Nettle and Quince

Sunday 10 February. Old friends are coming for brunch and I’ve changed my mind at the last minute. I was planning to make green shakshuka, which I had recently at Honey & Co, and which has serendipitously just been published in the Observer 20 Best Egg Recipes. To say I organized brunch just to make this dish is barely an exaggeration.

Woken up at dawn by a toddling gobelin, Sunday morning rolls in with a dinner-party induced sleep deficit, and rather than setting out to trim and wash kilos of leeks, spinach, and herbs (who ever thought of making shakshuka for twelve?), I’ve gone back to bed.

Now brunch will be the easily assembled kind: soft-boiled eggs, ham and cheeses, a spare jar of chicken liver mousse I ingeniously hid from the children. I have some good sourdough and homemade jams. — Of course, the cook in me feels guilty. I harbor a fantasy of being the kind of person who bakes cinnamon buns for her friends on the weekend. My reality is orange clementine salad. Our spread lacked something sweet, and the season called out.

I hadn’t made this salad in such a long time. It is a classic which bears remembering.

Blood orange and clementine salad with dates and mint

Blood oranges and clementines (easy peelers)
2 or 3 dates
A few sprigs of fresh mint
Orange flower water

To peel the oranges and clementines: cut off a thin slice at each extremity, place on one of the cut sides, then slice off the peel in strips, from top to bottom, making sure to remove all the white pith. Once peeled, cut each citrus into slices crosswise. Make sure to save the juice that escapes while cutting the oranges and clementines, and pour it onto the salad as you go.

Place the orange and clementine slices on a serving dish.

Pit the dates, cut in half and slice very thinly lengthwise. Scatter over the citrus.

Wash the mint, cut off the leaves, and slice thinly. Scatter over the salad.

Sprinkle a few drops of orange flower water evenly over the salad, no more than about one teaspoon for eight to ten oranges and clementines — the orange flower water should be quite subtle and bring out the citrus flavor without being overpowering.

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