Nigel Slater’s midweek treat: citrus fruits, mint syrup

The end of the blood orange season draws close. I see out its sweet, ruby juice and carmine-freckled flesh with a bang, serving it in a salad with grapefruit and Spanish oranges. A mint-leaf syrup, chilled and spiked with lime, will make the fruit sing even louder.

Ready in 30 minutes. Serves 4.

Start by making the syrup. Put 100g of caster or granulated sugar in a medium saucepan, pour in 400ml of water and then bring it to the boil.

Crumple 10g of mint leaves and stems in your hand, then drop them into the syrup, remove from the heat and leave to cool. While the mint infuses with the sugar syrup, prepare the citrus fruits.

Cut the peel away from a couple of oranges, 1 blood orange, and 2 pink grapefruits. Once you have removed all the peel, slide your knife down each side of the white membrane that separates the segments, then tease each segment of fruit away from the membrane, saving the juice as you go. Mix the fruit together.

Stir 150ml of the reserved juice into the syrup. Squeeze 75ml of lime juice (about 2 limes) into the syrup. Remove and discard the mint leaves and stems. Stir the juice and fruits together and chill in the refrigerator for about an hour (see the note below). Pick a small handful of the tiniest mint leaves to tuck among the fruit as you bring it to the table.

If you have time, let the fruit and syrup sit for a while in the fridge to get thoroughly chilled. You can speed things up by putting the syrup into a bowl sitting in a slightly larger bowl of ice and water for 20 minutes.