A somewhat desperate plea from Ma in Nice was to buy her some Seville oranges for manufacturing marmalade on my return to UK last week.
The Seville orange season is particularly short and offers just a two week season toward the end of January. I picked her up a kilo and a half from Waitrose supermarket, with the intention of picking her up some more the following day. No such luck and they have all sold out.
Nonetheless, we have enough to secure a decent batch and today we begin the marmalade making process following a recipe by kitchen guru Katie Stewart, a somewhat old-fashioned British cook who used to publish her recipes in
The Times.
Through years of experimentation, Ma has selected to use a recipe from Katie Stewart to minimize the burden.
Whilst acknowledging that many use black treacle to add flavour, she suggests using 1 tablespoon of lightly crushed coriander seeds, tied loosely in a muslin bag.
For 8 – 10 lbs we place all the oranges in a large covered casserole dish and boil in 4 pints of water gently for 2 hours. Make sure you wash the skins and remove green nodules from each orange.
After 2 hours use a perforated spoon to lift out the soft oranges and reserve the water they cooked in.
boiling the oranges in 4 pints of water
shriveled oranges on completion of a 2 hour boil
Let the fruit cool for a moment, then cut in half and scoop out the inner pith and pulp into a clean saucepan.
cut out the innards
sieving the pulp
Add the remaining half pint of water, bring to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes to extract extra pectin.
Meanwhile chop up the softened orange peel – this can be done in a blender for an even fine cut product.
Return the cut-up peel to the saucepan of cooking liquid. Add the strained water from the pith and pips, the sugar, lemon juice (and treacle if used).
Stir over a low heat to dissolve the sugar (Ma pre-heats this in the oven for greater speed). Then bring to a brisk boil and cook rapidly for 15 minutes.
bringing to the boil
In true alcoholic style Ma adds a huge shot of
Grand Marnier for additional flavouring.
Draw off the heat and test for a set. Skim and let the marmalade cool for 20 minutes. Then, simply stir once and pour into pots.
pouring into jars
Ma´s Tip of the Day: Put oranges and lemons in the microwave for a minute to double your juice capacity.
Ingredients:
3lbs of bitter oranges
4 and a half pints of water
6lbs granulated sugar
2 lemons
1 tablespoon of black treacle or 1 tablespoon of lightly crushed coriander seeds
A somewhat desperate plea from Ma in Nice was to buy her some Seville oranges for manufacturing marmalade on my return to UK last week.
The Seville orange season is particularly short and offers just a two week season toward the end of January. I picked her up a kilo and a half from Waitrose supermarket, with the intention of picking her up some more the following day. No such luck and they have all sold out.
Nonetheless, we have enough to secure a decent batch and today we begin the marmalade making process following a recipe by kitchen guru Katie Stewart, a somewhat old-fashioned British cook who used to publish her recipes in The Times.
Through years of experimentation, Ma has selected to use a recipe from Katie Stewart to minimize the burden.
Whilst acknowledging that many use black treacle to add flavour, she suggests using 1 tablespoon of lightly crushed coriander seeds, tied loosely in a muslin bag.
For 8 – 10 lbs we place all the oranges in a large covered casserole dish and boil in 4 pints of water gently for 2 hours. Make sure you wash the skins and remove green nodules from each orange.
After 2 hours use a perforated spoon to lift out the soft oranges and reserve the water they cooked in.
boiling the oranges in 4 pints of water
shriveled oranges on completion of a 2 hour boil
Let the fruit cool for a moment, then cut in half and scoop out the inner pith and pulp into a clean saucepan.
cut out the innards
sieving the pulp
Add the remaining half pint of water, bring to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes to extract extra pectin.
Meanwhile chop up the softened orange peel – this can be done in a blender for an even fine cut product.
Return the cut-up peel to the saucepan of cooking liquid. Add the strained water from the pith and pips, the sugar, lemon juice (and treacle if used).
Stir over a low heat to dissolve the sugar (Ma pre-heats this in the oven for greater speed). Then bring to a brisk boil and cook rapidly for 15 minutes.
bringing to the boil
In true alcoholic style Ma adds a huge shot of Grand Marnier for additional flavouring.
Draw off the heat and test for a set. Skim and let the marmalade cool for 20 minutes. Then, simply stir once and pour into pots.
pouring into jars
Ma´s Tip of the Day: Put oranges and lemons in the microwave for a minute to double your juice capacity.
Ingredients:
3lbs of bitter oranges
4 and a half pints of water
6lbs granulated sugar
2 lemons
1 tablespoon of black treacle or 1 tablespoon of lightly crushed coriander seeds
Yummy! It sounds and looks so good! I must try traditional British food someday!
ReplyDeleteWay cool! Good job!
ReplyDelete