Preserved Oranges

I am a bit of a TV chef groupie I think.  I watch heaps of their shows, and buy way too many of their books. But I do pick up some interesting ideas for recipes, and some valuable tips here and there.  I was watching Shane Delia the other night and he mentioned that he likes to use preserved oranges in his cooking rather than preserved lemons.  This sounded really delicious to me, so I had it in the back of my mind to put some up soon.  I make preserved lemons each winter, which go so well with couscous and with fish, and in salads. I think these oranges will go really well in similar dishes, and I can hardly wait for the 4 weeks to go by till I can use them!

Ingredients:

4 medium or 3 large oranges (around 800g.)
200g. salt
250 ml fresh lemon juice
250ml fresh orange juice
2 cinnamon sticks
a few cloves or a star anise

Method:

Wash and dry the oranges
Cut them in half and cut each half into thirds so you end up with 6 wedges per orange
Throw them into a plastic bag and freeze overnight
Next day put them in the fridge for 4 hours till partly thawed (this helps break down the fibres I am assuming)
Place the wedges into a big bowl, throw all the salt over them and stir till well-covered
Grab a 1 litre sterilised jar and stuff those wedges into the jar!
Pour over the 2 juices, and push in the cinnamon and cloves
Shake till well-combined
Put in a cool, dark place for 4 weeks before using  (this is Queensland so it goes into the fridge to mature!)

freezing wedges overnight, then gathering the other ingredients 

salting those lovely juicy orange pieces

stuffing them into the jar with lemon and orange juices, and spices

can hardly wait to try them in 4 weeks!

Oops, yes there are 2 jars here.  My big jar was obviously less than one litre so I hurriedly had to wash another small jar and stuff them into that too.  Mysteriously I had too much juice(s) left over; I just couldn't stuff one more teaspoon of juice into either jar, so I had to drink it!