It’s no secret that citrus is one of the reasons I could never live on a 100% local diet — at least not without moving back to California first. As soon as the weather dips near freezing, I start stocking up on grapefruit, oranges, Meyer lemons or, my favorite, clementines. As much as possible I buy organic citrus from Florida, but for clementines it’s the real thing, all the way from Spain. (I actually spotted those newfangled California “Cuties” at Whole Foods the other day, but stuck with the Old World variety.) When I was a kid, we always got a clementine in our stocking, and devoured it while waiting for Christmas breakfast to be ready. I’ve planned to do the same for the boy, but considering how many clementines we eat in the weeks leading up to Christmas, I’m not sure it’s quite as special a treat.

Today I had a meeting near one of my favorite restaurants in the city, Jaleo, so I stopped in for lunch. Imagine my delight to see the “Clementina Festival!” sign in the window. I couldn’t resist and enjoyed a three-course clementine lunch. First up, seared clementines with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and microgreens. Simple yet bursting with flavor. For the main course, seared squid with artichokes and clementines, the citrus contrasting perfectly with the silky squid. And then dessert. Clementine ice cream atop clementine curd, with some almond/graham cracker crumbs and fresh clementine slices — drizzled with olive oil. Perfection. It was like being transported to sunny Spain for an hour, and left me inspired to do more than just eat our way through the box of clementines straight up. The clementine curd in particular has me pondering a clementine tart … stay tuned.

Do you cook with clementines? What’s your favorite way to use them?

If you’re in DC, the Clementina Festival continues at Jaleo through December 20.

It’s peach season and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they hold out long enough for me to can some for winter. In the meantime, here’s the peach gelato that made me swoon, if I do say so myself.

Ever wonder what the difference is between ice cream and gelato? Sherbet and sorbet? As far as I can tell, from my extensive google research, the difference between ice cream, gelato, sherbet and sorbet is something like this:

• ice cream, French = milk, cream, eggs
• ice cream, Philadelphia/American = milk, cream, no eggs
• gelato = milk, maybe eggs, no cream
• sorbet = just fruit, no dairy or eggs
• sherbet = milk, no cream and no eggs

Still confused? Short version: if you taste the cream first, it’s ice cream. If you taste the fruit first, it’s gelato. That’s the official FoodieTots definition at any rate. Now I set out to make Philadelphia-style peach ice cream, but the bottle I had labeled cream was in fact buttermilk; instead I used my cream-top whole milk, so while it has a little cream it is mostly milk. It has the texture and strongly fruit-forward taste of gelato, so that’s what I’m calling it.

Recipe: Peach Gelato

Ingredients:

• 4-5 peaches (1 1/2 pounds), peeled
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/2 vanilla bean (or 1 teaspoon vanilla)
• 1 cup cream-top whole milk
• juice of 1 lemon wedge

Instructions: I use the boil/ice bath method to peel peaches. It seems like a hassle but trust me, it’s a lot easier and time saving in the long wrong then trying to scrape peels off with a paring knife.  Score the bottom of each peach with a small “x” cut, then drop them into boiling water for 20 seconds. Remove with a slotted spoon and place them into a colander set in ice water for several seconds, then set on cutting board and leave several minutes to cool. The skins will pretty much slip right off at that point.

Dice the peaches and place in a medium stock pot over medium high heat, add honey and seeds of the vanilla bean. Cook until peaches begin to fall apart, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool for several minutes. Add milk and blend in small batches in a blender, or use an immersion blender in the pot. I recommend the regular blender to make sure there are no chunks — in a home freezer, the chunks of fruit get too icy and aren’t as flavorful as in commercial ice creams. Stir in the lemon juice and pour into a glass bowl or pitcher. Chill thoroughly in the refrigerator (I leave it overnight) and then process according to your ice cream maker’s instructions. (I use the Kitchen Aid ice cream attachment and mix it for 10-12 minutes, until it thickens and reaches a very soft icy consistency, then freeze for 3-4 hours.) Enjoy!

Shared with Fight Back Fridays at the Food Renegade, because once you’ve had homemade ice cream — or gelato — you’ll never go back to that commerical chemical goop from the supermarket.

This Sunday the toddler and I donned our rain coats and braved the winter monsoon to visit the Dupont Circle Market. I’m like a kid loose in the candy store whenever I get to Dupont, even at the end of November, and this week was no exception. In the market basket: Cibola Farms buffalo stew meat, Brussels sprouts (on the stalk), red Anjou and seckel pears, quince, Stayman apples, watermelon radish, baby carrots, sunchokes, leek, Maitake mushrooms, Keswick ricotta, Atwater’s peasant wheat bread and a drinkable pumpkin yogurt (which the toddler chugged 2/3 of on the drive home!).

Market Menus: Sunday evening we had buffalo chili and Farmer John’s cornbread, along with parmesan Brussels sprouts. (Toddler tasted but rejected the sprouts, while the chili was dubbed, “Touchdown! chili” and devoured two nights in a row.) I’m planning to make a soup with the sunchokes and leek. And this salad was just for me, as the toddler deemed the radish too spicy and I’m the only blue cheese lover in the family (so far). You can omit the radish for a sweeter variation, but more adventurous taste buds will appreciate the balance of tangy and sweet flavors that play off the Irish blue cheese.

Recipe: Watermelon Radish, Red Pear and Cashel Blue Salad

Watermelon radishes are white on the outside, slightly larger than your typical radish but otherwise unsurprising, until you slice into them and get a peak at their deep fuschia interior. Sliced, they look like watermelon slices, hence the name. They have a sharp bite, which plays nicely off the sweet pears and touch of honey in this vinaigrette.

Ingredients:

• 1 red Anjou pear
• 1 watermelon radish
• 2 ounces Cashel Irish blue cheese

Vinaigrette:

• 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon grapeseed oil
• 1/2 teaspoon honey

Instructions: Whisk the vinaigrette ingredients together and set aside. Peel the radish and thinly slice both the radish and the pear. (Optional, serve over arugula or mesclun greens.) Serves 2. Enjoy!

P.S. Have I mentioned my cheese project? Read my review of Cashel Irish Blue, and if you’re on twitter, be sure to follow @100cheeses for updates and the latest in curd news and cheese recipes.