Perfectly ripe Meyer lemons in their bath

The Co-op received a generous bag of perfectly ripe Meyer lemons.  These had to be processed right away, as they were at their peak and would spoil quickly.  A quick way to preserve lemons (or limes) is to make preserved lemons with salt, known variously as Moroccan preserved lemons or Indian lemon pickle.  You’ll find smallish jars with impressive prices at specialty stores, but it is so easy to make your own.  Wash thoroughly and slice off about 1/4″ at both ends.  Slice nearly through, but leave one end intact, a bit like an open flower.  Sprinkle a couple of tablespoons of kosher salt in your clean jar, then sprinkle the open lemons with salt as you layer them in.  Push down forcefully to press them and extract juice so that the uppermost lemons are covered in juice, then sprinkle with more salt.  Close tightly, then let sit for 4 to 6 weeks.  Periodically shake the jar.  To use, simply rinse the lemons and finely chop the rind, and use instead of salt.  Add to couscous or rice, or add to stews and dips.  You’ll find lots of uses for anything seasoned with lemon and salt.

Meyer lemons simply preserved with salt and their own juice

These lemons were also made into a marmalade base, using the standard citrus prep technique.

Citrus prep for marmalade, with a pectin bag for cores and seeds

Using the golden 6 cup rule, 6 cups of the mix was cooked with sugar and then flavored.

For a tarter marmalade flavored with sprig of fresh rosemary in the jar, only 4 cups of sugar was added.  Pomegranate molasses is a tart addition, so 5 cups of sugar went into that batch.  When three tablespoons of orange flower water was added, the standard 6 cups of sugar, or 1:1 ratio worked well.  All are good and fun to try, but honestly, with a Meyer lemon base, just about anything tastes brilliant!

oranges, dried cranberries, ginger, cloves and black pepper marmalade

Look for recipes and step by step instructions here soon for loquat jelly as well as pickled loquats.

The Co-op had lots of ripe, sweet Valencia oranges a few weeks ago.  A bounty of former orchards ripened in our back yards and there will be more.  We literally gave them away in a box in front of Co-op HQ for any interested passers-by. My family’s birthday calendar and my culinary strengths (baking and preserves) happily coincided with this Co-op surplus. I made this cake twice in 10 days, and I recommend it to you as it is the happy confluence of easy and delicious.

 You can dress it up with an orange curd between the layers and cover it with a meringue, or simply mince and macerate strawberries and mangos for a filling and topping.  

Basically, this cake is excellent by itself and amenable to your ideas.  It is so simple that you probably have the ingredients in your kitchen right now.  It takes about an hour.

2 1/4 c flour

1 1/2 c sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

zest of 2 large or 3 small oranges (just the orange, not the white pith)

3 eggs

1 c orange juice (you can use the juice of those zested oranges, and add water to reach 1 cup)

4 ounces melted unsalted butter (1 stick), cooled

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Spray two 8-inch round cake pans with vegetable-oil spray and line the bottoms with parchment paper. Spray the paper too.
2. In a large bowl or the bowl of your electric stand mixer, mix the flour with the sugar, baking powder, salt and orange zest. Mix well at medium speed, then beat in the eggs,  juice, and butter until blended, about 2 minutes. Divide the batter between the prepared pans and bake for about 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean. Let cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then invert the cakes onto a rack to cool completely. Peel off the parchment paper.
3. Either fill with fresh chopped strawberries, mangoes, or whatever you like, or make an orange curd filling.
4. Orange Curd: In a medium saucepan, combine a cup of orange juice, 1/3 c sugar, 3 tbsp flour and about 2 tsp orange zest.  Keep whisking constantly over heat until the mixture thickens and starts to boil.  Take off the heat and whisk in a hefty tbsp of butter.  Set aside to cool with a piece of plastic wrap over the top to prevent a skin forming.
5. Italian Meringue Icing:  This is a treat that my family loves, as it is lighter than a buttercream and really attractive.  My grandmother Nonny made a wonderful 7 minute frosting, and this is right along that line.
6. In a small saucepan, bring 1 cup sugar and 1/3 c water to a boil to the soft ball stage, or 240 degrees.  (You will need an electric mixer for this, or someone to help.)  Meanwhile, beat 3 egg whites with a pinch (1/8 tsp) cream of tartar to the soft peak stage.  While you are beating the egg whites, slowly pur in the hot sugar syrup and beat continuously for about 8 minutes, until the meringue is smooth and glossy.
7. To assemble the cake, split the layers and fill with the orange curd, then frost.  I decorated this one with lemon balm leaves and a geranium flower. It is not overly sweet or rich, but fresh and yummy.

Kumquats with cocoa nibs and chili pepper, nearly at the canning stage

But I don’t think anyone has memories quite like this flavor.

