Dried Orange Skin
My mom was trying to cook steamed chicken for lunch and she was calling her friend for advise. After hearing the ingredients that she would put inside, I asked her to put some orange skin if possible for that slight tinge of orange flavour. I mean what could go wrong right?
Too bad we didn’t had any orange, all we had was Mandarin oranges that you used for house visiting.
Later in the day, as she was cleaning out her cupboard, she found a tall glass container of “treasure”. Its older than me, my mom estimated it to be about 40 years old. It was kept by my late grandfather and stored in the room in Malaysia. When my mom came to Singapore, she brought some along with her.
Its dried orange skin. Yes, 40 years old dried orange skin. She told me that the chinese medicine used it extensively but she is not sure what, she would ask around for it. The good thing about this is that 40 years ago, there isn’t much insecticide and this is as natural as you can get.
I took a bit and tried it. Surprisingly after 40 years, the orange taste is still there. Definitely there and there is still a bit of bitterness like most orange peel has.
Maybe she will put some in the red/green bean soup now for that extra oumph…
Do you know certain villages (there are still some in Singapore…i didn’t know too…till someone told there still are) swear by such old folk’s remedies…
the 40 year old dried peel might cure some sickness….though not proven by modern science….still there are much we do not understand yet in the world.
i saw some tv show recently abt orange skins. the longer u keep, the more valueable and tastier it is!
there’s a recipe u can try out… cook it with duck… 
i hope you are ok after eating your meal.