January isn’t the most inspiring month for fresh ingredients—except, that is, when forced rhubarb and Sicilian blood oranges make an appearance. There is no better way to use the latter than in a jelly. This is one of our most favourite recipes ever—it’s just an added bonus that it comes into its own in the depths of winter (though you can make it any time using ordinary oranges), when you need it most. Given to us by Rory O’Connell, genius chef and teacher at the Ballymaloe Cookery School, it is juicy, bright, sharp, sweet, tangy, zesty and totally delicious. The perfect pudding to counteract January blues.
Blood orange jelly with mint:
Serves 6 – 8 / fills a 500ml jelly mould
6-8 (depending on size) blood oranges (or any citrus fruit)
Juice of 1 lemon
170g granulated or caster sugar
1 teaspoon Grand Marnier (optional)
4 leaves of gelatin
2 tablespoons of chopped mint – for the sauce
First make a syrup by boiling 250ml water with the sugar for about two minutes until the sugar has dissolved.
Line either one large mould or 6-8 small round or oval moulds or 3-4 ramekins with cling film. Use enough so that the cling film drapes out over the sides of the mould.
Grate the rind from two of the oranges, being very careful not to include any white pith, which tastes bitter. Put this into a bowl with the juice of a lemon, the syrup you have made and the Grand Marnier (which you won’t taste, but heightens the other flavours).
Soak the gelatin leaves in a bowl of cold water (this needs at least ten minutes to soften).
Now segment all the oranges, including the ones whose skin you zested. Do this over the syrup bowl so that you catch any falling orange juice. This is the only fiddly part of the recipe. To segment an orange use a sharp, serrated knife. Cut off the top and bottom of the orange, so it can sit up without rolling over. Now, peel the orange with the knife, taking off all skin and pith, in a round, circular motion, so that in theory you get one long, curly piece of peel (as in the photo, below). Then cut out the individual segments out of this skinless orange and put them into your bowl, so that you get neat(ish), skinless, pithless pigs of pure orange flesh. Squeeze the orange ‘cores’ to get any remaining juice into the bowl with your syrup, orange segments, lemon juice etc.
Now strain the juice and syrup away from the orange segments, and measure 330ml of the liquid. Put the remaining liquid into a jug – this will be the juice that you will pour over the finished jelly.
Take out the now softened gelatin from the bowl of water and carefully try and squeeze out as much water as you can from it. Then put it into a small saucepan with a few splashes from your 330ml of liquid. Heat very gently, just so the gelatin dissolves into the liquid. Then return the juice and dissolved gelatin back to your liquid.
Fill your mould with the juice and segments of orange. Put in the fridge and allow at least 3 -4 hours to set. Overnight is best.
To make the sauce: simply add the chopped fresh mint to the left over jelly syrup/juice. If you don’t have much leftover liquid, you can top up the sauce by adding freshly squeezed orange juice and a little sugar to taste.
