Fresh Produce of the Month - Roundup and new announcement!

As I promised, the Fresh Produce of the Month event is back! After a period of ..rest, it's more alive than ever. :) And I'm really excited to finally put together the roundup of the event dedicated to Oranges! There are lots of delicious recipes here that will satisfy everybody's tastes.


Happy Cook from 'My kitchen treasures' sends us a delicious fruit salad called 'Meli Mello', recipe from a French magazine. The sauce that goes on the fruit salad is prepared by infusion of spices such as vanilla and star anise simmered in grape juice!





Kalai at 'Samaithu Paarkalaam' presents a delicious tea snack that she prepared for her husband (lucky him!): 'Mini orange scones', with a hint of ginger in the orangy dough!






Deeba's 'Orange and Olive Oil Cake' just makes me feel nostalgic.. doesn't the combination of orange and olive oil just make you think immediately about the Mediterranean shores and hills? And she has a wonderful citation from 'Bella Tuscany', which I loved: "Anytime the perfume of orange and lemon groves wafts in the window, the human body has to feel suffused with a languorous well-being." Frances Mayes, Bella Tuscany. Thanks, Deeba!




Another really interesting fruit salad comes from Asha at 'Aroma!': Fruit Chaat, an Indian recipe that combines fresh fruit with Chaat powder, pepper and mint leaves! I love the combination of fruits with spicy spices.. Looking forward to trying it!







Latha at Masalamagic brings a slice of 'Amish Friedship Chain and Orange Bread' to our roundup! Such a nice idea: I also took part to the same chain, although I was given a slightly different recipe. It is really cool to prepare a bread using a starter dough that has been transferred from friend to friend from who knows when! And I can testify that the result is delicious.




Simona at Briciole introduces us to a wonderful 'Ciambella all'arancia'. According to her own words, 'eating una fetta (a slice) of this ciambella is like being on vacation', as it combines orange, ginger, pecans, chocolate chips, dried fruits, in a dough that is made with Greek yogurt! What else could one ask for?






My own entry was an 'Insalata di arance', avery basic and Mediterranean salad indeed, made only of orange slices, olives and onion. It reminds me of my grandmother and it's a delicious and unusual salad.







Dhivya at Culinary Bazaar presents her 'Orange Givrees', which look so beautiful! It's a healthy and delicious dessert, composed of orange sorbet served in orange casing!





Another amazingly beautiful dessert is Meeta's 'Orange cake', which was her favorite among the delicious sweets that her mom used to bake. Just looking at this cake makes you feel the 'citrussy' aroma of it in the air and cheers your spirit!













Last but not least, Bee at Jugalbandi sends us a taste of her 'Orange-raspberry jam', made with blood oranges. As she explains, with the help of beautiful pictures, these oranges are considered typical of Sicilian cuisine, and they are sweeter and less acidic than other oranges. I never tried them in a jam, and the pairing with raspberry just seems like a wonderful idea.











So, my dear readers, this is our roundup! I hope you're as satisfied and happy as I am. Also, I really hope I haven't forgotten anybody, but given how late this summary is coming, I feel like it may be unfortunately possible.. please let me know if it happened! Thanks to everybody who took part to the event, and for giving such inspiring ideas! If you enjoyed this event, here is the announcement for the next: the coming 'Fresh Produce of the Month' will be centered on... Asparagus!
(this beautiful image was adapted from a picture found on Wikipedia)
The peak season of this vegetable is late April to end of May, and I believe it's the perfect candidate for our fresh produce series! Interestingly, I never met anyone who felt 'mildly' about it: you either really like it or not! I hope the recipes we'll collect will help everybody to become passionate about it!
If you'd like to participate, follow these simple rules:
1) Put a post on your blog with a recipe involving asparagus. Add a link to this post on my blog and mention that it's an entry for the 'Fresh produce of the month' event. If you like it, feel free to place the logo of the asparagus-centered event on your post.
2) Send me an email with a link to your post, your blog homepage and your name. My email address is chemcookitATgmailDOTcom. Specify 'Fresh produce of the month: Asparagus' as subject.
3) If you don't have a blog just send me an email with your recipe and if you have a picture of the food you made, that's even better. I will add it to the round-up as well.
The deadline for this event will be June 6th.