Two kinds of zesty citrus celebration to brighten any winter’s day
The kitchen is aglow with citrus fruit. The lemons came with their wide, glossy leaves intact. Oranges, their skin flashed with viridian at the stem and sporting thin, pointed leaves, smelled of their own blossom. A box of wrinkled green makrut limes, warty and beautiful, now sit waiting to be grated into a green curry sauce. There is even a handful of bergamots, the yellow-green lemons whose tantalisingly perfumed zest I will use in a pot of citrine yellow curd.
The tight-skinned citrus varieties, such as the neat clementines and larger, almost perfectly round Valencias, are inevitably the juiciest and a world away from the watery flavour of the easypeel varieties with baggy skins. Bergamot lemons and yuzu are a rare find, but worth tracking down during their brief season in midwinter. The juice of the bergamot is peppery with a kick of sherbet about it and is best used in tandem with that of a classic lemon. On its own, its sourness and spice is almost too much. Even a small amount will pucker your lips and prickle your tongue.
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