This Christmassy spiced purée can be used to garnish both sweet and savoury dishes, but it works particularly well with goose. Try it this Christmas for an interesting twist!
"When zesting the orange, use a sharp peeler with a thin gap to ensure that you only remove the orange zest and not the white pith from the orange. The pith is very bitter and will give your purée an acrid flavour."
"If you are using olive oil in a purée or sauce, always use your best quality. I always use a good quality refined oil because, during the refining process, the oil is heated slightly, pressed and filtered. A little flavour is lost, but it means that you can cook with it, and the burning point is increased from 190°C to 242°C."
"The blanching is necessary to remove the majority of the bitterness and harshness from the orange zest – leaving you with a wonderfully aromatic purée. It needs to be blanched in large amounts of water three to four times until when eaten the zest is tender with a very mild flavour."
Recipe © Raymond Blanc
Food photography by David Griffen