The Way I "C" It

I read an article on a May to June 2010 Edition of “Bakingpress”, entitled “Going Sour” and it was all about citrus fruits used as an essential flavoring ingredient in many of our favorite pastries and desserts. They just give food a special taste which others find irresistible. Moreover, citrus fruits rank the third highest in commercial importance. It is quite easy to distinguish citrus fruits because of their common characteristics. All citrus fruits are covered by a peel which is dotted with glands. Under the peel is a spongy layer called the albedo that contains bitter tasting compounds and pectin, which is responsible for jelling of jams. Some of the common and unique citrus fruits used in desserts and pastries are calamondin, lemon, lime orange, pomelo and grapefruit. However, the extensively used citrus fruit in all Filipino households is the “calamondin” or commonly known as “calamansi” which is globular in shape. It can replace lemons and limes in Filipino dishes and its peel is used in flavoring candies like pastillas. Furthermore, we also have the dayap but it is not as popular as the calamansi. Citrus fruits can range from sweet to sour, zesty to tangy. It is not only their juice or their pulps that are used in making dishes but also their peels. Because they share common features, it is not surprising that they can be used in similar preparations. Some examples of their uses are as a foam stabilizer, to control enzymatic browning and crystallization of sugar when preparing syrup or to improve extensibility of laminated dough.

In this article, readers are given the idea of how citrus fruits are atypical because although they are similar in some ways, they are also very different in other aspects. Whenever we think about citrus fruits, we only think of them as fruits that are usually eaten casually. We’d never think they’d actually taste good on main dishes. One example would be the “Orange Chicken” recently introduced by a well-known Philippine fastfood restaurant. Friends and strangers alike then wondered if it actually tastes good because even if there are already various dishes with orange fruit as their main flavoring, some people still consider it as out of the ordinary.

Also, whenever we think of the word “dessert”, it is very natural for us to imagine chocolate mousse, chocolate cake and what not but never lemon tarts or grapefruit cheesecake. At times when we find citrus-flavored desserts, we’d think of it to taste sour rather than sweet and zesty that’s why we’d never think of buying or making anything like it. But seriously, I guess we’re just overreacting. We all know that dishes wouldn’t actually taste as good as it should be if they lack an ingredient or two. If a dish requires 5 lemons or what, you just can’t cancel it out of the recipe just because you hate your food to taste sour. As previously mentioned, citrus fruits range from sweet to sour, zesty to tangy. So it really depends on the cook on how he could bring about the flavor he wants. So basically, what I’m trying to say is that even the most unlikely ingredient can be the best part of a recipe.

~~Elesia Mae R. Jo~~