Marmalade

Here it is! The seville oranges have been made into marmalade. I followed the River Cafe recipe, from their book River Cafe Pocket Books: Puddings, Cakes and Ice-creams, which I can't recommend highly enough. Brilliantly inspiring.

I soaked the oranges in water for 2 days.
Then gently simmered them for 4 hours.
Then (perhaps mistakenly) left them on the stove for a night and day (as life got in the way), and made up the marmalade in the evening.
By this time the oranges had collapsed onto themselves and were thoroughly soft.

I took out all the pips and courser fibres, and chopped into 1cm pieces. No fine shred here! Then weighed all the flesh, worked out what 2/3 of the weight was, and weighed out that much caster sugar.

Put sugar and fruit into a pan and simmered it for 30 minutes. I tested to see if there was a 'slow run' of juice when placed on a cold plate: bingo.

I cooled it for 5 minutes then put into sterilized jars (i put mine in the steamer. made them very easy to get out and handle).

I put plastic covers on straightaway, then read the instructions which said leave them til the jam has completely cooled. Not to worry.

Then left it overnight to cool.

In the morning - we had toast and marmalade - and it is really really very nice indeed.
I think I'm allowed to join the WI now right?

Seville orange sorbet

There are several food items I get excited about. And this is one of them:
there's the new flavour of seville orange; the new flavour of Vin Santo; and the new machine (ice-cream maker).
That's a lot of schizz to be excited about.


I saved up my tips from the cafe and got the ice-cream maker. Kerching.
I froze the ice-cream maker bowl overnight then made this recipe from Waitrose for Seville Orange Sorbet. I swapped Cointreau for Vin Santo- as we had the latter in the house and I thought it would be delicious. It is. It adds a herbal note which is just gorgeous.

The sorbet set to a good consistency in the machine, then we put it in the freezer overnight. This evening, it was perfect: set so you could scoop it, not an ice-block, and really really cold.

The oranges are deeply deeply flavoursome - sharp, bitter - alongside the sugar and depth of flavour of the Vin Santo. The freezing temperature cuts through the sugar taste too, and its all balanced. This is a total winner. One of my favourite things yet.

More sorbets, frozen yoghurts and ice-creams on the way :) tho' summer time (and the fruits) will clearly allow it come into its own. Very exciting.

Seville oranges

These caused not insignificant amounts of excitement :)

I couldn't wait to see what the flavour was like, and how it differed from regular oranges. I'd heard that they were bitter - but they are orange bitter, not mouth wincingly sour. Bitterness is a fantastic taste, and the energy of orange flavour alongside, is just superb. I'm totally hooked.

The label said sorbet and marmalade. Can't argue with that.