Trial and error session~ORANGES and MANDARINS!

You know what’s the best thing about cooking?

It teaches you patience, focus, uses all your senses; there are endless possibilities and experiments and you never get tired of experimenting. Cooking helps you come up with new concepts, you try different approaches, add variety, you learn from previous attempts and you make sweet successes and a worthy defeat! Your idea might or might not work, you will still be fine coz you will have something new in front of you, it might taste great or not, but for next time you’ll know what you have to do!

Getting to the point!

We went Orange and Mandarin picking on the weekend!

My sister suggested, I should put up a recipe of, “VOGATE SADEKO” (Pomelo, oranges and mandarins mixed with yogurt and tempered with spices-enjoyed with families and friends together under the warm Nepali sun!! How I miss!!!) With the oranges we brought home!! Which was great!

But since I had to wait for the weekend, and couldn't wait that long!!

I thought of trying something else and decided to try out making Orange pau/titaura! (This is a type of sweet, sour, spicy candy, very very very famous back home). Pau/titaura are made mostly from lapsi (Choerospondias axillaris), my mum makes it sometimes with amala (gooseberries), and I thought I could try one from MANDARINS too!! and Why not????

After a little research, I came up with a plan!!

(First, I tried the simplest way, only with sugar, so this would be more like a candy)

Let me show you:

I peeled out around 12-14 Mandarins, tried to separate the seeds, then made a puree and strained the lumps! I managed to gather around 400ml juice,

On a pot, boiled around 400ml water, when it came to a boiling point added 1cup of fine white sugar. When the sugar syrup came down to be sticky, added the juice while still stirring.

(After I added the juice, the sugar syrup came up as a block of rock, I thought I did it all wrong, but thank god!! it melted down) after 30 min of simmering, it finally started to look a little thicker. So I decided to spread it on a baking sheet after spraying oil on it!

I let it cool down a bit and then put it in the freeze! Left it overnight!

Checked next morning! IT WAS STILL STICKY!!!

So, thought about adding gelatine syrup, but didn’t want it to look like jello! The other options were to either let it dry on the sun or dry it in an oven. Winter sun being not so powerful and coz it's windy, I tried the later one, and put it in the oven, and this time added 1tbsp Ginger juice, 1tbsp chilli powder, sprinkled a little salt and spread it again on a baking tray, after 2 hours in the oven, I felt really bad.... another 6 hours meant a LOT OF ELECTRICITY !!!! I couldn't waste so much energy just to try!!! So, let it dry in the sun for another couple of days!! Which did nothing!!!

Finally, I decided to temper it, the good old way!! and store in a jar as a chutney.

What a long way!!!!

But coz I don't want you to go through all this drama, the easy and short cut way for the

SWEET AND SPICY ORANGE CHUTNEY IS:

Ingredients:

12-14 Mandarins/ Oranges

400ml Water,

1 cup Fine white sugar,

1tbsp Ginger juice

1tsp Chilli flakes

To temper:

1tbsp Cooking oil

1/2 Cumin seeds

1/2tsp Fenugreek seeds

3 Dried red chilies

1pinch Hing (asafoetida- easily available in Nepali or Indian Groceries)

Method:

• 12-14 Oranges, separate the seeds, make a puree and strain the lumps! Gather 400ml juice,

• On a pot, boil 400ml water when it comes to a boiling point add1cup of fine white sugar. When the sugar syrup comes down to be sticky, add the juice. Keep stirring. (After you add the juice, the sugar syrup might come up as a block of rock, don’t worry!! It will go down)

• Let it simmer for 30 mins or until a little thick!! Set aside and let it cool!!

Tempering:

• Heat oil in a small pan, add fenugreek, cumin and chilies, put off the gas and add the hing, pour it in the orange mix and cover it right away so the aroma can’t escape!

Use this as a condiment, store it in an air tight container and refrigerate! enjoy with rotis, parathas, bread, use it as a marinade, with vegetable snacks or crackers!!

I take a spoonful and eat as it is!!

Love cooking, Enjoy eating!

Xoxo.