Shopping lists rarely work for me. To be more specific, in the sense of adhering to what I actually had in mind when I wrote the list. Often times I change things on the fly or end up with more than I had planned. One thing I have successfully managed to avoid, is to go shopping with an empty stomach. Bad idea. Regardless of any list, walking by a well assorted food stand is what always gets me in trouble. I fall for any eye-candy-qualifying fruits and have to know what they’re like. Fortunately not all exotic fruits are as expensive as pink pitayas.
What made me stop this time where limequats. Miniature limes or the green equivalent to the kumquat, in fact they are a cross between the two. Had to have them. Didn’t want to go overboard and in an attempt to control damage I only took a handful of each, limequats and kumquats (which I had before).
Eating the sour fruits raw wasn’t an option for me. What to do? Standing in the kitchen, still a little clueless, I glanced over to the fruit basket, saw the only orange left and knew what to do: limequats, kumquats, orange & vanilla jam.
Wash kumquats and limequats (untreated) thoroughly under water and filet the orange. Slice both kumquats & limequats thinly, remove small seeds. Leave about one third (of the slices) or per your preference intact, puree the rest together with the orange filets. Add slices, puree and juice into a pot. In case larger amounts are used, make sure the pot is only filled half way (prevents it from boiling over).
For the sugar I chose the 1plus1 type (1 part sugar used with 1 part fruit) to make sure the outcome was not too bitter. Add the sugar and the vanilla bean (scraped out seeds and shell) to the pot and bring the mix to a boil rapidly, while stirring. When it begins to bubble vigorously, let boil for another 4-5 minutes. As the mixture thickens, keep stirring to prevent sticking.
Normally I would pay close attention to sterilizing the jam jars (washed empty jars with screw lids) with boiling water…however, since I knew the small jam jar wasn’t going to last more than 2 days I generously skipped that part.
Pour boiling hot jam into jars, cover and allow to cool down for a few hours.
Resume: Even though I’d classify the result more as a classic English marmelade, a little on the sour/bitter end (which O. is totally into), the vanilla does great job compensating for it and thus won over my heart as well. Very yummy.
We almost forgot Blog Day 2005…
Today is Blog Day 2005. BlogDay was created with the intent to share 5 new blogs with the readership, allowing the web surfer to discover new, previously unknown blogs. Our take on “new” blogs is to sneak a peek outside of the food blogging space and share some design oriented blogs:
port2port
Daily Design Blog (G)
design*sponge
37signals
Design Observer
Check out more Blog Day 2005 entries.
Limequats & Kumquats Jam
Recipe source: own creation
Required time: prep. 20 min., cooking 5 min., yield: one sm. jar
.
Ingredients:
1 vanilla bean
75g limequats & kumquats (untreated)
75g filets of an orange (incl. juice)
150g preserving sugar (1plus1)
Sep 1st,
2005
That jam looks so delicious. I have nt yet seen limequats here, but we get kumquats. I have to give this one a try.