Poached Oranges

July 23, 2002

We celebrated our silver wedding anniversary this week. As I write this, I am remembering the big day. We had decided we wanted a quiet wedding with just family and a couple of close friends. Probably the most difficult part was making sure news of the occasion didn't leak out. As we were both working in the newspaper industry, where sniffing out a story is something our colleagues excelled at, it was a difficult business.

We married at 3pm on a Friday and after having the regulation photos taken at the Botanic Gardens on a rather wintry afternoon, we set off to join our guests but entrusted the best man and the matron of honour's husband with some money to take down to our local watering hole and buy drinks for our workmates.

Of course, no one believed them at first.

When we arrived back at work on the Monday, our photographer friend had decorated the newsroom with blowups of some of our wedding photos.

Our sons arrived in town at the weekend to help us celebrate. We'd been planning a party but with the house renovations still not quite complete, we decided to delay that and instead had a family dinner.

I decided to make the dish that I'd made for our wedding celebration - boeuf bourguignon. This beef casserole hails from burgundy and is traditionally made with the wine of the region, button mushrooms and small onions. I used a cabernet rather than a burgundy and finished off the casserole with a generous amount of light sour cream.

It was served with a scalloped potato dish, broccolini and carrots.

As I was on a nostalgia kick, and as oranges are plentiful and good here at the moment, I resurrected an old favourite, poached oranges. These are delicious and make a good contrast following the main course. We had them with a bought pavlova roulade filled with a chocolate cream - certainly one of the better commercially made desserts I have had in a long time.

Poached Oranges

8 oranges
1 cup water
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup dark rum, brandy or Grand Marnier

Strip the zest off four of the oranges using a zester. Peel the oranges with a serrated knife, removing the pith as you go. Do this over a bowl to catch the orange juice.

Cut each orange into three slices horizontally, then skewer with a toothpick so their keep their shape.

Place in a large saucepan with the water, brown sugar and zest and simmer for 20 minutes. Carefully move the oranges to a serving dish. Add the alcohol of your choice to the cooking liquid and pour over the oranges. Chill.

These oranges are good served with a rich chocolate ice cream, or with a spoon of whipped cream and some toasted almond.