While cruising through recipes on the internet, I came across a delight at the intersection of Olio Nuovo and winter citrus.This recipe is from Alice Medrich who is a chocolate authority, award winning cookbook author, teacher and business woman. She opened Cocolat in the late 1970’s and changed America’s relationship with chocolate. While living in France she fell in love with the local chocolate truffles and successfully transplanted the technique when she opened her shop in Berkeley. She is thoroughly professional in everything she does and her recipes are always extremely well tested. Her concepts are visionary and she has a wonderful dry wit. So, in spite of the fact that my initial reaction to a recipe of oranges, olive oil and chocolate was cautious, I had to try it.
INSTRUCTIONS
Cutting Oranges Properly
Use a sharp knife to remove the peel, pith, and all of the white membrane from each orange: Cut a generous slice from the end of one orange to expose a round of bare fruit about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Repeat with the other end.
Set the orange, one of the cut end's down, on the cutting board. Starting at the top edge of the rind, follow the contour of the fruit as you cut downward with a very short sawing stroke to remove a wide strip of rind, pith, and membrane.
Continue around the fruit, removing as much membrane as possible without wasting too much fruit. Repeat with the remaining oranges, saving any juices from the cutting board.
Assembly
Slice the oranges thinly and arrange the slices, slightly overlapping, on a serving platter.
Pour any collected orange juices over the slices and then drizzle with the olive oil.
Using the coarse holes on your box or flat grater, grate the chocolate over the oranges and then sprinkle them with the salt. You can pass the olive oil bottle and salt—and even the chunk of chocolate and grater—around at the table, if you like. At my house, everyone likes to customize.
