Clementine not just for Christmas anymore

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Jan 18, 2006 | by Molly Gordy

NULES, Spain -- Columbus once brought oranges from these groves to the New World, and Queen Victoria used slices of their lemons in her tea.

These days the families who have grown citrus in this clay-rich soil since the Middle Ages are exporting clementines in a little wooden crate that is transforming the way Americans eat fruit.

"It's a happy story," Bartolome Calfan, 62, said as he picked clementines in the scorching sun from trees rooted in the same earth that his father and grandfather worked before him.

"Before 'the little box' we could only sell these around Christmastime, and only in smaller countries, like France. Now we pick clementines from October through March, and almost all of it for Canada and the United States."

Nearly 180 million pounds of clementines entered the United States in 2005, with the majority coming from this area near the port of Valencia. Yet only 10 years ago, few Americans had ever heard of this smallest and sweetest of the mandarin oranges.

The U.S. market took off after a devastating freeze in Florida in 1989 made domestic oranges scarce and expensive. A lot of citrus fruit was imported from Europe then, and clementines started to catch on. Seedless, juicy and easy to peel, they are especially popular with children. And as their availability increases, the clementine is moving out of the lunchbox and onto restaurant menus and dining-room tables, as an ingredient in chicken, fish or rice dishes and green salads, as well as desserts.

But that alone does not account for their rising sales.

Clementines are the only fruit that retailers sell primarily in bulk -- shipped and sold in miniature balsam-wood crates covered with orange plastic netting. This guarantees that the customer will buy from 28 to 35 clementines at one time.

The loose-skinned fruit, a cousin of the tangerine, came about in 1900, when a Catholic priest named Clement Rodier crossed a Chinese mandarin orange with a sweet orange in his garden in Algeria. But it was Javier Arnal who came up with the idea of packaging the tiny globes in gift boxes. His family has been exporting citrus from Nules for more than two centuries. As North American marketing director for Nulexport, a growers' cooperative of 700 small farms, Arnal was looking for a way to break into the U.S. market.

Arnal noticed that clementines flew off the shelves in France and Germany during the month of December, when fruit of identical size and color was sold in 5-pound boxes tied with gift bows.

"It made for a very attractive presentation," he said, "and I got to wondering, what would happen if we did that year-round?"

What happened is that sales took off, other growers followed Nulexport's example, and a new fruit craze was born.

While most clementines are eaten plain or in fruit salads, they can also be served in more creative ways. The following four recipes demonstrate the fruit's versatility as an ingredient in dishes that range from sweet to spicy, and from simple to complex.

SPINACH-CLEMENTINE SALAD

6 cups baby spinach leaves

12 clementines, sectioned

1/2 cup walnut or pecan pieces

1 bunch green onions, sliced crosswise (optional)

1/2 cup sliced water chestnuts (optional)

For the dressing:

3 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 cup fresh lemon or lime juice

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard (optional)

Place the salad ingredients in a bowl. Stir the dressing ingredients together and toss with the salad.

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

-- Recipe from Zarela, Mexican restaurant in Manhattan, New York City

CLEMENTINE CAKE

4 to 5 unpeeled clementines (about 1 pound total weight)

6 eggs

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

2 1/3 cups ground almonds

1 heaping teaspoon baking powder

Put the unpeeled clementines in a pot with cold water to cover, bring to the boil, and cook for 2 hours.

Drain and, when cool, cut each clementine in half and remove the seeds.

Then chop everything finely -- skins, pith, fruit -- in the food processor (or by hand, of course). Preheat the oven to 375 F. Butter and line an 8-inch spring form pan.

Beat the eggs. Add the sugar, almonds and baking powder. Mix well, adding the chopped clementines. I don't like using the processor for this, and frankly, you can't balk at a little light stirring.

Pour the cake mixture into the prepared pan and bake for an hour, when a skewer will come out clean; you'll probably have to cover the cake with foil after about 40 minutes to stop the top burning.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool, on a rack, but in the pan. When the cake's cold, you can take it out of the pan. Lawson thinks the cake tastes even better when it has sat a day.

-- Recipe from "How to Eat: The Pleasures and Principles of Good Food," by Nigella Lawson, Wiley, 2002, $35.

CLEMENTINE MARMALADE

2 cups thin strips of clementine peel

4 cups cold water

Pulp and juice of 8 to 10 clementines

1/3 cup lemon juice

2 cups boiling water

3 cups sugar

In a heavy saucepan, combine clementine peel and cold water. Bring to a simmer, covered, over moderate heat; continue to simmer until peel is tender, about 30 minutes; drain thoroughly. Remove seeds and white membrane from peeled fruit; dice fruit.