Citrus fruits

Citrus fruits are characterized by a two-layer peel: a lumpy, waxy outer layer, often a bright color, which is used for recipes that require zest, and a white, fibrous inner layer. The inside is made up of wedges that contain the pulp and seeds. This pulp is very rich in vitamin C.

Main citrus fruits:
- L "orange (some types of orange are green even when ripe)
- Lemon (yellow)
- Lime, smaller and stronger than lemon (lime in English)
- The combava (exotic lime, widely used in Thai cuisine)
- Mandarin
- Grapefruit and pomelo
- The cedar
- The tangerine
- Melangola (bitter orange)
- Bergamot
- Kumquat (Chinese Mandarin)
- The minneola

There are several varieties created by grafting:

- Clementine (a cross between orange and melangola) which owes its name to Father Clemente, who discovered it by chance among the mandarins of an orphanage in Algeria
- Tangerine (a cross between mandarin and melangola), whose name comes from the Moroccan city of Tangier, for a long time the first port of export
- Calamondin (crossing of kumquat and mandarin)

And many others: tangelo (cross of pomelo and mandarin), tangor (cross of tangerine and orange), citrandarin, citrange, citrumelo, nova, etc.

Citrus fruits are the most cultivated fruits in the world (especially oranges), particularly in Brazil, China and Spain.

How they wear out
- raw (fresh, in fruit salad)
- juice (to drink or to supplement a recipe: a cocktail, a sauce, a sorbet ...)
- marmalade
- candied fruit (especially orange, lemon and cedar)
- the peels (to be taken from untreated citrus fruits with a small knife or a potato peeler)

Sometimes it is possible to vary citrus fruits in a recipe, playing with sweet, sour, bitter (especially in grapefruit), and accompanying them with spices, sugar, honey ...

Orange, mandarin, clementine, tangerine

Raw (fruit salad or carpaccio, accompanied or not by cinnamon)
Juice (taboulé, smoothies, cocktails, cakes, sorbets)
Sweets (candied fruit, arancini, jam)
Zest (with meat cooked for a long time, such as stew)

Lemon, lime, kaffir lime

Juice (with fish, in a sauce, to stop a caramel from cooking and keep it liquid, in an Asian soup with coconut milk, to dress a salad, a taboulé ...)
Zest: in cakes (cheesecake, carrot cake, panforte, etc.), in an Asian salad, to give flavor to a crumble, in a jam or chutney
In cream (lemon curd)

Grapefruit, pomelo

Juice (cakes, cocktails)
Raw (in salads with shrimps, crab, surimi, salmon, avocado, tuna, hearts of palm, endives)
Jam, associated with a sugary fruit (plum, clementine)
Gratin in the oven with brown sugar
With meat (lamb, pork tenderloin, veal)

Bergamot

In the form of essential oil (be careful to choose an edible oil and not a cosmetic essential oil!), In cakes
Marmalade
In the form of tea (tea Earl Gray is with bergamot)
Candies

Kumquat

Juice (cocktails, smoothies)
With savory dishes (duck, veal)
Candied

Cedar

Candied

Tips with citrus fruits:
- To squeeze the fruit to the maximum, roll it on the table by squeezing it lightly with the palm of your hand before squeezing it.
- A citrus fruit absorbs moisture. So it can be used to dry agglomerated sugar due to humidity.
- To preserve a lemon that has already been cut, place the exposed part on a saucer sprinkled with salt and put everything in the fridge.
- For a seedless juice, take half a lemon and lightly score the pulp with a knife. Keep the knife in position as you squeeze, the seeds will not come down.
- The juice of one lemon represents about 5 grams, 5cl or 3 tablespoons.

Some recipes:

Endive with citrus fruits
Heart of citrus
Zabaione with citrus fruits
Orange and clementine cake
Duck in orange sauce
Scampi with citrus puree
Goose stuffed with fruit
Citrus Chicken Salad