Fennel & Blood Orange Salad, Rhubarb and Strawberry Compote

My aim for this meal was to use predominantly seasonal produce. Blood oranges are smaller than regular oranges and have blood red coloured flesh which is softer in texture and less acidic than regular oranges. In Australia they are only in season for a short time in Spring. I found it interesting that the 3 blood oranges I bought all had totally different coloured flesh ranging from orange to very red. These oranges had quite a few seeds which made it difficult to slice them neatly and evenly and next time I would cut them into wedges to use in a salad.

This salad was simply made by layering sliced blood oranges, sliced fennel and black olives and dressing with olive oil. Fennel is at its best from July to September but can be found from March through to November. I didn't cut my fennel finely enough and it was a bit chunky which didn't look great and meant it was a bit overpowering.

I would rate this salad a 5 out of 10 however if you did get a small amount of the fennel, orange and olive on your fork at once the flavours did work well together. I served it with pan fried fish which made a nice, light, healthy dinner.

For dessert I made a Rhubarb and Strawberry Compote. A compote is simply a dessert of fruit cooked in a thick sugary syrup. Rhubarb is available all year round but at its best from May through to August. The leaves of the rhubarb should not be eaten. Rhubarb is quite bitter and does need quite a bit of added sugar. For this recipe the rhubarb was baked in the oven with orange juice and sugar until tender. The strawberries were cooked in a saucepan with sugar and orange rind (I did add a little water) until tender. Finally you crushed some of the strawberries and mixed in the rhubarb. I thought this was a good way to increase our fruit intake however the amount of sugar you needed to add probably outweighed the benefits! This compote was very yummy served with either natural yoghurt or ice-cream. The recipe can be found at http://frenchfood.about.com/od/dressingpreservessauces/r/strawrhubarbcomp.htm

Rating 8 out of 10.