The Food Association Game: Oranges

So I’m eating this orange as a late night snack.  After I finish, I’m staring at the peel thinking, “I guess I could just throw it in the compost pot out on the patio but that seems kind of dull. What have I got laying around that I can do with it?”  You see, I’m a unfortunate combination boredom prone and easily amused.

Sugar, water and heat.  Candied orange peels!

Shave off as much of the white pulp as possible. Blanch orange peels in shallow pan of boiling water. Change the water three times (or more, depending on how much bitterness you can handle).  The peels should be translucent and soft at this point.  Set them aside and add lots of sugar to one more pan of (clean) water to create a super saturated sucrose solution.  Put the peels back into that and boil thoroughly.  Remove peels, drain them and set them aside to cool a bit.  Dust with a coating of sugar (I used confectioner’s sugar) and let dry thoroughly.

So, I have this crazy sweet orange water now (which is bright yellow instead of orange for some reason).  I guess I could just dump it down the drain…. Or I could pour it into a clean glass jar, suspend a string in the solution and see if I can make orange rock candy! This could take a while.