They’re Bloody Good…

Winter time is citrus time… and as we enter Spring, citrus will slowly go out of season. With this in mind, I’ve made sure to stock up on as much citrus as possible over the last few weeks… enjoying every bit of citron that I can. I’ve been downing clementines, Meyer lemons, tangerines, pomelos, navel oranges, cara cara oranges, grapefruit and key limes.

Though, one of my favorite citrus fruits is the Blood Orange. Not only is the color striking and the juice a brilliant mixer for martini’s — and other drinks where you want to add a scarlet hue — the taste is tart (but not too much) and the flesh is juicy — seeming to contain more than your average number of “individual cells”. I love that!

I like to eat my blood oranges peeled like a naval orange or segmented, de-skinned and in salads. They pair especially well with goat cheese and beets. Choose yellow beets (like I did when I made my juice this morning) to keep the colors interesting and contrasting.

According to Wikipedia, the red coloring comes from the presence of anthocyanin — a type of flavonoid, and a pigment found in many fruits and vegetables, but not typically in citrus. They are often described as a hybrid between a pomelo and a tangerine — which would explain why I like them so much.

As with all citrus, the fruit contains high levels of vitamin C… but since it also has anthocyanin, it has antioxidant effects as well.

I like blood orange mojitos… just substitute the muddled lime for orange segments… SO good!

Lastly, for even more cool information and history on the blood orange, click here to listen to a podcast that NPR did back in Feb 2007 titled The Juicy History of the Blood Orange.

On a final note… if you DO buy yourself some blood oranges soon, don’t let them sit for TOO long. I find that they tend to dry out faster than regular oranges.