Dhanggit's Kitchen: oranges

Orange wine

What is told in the ear of a man is often heard 100 miles away. ~Chinese Proverb

My mom always told us to mind our own business. It is a sign of respect to other people. But one Tuesday afternoon in the organic market in our area, I couldn't help myself eeves dropping two wine connoisseurs conversation. Their topic was how to make your own Home-made Orange Wine. I hope you like my Wordless Home-made Recipe this Wednesday.

This wine is just perfect for summer. The light and fruitful flavor of this wine will perfectly harmonize with the color and odor of the season.

Orange Wine

for every liter of white wine or rose wine you will need
2 organic oranges
20 cl of alcohol of at least 40% (I suggest you use Calvado, Armanac, Grand Marnier etc)
16 teaspoons of sugar

Cut the oranges in quarter. Mix the wine, alcohol and sugar together and let the oranges macerate for three weeks in this mixture. You need to put them in one big plastic container tighly covered like an empty water plastic container. Everyday you need to shake a little bit. After three weeks maceration, filter the wine twice to be sure that there is no more orange pulp left in the wine. Pour them on your wine bottles and put back the cork. Orange wines are served cold to accompany your white meat dishes, seafoods, or desserts. This wine is also best appreciated for the apperitif.

Drink moderately....

You can also try my other wine recipe:

Walnut wine

My power pack high in Vitamin C,
California Citrus Couscous Salad

My husband and I, are a real team.

I love cooking, he loves eating. He looses things, I find them. He buys things in the kitchen, I break them (these are accidental of course). He loves to complain (he is French, I insist on that) while I love giving compliments to compensate :-). He is so good in numbers, good thing he is around to help me out. Like any other couple, I do the talking and he does the listening. And when things go wrong, he fumes with madness while I cast it out with laughter.

Men and women are really different but that's what completes us together isn't it?

Anyways, since yesterday was a French national holiday and with a beautiful sunny weather that we had, we could only think of driving to the aqua blue beach of Calanque and spend the afternoon there. As we often go to the same beach most of the time, we opted to try the other part of it we least explore. So normal driving routine scenario in our couple: he's behind the wheels and I am the co-pilot holding the map, giving the directions. After hours of driving (we should have arrived decades ago) I confessed that I mis-read the map and we were lost. I don't know why map is so unfathomable for me. He was about to get angry but then we saw this amazing field of coquelicot, beautiful and inviting. I told him, it was a detour so we could take a photograph. He smiled with my alibi. He pulled over, and we went out . Me, hubby and our 8 months old baby girl all together we savour the beauty of nature for a while.

As I prepare this fruity couscous salad in the kitchen, I thought that getting a GPS may not be that bad afterall.

Californian Citrus Couscous Salad

one and a half cup of Couscous
3/4 cup of Chicken broth
one Chicken breast
2 tsps of sesame seeds
2 Californian pink pomelos
2 California oranges
6 tbsps of olive oil
3 tbps of lemon juice
one red bell pepper diced in small cubes
one red onion diced in small cubes
one small cucumber (peeled and remove the seeds) cut in cubes
toasted almonds (chopped) (optional)
basil and mint sprigs

In a small pot bring chicken broth and 1/4 cup water to a boil. Add couscous, cover, and remove from heat. And let it stand for about 5 minutes. Fluff it with your hands. In a small pan, fry the chicken breast crusted with sesame seeds in 3 tbsps of olive oil until golden brown on both sides and set aside. In a small bowl, mix together the remaining olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper. Pour over couscous and toss. Stir in the red pepper, onions, cucumber, oranges and pomelos in the salad. Slice thinly the chicken breast and top it on the couscous. Chop the mint and basil sprigs.