid is reduced to between one third to half of the original volume (30 minutes approx.).

Squeeze all the liquid from the bag of pips and remove it. Add the warmed sugar and stir until all the sugar has been dissolved. Increase the heat and bring to a full rolling boil rapidly until setting point is reached 5-10 minutes approx.

Test for a set, either with a sugar thermometer (it should register 104˚C/220F), or with a saucer.

Put a little marmalade on a cold saucer and cool for a few minutes. If it wrinkles when you push it with your finger, it's done. Allow marmalade to sit in the saucepan for 15 minutes before bottling to prevent the peel from floating. Pot into hot sterilized jars.

Cover immediately and store in a cool dry dark place. N.B. The peel must be absolutely soft before the sugar is added, otherwise when the sugar is added it will toughen the peel, and no amount of boiling will soften it.

Darina Allen’s Tunisian Orange Cake

Another must have recipe – it’s rich so serve small helpings as a dessert or as a sweet treat with a cup of coffee.

Flavedo is the outer coloured skin of citrus fruits more commonly referred to as zest. The zest and pith (albedo) make up the peel.

Serves 8 -10

Ingredients

50g (2oz) slightly stale breadcrumbs (use gluten free breadcrumbs for a gluten-free version)

175g (6oz) caster sugar 100g (3 1/2oz)

ground almonds 200ml (7fl oz) oil

4 eggs finely grated zest of 1 large orange finely grated zest 1/2 lemon

1 1/2 level teaspoons baking powder

Orange Syrup juice of 1 orange juice of 1/2 lemon 50g

(2oz) sugar

2 cloves

1 small cinnamon stick

crème fraîche or Greek yoghurt 20.5cm x 6.5cm deep (8 inch x 2 1/ inch deep) tin OR 3 small loaf tins 14.6cm x 7.5cm (5.75 inch x 3 inch) lined with greaseproof or silicone paper.

Method

Mix the breadcrumbs with the sugar, almonds, and baking powder. Whisk the oil with the eggs, pour into the dry ingredients and mix well. Add the orange and lemon zest. Pour the mixture into a greased and lined tin. Put into a cold oven and set the heat to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until the cake looks a rich golden brown. A skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean. Cool for 5 minutes in the tin before turning out onto a plate. Meanwhile make the syrup. Put all the ingredients into a stainless-steel saucepan, bring gently to the boil, stirring until the sugar has dissolved completely. Simmer for 3 minutes. While it is still warm, pierce holes in the cake with a skewer and pour over the syrup. Leave to cool. Spoon excess syrup back over the cake every now and then until it is all soaked up. One can remove the cinnamon stick, but I like to leave it on top of the cake. Serve with crème fraîche or thick Greek yoghurt. Note This cake can also be baked in 3 small tins. They will take 35-40 minutes. Variation Gluten-Free Tunisian Orange Cake Substitute gluten-free white breadcrumbs and gluten-free baking power in the master recipe as proceed as above.