Moroccan Orange Salad

I am now almost 2 weeks in to 4 weeks of holiday...how can it have gone so fast?  And sadly I am sure it is going fly by even faster from here on in.  There has been much catching up with friends & family over good food & good wine.

Especially this little cutie, my niece.

Oh & this little cutie, Tobermory & Toby for short.  

There has been lunch at The Witchery, The Witchery is nestled up at the top of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh just by the gates of  Edinburgh Castle.  It was built in 1595 & as The Witchery it’s been nestled there for over 40 years & takes its names from the 100s of women burned at the stake as witches on Castlehill in the 16th & 17th centuries. 

For lunch we were in the Secret Garden, a magical dining room that you enter down a stone staircase. In Summer you can eat al fresco on the terrace. However, this being Scotland we didn’t happen to be there on an especially summery day, sadly a little few & far between, so it was inside for us. Not a problem as it is a wonderful, romantic candlelit space & really makes you feel like you are in another world.

We had beautiful food, featuring some wonderful Scottish produce; juicy scallops, duck & trout all featured at lunch. To start I had a wild garlic veloute with smoked cauliflower puree.  Bright vibrant green, the veloute fresh & the smoked cauliflower a wonderful addition.

The scallops, or rather scallop, came with broad beans & chorizo & the duck was alongside a chicory & orange salad & a beet sorbet, that was quite incredible, wonderfully smooth, sweet & earthy.

For mains most of us had the roast sea trout with a pea & tomato risotto & a fennel & rosemary cream.  Perfectly cooked trout & a light risotto, perhaps a little more of the cream would have been good as it got lost amongst the other flavours.  There was also the pot roast chicken with the vanilla lime mash which sounded intriguing but perhaps there could have been a little more punch.  To finish a zesty lemon tart, which was a good tart & a lovely finish to a quite lovely lazy lunch.

There was also an amazing lunch at Tom Kitchin’s Kitchin.  More on that later, but check out the souffle!  The dreamiest, lightest, airy souffle to pass my lips.

Add to that family gatherings & general over indulging it was with pleasure that I came across this Moroccan Orange Salad from Rick Stein.  A quite delicious, exotic even, dessert that was on the right side of light.

Moroccan Orange Salad, from Rick Stein’s Mediterranean Escapes

*the only minor tweak was using ground cinnamon rather than ground cinnamon stick.

Ingredients

4 large juicy oranges

2 tbsp icing sugar

1 tbsp orange flower water

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (or 2.5 centimetre/1 inch cinnamon stick)

Half a cup pomegranate seeds*

*Buy some pomegranates when in season & freeze the seeds & they can be used straight from the freezer.

Directions

Slice the top & bottom off each orange & stand each one on a chopping board.  Cut carefully from the top down to the bottom slicing away all the skin & the pith. Thinly slice the oranges & arrange them on a platter.

Sprinkle the oranges with the icing sugar & orange flower water. Cover & place in the fridge for an hour.

Just before serving sprinkle over the cinnamon & scatter over the pomegranate seeds.

This is bright & fresh & makes for the perfect light, fruity sweet to finish off a meal.

If you like this you might like this Almond & Orange Florentines

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