Orange Peel Heaven

jar of powdered peel & some freshly grated tangerine peel 

This year, instead of expanding my horizons, I'd like to find better and more interesting ways to use the ingredients I already know and love. One of the things I'm going to do is save my orange peels. 

If I'm paying a whopping premium to get the organic, non-waxed, non-sprayed, individually coddled, hand-picked and lovingly packed oranges - I'm going to be eating ALL of that orange! This means actively using the peel. Apart from making candied peel, there is also a new (to me) use for this wonder of nature: dried and powdered peel.

I save my orange peels and tuck them under the wood stove to dry out in a large flat platter. Once they're crunchy I put them in the coffee grinder (a really well-cleaned one) and grind them to a fine powder. The powdered peel is said to store almost forever and have a whack of powerful properties. Seems a little orange peel in your tea pot (green, black, or roiboos tea) is not only flavourful but can also lower your cholesterol. It can also be used to stimulate a waning appetite, say after that sledgehammer flu that went around here over Christmas. Other more obvious uses would be to put a little powdered orange peel in with baking, with sugar for dessert topping, or used in a rub for poultry.

Also, the colour orange has always created an atmosphere of positively charged, forward moving energy for me. I love eating oranges, I love looking at oranges, and I love how both the colour and the fruit make me feel. There's going to be a whole lot 'o orange in my year to come.

Seville orange season is coming up. So in addition to the marmalade, consider putting a little peel aside for grinding into magic orange dust!