In Riverside, the University of California's citrus collection lists navel, Cara Cara, Moro blood orange, Minneola and Melogold as ripening together in January. Peel them with a knife, slice the oranges, segment the other two, and dress the platter with a vinaigrette made from their own juice. Allow about 35 minutes, nearly all knife work.
Five is enough to give the plate four colors and a range of sweetness, from low-acid Melogold to the tart finish of a Minneola. Mixed citrus over shaved fennel and bitter leaves, with the collected juice turned into the dressing, is the method of J. Kenji López-Alt's winter greens and citrus salad at Serious Eats. This version names the varieties, lays the salad out on one platter, and replaces his honey with a spoon of marmalade.
The five varieties, and when each is ripe
The months below are what the Givaudan Citrus Variety Collection at UC Riverside lists as each fruit's season of ripeness at Riverside. Dates shift by region: at the collection's Lindcove site, Melogold runs from early November through February.
Washington navel orange, November to January. Seedless or nearly so, because its flowers have no viable pollen and very few viable ovules. The parent trees reached Eliza Tibbets in Riverside from Bahia, Brazil, by way of the USDA in Washington, D.C.
Cara Cara navel orange, November to January. It began in 1976 as a bud sport on a Washington navel growing at Hacienda Cara Cara, Venezuela. Lycopene turns its flesh pink, about as dark as the reddest grapefruit, while the rind stays plain orange.
Moro blood orange, December to February, and usually mature at Riverside in January. UCR calls it the most highly colored blood orange, thanks to anthocyanin. It also says it colors up and tastes best where the inland valleys run hot. Late in the season the flesh can turn very dark red.
Minneola tangelo, January to March. Its parents are Dancy mandarin and Duncan grapefruit, the USDA released it in 1931, and some stores sell it as Honeybell. We grow them in Redlands and turn them into Minneola Tangelo Marmalade. The flavor is rich with a touch of grapefruit tartness. Cross-pollinated fruit tends to be seedy, so check each segment.
Melogold, early December to March. A UC Riverside hybrid of an acidless pummelo and a white grapefruit, released in 1986; the name is "mellow" plus "gold" for its rind. Its sibling Oroblanco, released in 1980, fills the same spot if that's what your market has. Both taste mild, but UCR notes that Oroblanco's rind and membranes carry the bitterness of its pummelo parent, so segment whichever one you have.
January is the only month all five overlap at Riverside. By February the navels are past their Riverside window, and in December the Minneolas aren't ready.
Should citrus be sliced or segmented for salad?
Both, on this plate. Cut the navel, Cara Cara and blood oranges into peeled rounds and the Minneola and Melogold into segments. Pith is bitter and membrane is papery, and suprêmes, the fully trimmed segments, remove both (Serious Eats). Peeled rounds are the faster compromise, leaving short bits of membrane that don't bother you in a salad and showing off the cross-section of a blood orange far better than a segment does.
Work over a strainer set on a bowl. The juice that drips off, plus what you squeeze from the spent cores, is the base of the dressing.
When buying, choose fruit that feels heavy for its size and gives when squeezed, the same guide advises. Picked citrus gets softer on the counter but no sweeter.
Winter citrus salad recipe
The salad is built on the Serious Eats winter greens recipe, which uses 1½ pounds (700 g) of mixed citrus for four people, about what the fruit below comes to. The dressing follows The Kitchen's orange marmalade salad dressing at Food Network.
For 4 as a first course. Hands-on time is about 35 minutes, and nothing is cooked.
Ingredients
Salad - 1 Washington navel orange - 1 Cara Cara navel orange - 2 Moro blood oranges - 1 Minneola tangelo - ½ Melogold or Oroblanco - 1 small fennel bulb, shaved thin on a mandoline - 1 Belgian endive, leaves separated - ½ small head radicchio, torn - flaky salt and black pepper
Dressing - 3 tablespoons (45 ml) citrus juice, collected while cutting - 1 tablespoon (15 ml) fresh lemon juice - 1 tablespoon Meyer Lemon Marmalade, or honey - 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard - 1 tablespoon minced shallot - ¼ cup (60 ml) extra-virgin olive oil - kosher salt
Method
- Set a strainer over a bowl.
- Slice the top and bottom off each fruit, just deep enough to show the flesh.
- Stand each fruit on a cut end and cut away the peel and white pith in strips, following the curve.
- Trim off any pith left on the surface.
- Slice both navels and the blood oranges crosswise into rounds about ¼ inch (6 mm) thick, over the strainer.
- Cut the Minneola and Melogold into segments by slicing along each side of every membrane, letting them drop into the strainer.
- Pick out any seeds.
- Squeeze the leftover cores over the strainer.
- Measure 3 tablespoons of the collected juice into a small bowl.
- Whisk in the lemon juice, marmalade, mustard, shallot and a pinch of salt.
- Whisk in the olive oil in a thin stream.
- Toss the fennel, endive and radicchio with half the dressing.
- Spread the leaves over a large platter.
- Lay the rounds and segments on top, mixing the colors.
- Spoon over the rest of the dressing, scatter with flaky salt and pepper, and serve straight away.
Notes
- The marmalade swap: honey sweetens the original dressing; a spoon of Meyer lemon marmalade does it here, sweetening it and adding some peel. A Meyer is a sweeter lemon-like fruit with mandarin in its family tree, which keeps the dressing soft rather than sharp. Any orange marmalade works too; the Food Network dressing calls for orange.
- Ahead of time: cut citrus keeps, covered in its own juice in a sealed container in the refrigerator, for up to three days. Dress the salad only when it's going to the table.
- Other varieties: the idea is four colors and a spread of sweetness. A Pixie or other late mandarin, a Star Ruby grapefruit, or a pomelo can step in. Melogold and Minneola get more room in our piece on the state's specialty citrus, and our citrus collection shows the fruit we turn into marmalade and oils.
If the market only has two or three of these, keep the contrast that makes the platter work: a deep red fruit such as the Moro beside a pale one such as the Melogold, and a mix of rounds and segments.
Photo by Kristen Kaethler on Unsplash.
