By André de Mendonça
My life and travels as a travel agent has led me to foreign climes which has massively influenced my cooking. This is a Middle Eastern pud which will knock your socks off. The trickiest things are the oranges but when you’ve done it once you’ll not look back. Any guests will ask for the recipe, of course. The syrup makes this a high GI hit, but you only live once! Garnish with chopped pistachios or slivered almonds or mint leaves as you like but, honestly, this is hauntingly delicious as is.
Makes for 4 but you’ll have seconds!
4 Oranges washed thoroughly
1 mug sugar
½ mug water
1 teaspoon of Rose Water essence or Rose Water flavouring (in supermarkets)
Place the water and the sugar into a pan, bring to the boil and continue cooking on medium for 2 minutes. The water will become clear when the sugar dissolves. Do NOT stir – you are making a supersaturated liquid and stirring will cause the sugar to crystalize out leaving you with a mess! The sugar syrup also gets to a very high temperature so take extreme care unless you like visiting A&E. Leave to cool completely then add the rose water and stir.
Meanwhile go back to the oranges. Using a very sharp knife take the tops off the north and south poles, and then cut off the remaining skin and white pith by slicing thinly along the lines of longitude. You should have a naked orange in front of you now. Slice the oranges in ¼ inch thickness along the lines of latitude. Do this on a plate so that you can collect the juices. Remove any pips and as much of the central pith as you can without breaking up the orange slices. Place the oranges and any juice in a shallow dish, pour on the syrup and cover and place in the fridge to chill for at least an hour. Serve straight out of the fridge. Fantastic!