Happy Christmas & festive food (public service broadcast #2 candied peel)

I’m about to go sans-net for the next week or so as I head ‘down south’ to spend christmas at my parent’s house with my parents & brothers which will be ACE.
I bloody love this time of year, giving presents is so much fun – although I’m completely crap at keeping presents that i’ve bought a secret, I feel like my brain might burst if I have to keep a present secret for too long.

In the spirit of the season (and because I’ve been cooking festive foods for the last week or so), I thought I’d leave one and all with a recipe for candied peel, which seemed suitably festive.

3x Oranges (Navels are good)
500g caster sugar
500g water

    First score the skin of the oranges, from top to bottom – cutting all the way through the skin, to the flesh. Do this all the way round each orange until you can pull the peel off (whole if you can manage it) – you should get about 6-8 pieces per orange.
    Place the pieces of peel in a pan of boiling water for 15 minutes, rinse and repeat (with fresh water each time) twice more – this helps to get rid of the citrus oil in the peel which is very bitter.
    Dissolve the sugar in the water in a non-stick pan, over a low heat
    Once the sugar has completely dissolved, add the peel to the syrupy mixture and simmer (very gently – do not boil!) for 2 hours
    Lift the peel out with a slotted spoon and leave to cool on a rack overnight.
    Toss the cool peel in a little caster sugar and store in an airtight container – I reckon it’d keep for about a month

Enjoy!

Hopefully I’ll manage to get some training done over the xmas break but as the entireity of England seems to have come to a grinding standstill due to a light dusting of snow I don’t know if that’ll be possible.