2021 what a start to the year. We wanted to share our amazing seasonal recipe during this current lockdown. Kids home schooling and you need an activity for all to be involved. It’s time to keep busy in the kitchen, so roll your selves up.
Seville and blood oranges are only in season for a couple of weeks from January to end of February. The best way to capture their fragrance and flavour is to lock these in jars of delicious marmalade.
There is nothing like the citrus smell of homemade marmalade bubbling away at the stove. Its fragrance fills every corner of the house revoking memories of childhood sticky naughty fingers poking in freshly made jars of marmalade. They sit on the windowsill glowing with sunlight shining through them giving off amber shards of light.
For this recipe we use the cut fruit method. We find it has a clearer appearance with crimson, amber colours and glass like fruit shreds…stunning.
Ingredients:
- 1kg Seville oranges
- 400g Blood oranges
- 2 lemons (juice and seeds)
- 2kg Demerara sugar
- 2 star anise
- 5 cardamom pods
- 2.5lt water
Method:
Scrub oranges and remove bottons (where the stem was attached). Cut the oranges in half, squeeze out juice and pass through a sieve. Remove the orange pulp and place into a muslin bag together with orange seeds, lemon seeds. Keep the lemon juice until later on.
Cut the orange skin to your preferred thickness and length using part of the pith or white (we cut ours thinly so it looks like a stained glass window once cooked). Place the orange juice, the sliced fruit skin and muslin bag filled with the pulp and seeds into a large cooking pot. Add 2.5lt water, star anise, cardamom and bring to boil.
Simmer for 1.5 to 2 hours or until the peel is just tender. Stir in the sugar and lemon juice and bring to a fast boil until setting point is reached (see below). Skim off any scum that comes to the surface. Leave to cool for a few minutes before filling warm sterised preserving jars (again, see below)
Setting point:
Setting point in preserves is only achieved if your fruit/sugar/pectin/acidity (sounds complex but is easy if you follow recipes) ratios are correct. If you have a jam thermometer you can dip it in your preserves and cook until you reach 104.5 degrees C (this temperature is slightly lower if fruit bears high pectin/gelling levels). If not, then the equally reliable method to check if you have reached setting point is the plate test. Put a flat plate into the fridge to chill. Add a few drops of the preserve onto the plate and push with your finger, if this crinkles then setting point is achieved.
Sterilising jars:
Wash your jars in a soapy water, rinse them throughly and place in a oven at 140 degrees C for 15 minutes.
