I was shocked that I’d never heard of Orange à la Norvegienne before. I mean, French cooking takes on a Scandinavian country? That’s my jam. So of course, I made Orange à la Norvegienne the very night I discovered it. And of course, I had to do a little something something to change it up. In this case, I used frozen yogurt to lighten it up, added a little fresh cheese to up the French factor and cardamom to up the Scandinavian factor, and tested out both oranges and grapefruits, the latter of which both Marc and I preferred. The end result is Citrus à la Swedican. Cute, right? And there was the added bonus of breaking out my kitchen torch. Other bonus of making Orange à la Norvegienne? You can make it as easy or challenging as you like. If you don’t want to spend the time to complicate the ice cream, plain vanilla is absolutely delicious. Final bonus, anytime you but out the flames and make meringue for your guests, they’ll be certain to be awed, even thought the reality is Orange à la Norvegienne is truly simple. Finally, if you aren’t up for the meringue, a little Coeur à la Crème on top of the ice cream would be just as tasty, and no flame would be required. Basically, this Orange à la Norvegienne is an extremely versatile concept that you can make your own.
Orange à la Norvegienne
Ingredients
- 1 pint nonfat vanilla frozen yogurt
- ⅛ teaspoon cardamom
- 1 tablespoon honey something light that won’t overpower the cheese- I used acacia
- 1 tablespoon milk cream works too
- ¼ cup fresh goat or sheep milk you want soft, spreadable
- 4-6 grapefruits or oranges depending on size
- 2 egg whites
- 1 cup granulated sugar
Instructions
- Cut one end off the citrus fruits (keep the most level side- you can test this by propping them on either the stem side and the navel and seeing how much it wants to roll).
- Scoop out most of the fruit. A citrus knife becomes a reasonable purchase for this recipe- I found mine in the back of the drawer and was happy I had it.
- Set the hollowed out fruits in a freezer safe pan.
- Combine the frozen yogurt, cardamom, honey, milk and cheese in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth.
- Spoon into the citrus and freeze.
- When you’re ready to serve it, remove the fruits from the freezer. You want the ice cream to soften slightly before you serve it, so while that’s happening, make the meringue batter. Beat the whites at a high speed until stiff peaks form. Then gradually add in the sugar.
- Spoon or pipe on top of the frozen fruit.
- Torch or broil the tops to get a lovely marshmallow look.
- Serve with a grapefruit spoon and dig in deep to get meringue, frozen yogurt and a little citrus infusion.
Notes: I found it helpful to serve the Orange à la Norvegienne in ramekins. Since they’re heat safe, I wasn’t worried about them while using the torch.
Am I correct in thinking that the actual orange flesh removed is discarded completely? seems a bit of a waste…
I definitely don’t discard mine. I use it for salads, smoothies, snacks, etc. But of course, you could. The trick is to hollow it out enough to make room for ice cream, but also to leave enough flesh inside to flavor the icecream and have small bites of frozen fruit in each spoonful.
I see – makes sense. Thank you for the advice (and the recipe in the first place, of course!!).
Of course, enjoy!