RCP: Orange Confit

Our CSA people have been supplying us with lots and lots of navel oranges this year. I'd been looking around for something to do with them when I stumbled across a video on the New York Times website by Mark Bittman (Robin's favorite chef ever!!! ). It demonstrates a process for making orange confit. (The video is here.)

Bittman goes a little over the top in discussing it, but it sounded interesting. So in the interests of science, I took four oranges and blanched them twice for 30 seconds. I then quartered them and put them in a pot with 2 1/2 cups of sugar and water to cover. There's a photo of them at this stage at the WLP site. I got the syrup to a boil and then lowered it to the barest simmer, as Bittman commands, and then let it go for eight hours. Water was replaced as necessary. I then drained the syrup, added another 2 1/2 c. sugar, more water, and repeated the eight hour simmer. This was where I ran into a slight problem as this eight hours coincided with about seven hours of me sleeping. When I woke up, the water had simmered off to the point that the simmer was more like a low boil. I added more water, let it simmer the last hour, and then drained off the syrup. The results are shown in this photo.

They are darker and a bit mushier than Bittman's results, I think due to the hotter boiling during that last simmer. They are quite delicious, though. Sweet, but retaining a touch of citrus-peel bitterness and lots of orange flavor. The syrup is also very tasty. So far, the best thing I've found to do with them is slice them into strips and use as a topping on Humboldt Fog (ala Stuart's excellent Sauternes-matching dish). Some of the extra syrup is also nice on top of that. These things supposedly keep forever, so I will hopefully find other uses for them as well.

Sounds (and looks) delicious, Mike!

I generally make onion confit in my slow cooker over a few days. I might try it with oranges in the same manner.

[Jenise]

Bittman's article was quite captivating, though I couldn't quite imagine what to do with the end result. Your cheese topping idea clears the fog (pun!) quite a bit. Must do, thanks!

Mike, thanks for posting the Bittman recipe. I've used this one from Balthazar several times, and always make extra. The confit lasts forever in the fridge. We use it with steamed carrots -- oranges and carrots have a real affinity -- and Balthazar serves them as a side with roast duck. Franky they are awfully good just as a sweet -- small enough to avoid significant calories, large enough in taste to last for a long time.

I might try Bittman's recipe, but it seems wasteful of energy given how good these are.

Confit Orange Zest - Balthazar

Ingredients
3 oranges
½ cup sugar

Technique
1. Zest the three whole oranges by slicing off the zest in thin strips, being careful to leave the bitter pith behind. Then chop the strips into long, thin matchsticks. Take the fruits of your labor and blanch in a pot of boiling water for five minutes.
2.Strain through a fine mesh sieve.
3. Combine the sugar and one cup of water in a saucepan.
4. Add the blanched orange zest, bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 20 minutes.
5.Strain and reserve the confit.

Bob -

I haven't done both so I can't say for sure, but I'm guessing they're two different animals (at least to some degree). Bittman's are pretty meaty items whereas I would think you'd get a different effect from doing just the zest.

I do really like the Balthazar book, though, and there'd only be one way to compare the two techniques....