You can’t deny it, January and February are pretty joyless months. Steely grey skies, nose tingling cold and not much culinary love in the seasonal British kitchen. Its not all dismal however, it is the season for citrus. after the excesses of Christmas one of the things I do enjoy about the early months of the year is cooking with bright zippy citrus fruits. In the days of travel (remember that!!) when we used to drive to Bardonecchia for skiing I would load the car up with 3 kg sacks of blood oranges and big lemons with leaves on them.
We are lucky to have a new grocers open recently in Stroud (4 seasons market for those readers who are local) and when I was in there the other day I noticed they were selling lovely big paper bags of blood oranges and seville oranges, along side big ruby grapefruits and wooden boxes filled with leafy lemons. It made my heart sing and now my fruit bowl is over flowing with citrus.
Mr H loves marmalade, and though I am a proficient jam maker I’ve always found marmalade a bit of a mystery. My friend android photographer Kirstie Young makes delicious marmalade and is very generous with her jars! However she kept saying its not at all difficult so I should give it another go. I bought myself Pam the Jam book on preserving (she of River Cottage fame) and her instructions are so utterly straightforward that i’m on my second batch already . She also gives some really good ideas for variations. - I have adapted one batch with finely chopped stem ginger in syrup which was utterly heavenly. Pam has a fab website here if you would like to read more on preserving.
I followed Pam’s instructions for classic seville orange marmalade fairly much to the letter, this is what I did.
Halve and squeeze the juice from 1 kg of seville oranges and a couple of lemons (you need to give them a good wash and remove the stalk / button at the top and scrub that bit as dirt often collects there) , collect all of the pips in a jelly bag or large square of muslin, and pull the membranes out of the fruit and add to the jelly bag) tie the bag up securely.
Using a sharp knife or scissors slice the peel into fine shreds, put it into a big bowl with 2l of water and the jelly bag of innards and pips and leave to soak for 24 hours covered with a tea towel.
After 24 hours transfer the peel and water mixture to a preserving pan and give the bag of pips a big squeeze. you will notice that it feels quite gelatinous - this is good , its all of the pectin which wi help your marmalade to set. Discard the bag.
Cover the pan with a lid and bring to a gentle simmer for about 1 and a half to 2 hours until the peel has softened a little. The liquid will have reduced to about 2l. Sterilise your jars and put a couple of saucers in the freezer.
Sprinkle in 1.5kg of granulated sugar into the pan a third at a time, stirring each time till it has fully dissolved before adding the next third. Increase the heat to a full rolling boil. for a fresh tasting softish set you need to boil for roughly 12mins. for a firmer set boil for about 15mins. Obviously the temperature of your hob may affect this and I found a jam thermometer to be the most helpful tool - 104.5 degrees is the setting temperature for marmalade.
Remove the pan from the heat and spoon a dap onto one of your very cold saucers, push the top with your finger and a skin should have formed. If it is still runny and not set enough boil it for another few minutes, this is the bit I find the hardest and its a bit trial and error. Mine ended up being quite soft set but I quite like that. Now is the time to add your chopped up stem ginger if you are using it.
Leave the pan off the heat for about five mins which helps the peel disperse more evenly and then pour into your sterilised jars, I find a wide neck jam funnel really useful for this but you can do it with a ladle and a steady hand.
Fennel , chicory, celery and radicchio all feature heavily on my winter post christmas plate. I am going to share one of my favourite winter salads with you. It is bright, crunchy , bitter and sharp and sweet in equal measures. Its also very forgiving and you can chop and change ingredients as you wish.
Finely slice half a fennel bulb and place it in a salad bowl, sprinkle with salt and about1 tbs fresh lemon juice , leave it to sit for about half an hour which will soften it slightly. Pell and finely slice a blood orange and add it to the fennel, add a big handful of shredded radicchio or sliced red chicory , if you have the inside tender stalks of a celery heart they are also a nice addition. Add a few olives, the wrinkly black ones are what a Sicilian would use but I only had some big green ones so I used those, and a quarter of a red onion very thinly sliced , season with black pepper and really good extra virigin olive oil.
You can chop and change this salad. I sometimes replace the blood orange with sliced pear and a handful of toasted hazelnuts, and I sometimes add a few slices of salty pecorino to the blood orange one or blue cheese to the pear and hazelnut version. Either way it makes a nice change from a bowl of leaves!
I am signing off this weekend with 2 pictures that have made me smile. I love daffodils , they bring the promise of spring and never fail to cheer. The painting on the right is by Kate Loveday and it hangs in my kitchen and always makes me smile on even the gloomiest winter day. I hope you have a lovely weekend and happy cooking!