Sunday, February 10, 2008
Blood Orange Juice
It's one of my favorite times of year - blood orange season at the farmers markets.
According to Wikipedia, the color comes from anthocyanin, a pigment common in flowers and fruit, but not in citrus fruits. The blood orange may have originated in Sicily from a cross between a pomelo and a tangerine.
Moro, the newest variety of blood oranges, is also the darkest in color. The flavor and aroma is also stronger. I find it a little sweeter too.
Blood oranges supply 130 percent of the recommended amount of vitamin C, and helps reduce the risk of heart disease, some types of cancer, and bad cholesterol build-up.
So what else could I do but squeeze a glass of 100% pure blood orange juice?
The color alone makes drinking a glass of blood orange juice a pleasure.
I get mine for $1 a pound at the Farmers' Market in Alhambra. But if they're not as cheap and plentiful where you are, you can squeeze just a couple and add them to ordinary grapefruit juice to make blood orange grapefruit juice.
Also, you can freeze some of the juice and make blood orange granita.