The orange season has started.

Rather than giving you another gardening snippet, I have decided to offer you a recipe for an orange liqueur. Admittedly, it is not a recipe originating from Spain, but from France. I will adjust the ingredients, though, to Mallorcan components where one can. Here we go:

Select three or four Mallorcan oranges, in fullest ripeness right now. Best would be those from the Soller valley, but any Mallorcan (even any Spanish) orange will do, as long as they are juicy and fresh. They should be firm in the flesh and they must be untreated. Then, make some deep insertions (a dozen perhaps) into the orange peel, right down into the flesh. Insert one coffee bean into each of those insertions (the way you would poke a garlic clove into a leg of lamb).

Put the oranges into a large glass container, one of those that comes with a tight lid (a preserving jar would be good, but choose a large one). Buy a package of sugar lumps. Place 88 sugar lumps over the oranges (the recipe is really for 44 sugar lumps, but of the French sort. Us non-French common folks have only access to smaller sugar cubes, so we double the quantity).

Buy yourself a bottle of good quality Marc, Grappa, Tresterbrand or Eau de Vivre. As we live in Spain, I suggest you get some Spanish Orujo, the distilled pomace, a by-product of the wine-making process.

Pour the content of the whole bottle over the oranges and the sugar cubes. Put the lid on tight. Place the jar into a darkish corner in your house, dark and dry. Leave for 44 days. Strain, and decanter into a pretty glass bottle, possibly one with a glass stopper.

You won’t have the Cointreau substitute ready for an after-meal liqueur in time for Christmas turkey, but you will enjoy your own, possibly first, liqueur brewing effort. I did, in any case.

If there is still some Orange Coffee Orujo left by next Autumn, you would want to try that liqueur over some fresh figs. But I will remind you in good time. Cheers.

Drink with moderation. Be responsible. Don’t drink and drive.

The photo was taken near the town of Felanitx, Mallorca, Spain. The date: December 2nd, 2007. The time was 16:57:59.