Citrus Salad with Star Anise
Abe says
It’s spring, hooray! Here’s a super simple do-ahead dessert I think you should try. It is suitable for al fresco dining when your city decides to act springlike.
Two considerations:
First, after making supremes you should squeeze the citrus carcasses and reserve the juice for another use, such as drinking it. It probably won’t be much, but you can mix and augment the juice with vodka in which case, being half screwdriver and half greyhound, it could aptly be called a screwhound.
Second, you don’t need to pour all the syrup over the fruit when serving, but I recommend using most of it. Then, if like us, you serve this in cocktail glasses, you’ll end up with an ounce or more of citrusy anise syrup at the bottom when you’re done eating. It really begged for something delicious and alcoholic to be poured over, creating a mixed drink, but as for us we were short on both mixers and remaining sunlight. An easy answer might be a splash of grapefruit juice and sparkling wine, or something with spices like ginger and cinnamon, but maybe you on the Internet have some better ideas.
Citrus Salad with Star Anise
With minimal adaptation from Gourmet
serves 2
1 navel orange
1 grapefruit, preferably a sweeter variety
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
2 star anise pods
Cut the fruit into supremes.
Bring water, sugar, and spice to a boil for about a minute, then cool. The syrup should have a mild anise flavor. Extract anise and reserve.
Mix fruit and syrup and let stand for an hour. Serve, garnished with reserved star anise.
Do-ahead: keep the orange, grapefruit, and syrup all separately for up to a day. Store the fruit in the juice from the bits leftover after making supremes.
Very pretty photo! :-)
Making supremes is one of those things where once in a while I think, “Oh, that’s a good skill to know” and then I lame out and decide to spend my cooking experience points elsewhere. ;-) OTOH while I’m too lazy to make fancy citrus desserts, I have no hesitation about *eating* them!
Thanks! Making supremes is actually not very hard with a sharp knife, it just takes some time. Ann apparently has the skillz and can do it pretty quickly, but I definitely do not.
I highly approve of the screwhound. I am fail at getting the peels off of citrus but I think it would go easier if my knives were sharper than a cinderblock. Any suggestion on good knives? (that aren’t ridiculously expensive)
Well, in college I had a Henckels 3-piece starter set I got from Target for about $80, which was a great value IMHO. They also make a lot of cheap knives which I can’t vouch for, but may be a good value.
Another alternative is to just get one fancy sharp knife…if that’s the way you go I’d make sure to go to the store and hold some in your hand to see what’s comfortable for you. Personally I’m a big fan of my Wüsthof Grand Prix II 5″ Santoku (about $60)…it’s like a versatile mini chef’s knife.
Also…you can totally get a sharpener for your existing knives.