Adapted from How to Pick a Peach by Russ Parsons (Houghton Mifflin 2007)
Rosemary Honey is a great ingredient to keep on hand for quick and easy desserts. Drizzle over mandarin oranges, as in this recipe, or over apples, pears, firm cheese, or toasted walnuts (or all of the above). For breakfast, spread toast with mascarpone or cream cheese and drizzle with Rosemary Honey, or use it to sweeten mild-flavored tea. For an appetizer, spread cheese on crackers (I particularly like blue cheese for this purpose) and drizzle with Rosemary Honey. Rosemary Honey may be made ahead and stores well. This recipe makes more honey than necessary, so you’ll have plenty of leftovers with which to experiment. If you don’t want leftovers, use half the amount of honey. If made ahead, melt Rosemary Honey over low heat when you’re ready to use it.
- 1 cup fireweed or other mild honey
- 1 Tbsp. minced fresh rosemary leaves
- 8-10 seedless mandarin oranges
- Rosemary sprigs for garnish
Using very low heat, bring honey and rosemary to just under a simmer in a small saucepan. Do not try to speed up process by using high heat, and be sure not to let honey boil, or the honey will harden and can’t be drizzled. Remove from heat and set aside to steep for at least 15 minutes.
Peel mandarins and remove as much white pith as possible. Break mandarins into 2 segment pieces.
Pile mandarins onto serving plate and drizzle with rosemary honey. Garnish with rosemary sprigs and serve.