Prepared halved kumquats were cooked with cocoa nibs.  Once softened, chili pepper flakes were stirred in and then sugar was added.  This preserve is moderately sweet, spicy/hot, and has that bitter richness from the cocoa nibs to balance out the acidity.  It also has a terrific contrast texture, smooth jelly and crunchy nibs.   I really want to stir in soy sauce and dip dumplings in this one, or maybe spread some on a warm tortilla.  What will you do?

The recipe is on the ‘Recipes’ tab, Kumquat Chili Pepper Preserves with Cocoa Nibs’.  The name may be pragmatic, but the flavors are a flight of fancy.

Linda H had more kumquats than one household could use, so Cyd and I harvested 30 pounds for the Co-op.

The golden rule for marmalade and preserves is to cook no more than 6 cups per batch.  Since this yielded 8 cups of cooked mixture, I split it into 2 batches of 4 cups each.  Bring the fruit mix to a boil, then add an equal amount of sugar, which in this case was 4 cups. Add 2 tbsp of lemon or lime juice.  Keep the mixture at a boil. Bring the canner to a boil and have your jars ready.  This reaches the gel stage in about 30 minutes, but can take longer, depending on your stove.  Ladle into jars leaving 1/4″ head space, and process for 10 minutes.  This yielded 18 4 ounce jars.

3/4 lb. unsalted butter

2 c. white sugar

2 eggs

5 tbsp marmalade (try using lemon marmalade!)

scant 1/2 tsp salt

5 c flour

2 tsp baking powder

Soften butter to room temperature.  This is a good time to use your stand mixer.  Cream butter until light, add sugar, mix, then add eggs and marmalade.  Mix well.  Mix dry ingredients, and add to wet dough in stages.  Form dough into rolls about 1″ across, wrap well in plastic wrap, and chill or freeze. Preheat oven to 350 F.  Slice dough into rounds about 1/4″ thick, and place on a lightly greased cookie sheet.  Bake about 15 minutes, or until lightly browned on the edges.  Dough spreads little as it bakes, but leave at least 1/2″ between slices.

Butter Marmalade Thins, an icebox cookie

some of the citrus we have preserved

It will always work, it is much more efficient, and the ratios are simple.  Basically, add one part water to one part prepared fruit and bring to a boil with the pectin bag uncovered for about 30 minutes  (45 for harder peels) , or to ‘al dente’ stage. Bite a piece, it should be tender.  Cover and let sit overnight, or refrigerate for longer.  When you are ready to can,  measure 6 cups of mixture into the cooking pot, bring to a boil and add 6 cups of sugar , or one part sugar to one part cooked mixture.   Cook at a boil to gel stage, usually around 30 minutes.  Ladle into hot canning jars, seal and process 10 minutes.

The first step will take about 1 1/2 hours, and the second step will take about 2 hours for 2 6 cup batches.

PECTIN: There is exactly the right amount of pectin in the whole citrus fruit for your marmalade to gel.  Commercial marmalade uses commercial pectin, which requires about 70% more sugar.  More sugar means more jars of marmalade; but we want more fruit and less sugar. We will not have as many jars, but our product will be concentrated fruit rather than primarily sugar.The pectin is in the pithy parts and the seeds and membranes.  Since we want the pectin but we don’t want to eat the seeds and pith,  put those in a cheesecloth-lined dish as you prepare the fruit. Use two layers of cheesecloth.

A mandolin is useful for some firm citrus, after you have tipped, cored and seeded them.

You’ll end up with a pot of perfect citrus slices, and a little bowl of seeds and cores.  Tie up the cheesecloth hobo-style, and cook it along with the water as you soften the fruit.

 Let the bag sit in the cooled mixture overnight, or in the refrigerator. When you are ready to do the second canning stage, first take out the pectin bag.  Squeeze out the milky substance from the bag over a separate bowl.  This is marmalade gold! Use a separate bowl in case any seeds escape the pectin bag, so you can take them out before you add this mixture to the cooking pot. (I learned this because  I got a little too ambitious squeezing out the bag, and broke through some of the cheesecloth in my zeal.) Don’t squeeze the bag directly into the cooking pot, because you don’t want any seeds.

IMPORTANT: cook just 6 cups at a time.  Measure out 6 cups of the cooked mixture into the cooking pot and bring to a boil, then add 6 cups of sugar.  I highly recommend white cane sugar – C&H is my choice, but any cane sugar works.  You can go up to 7 cups, but more than that, it becomes tedious to bring it to the gel stage.  In the time that you are bringing your mixture to the gel stage, you are getting the canner and jars hot and ready.

THE GEL STAGE, A REMINDER: When you add sugar to the pot, put a little saucer in the freezer.  As the foam subsides and the bubbles become clearer and the mixture slightly darkens, dribble a few drops on the cold plate, then put it back in the freezer for 10 or 20 seconds. Take it out, and push the edge of the mixture with your fingertip.  If it is still liquid, keep cooking. IF IT FORMS WRINKLES ON THE SURFACE, IT IS READY TO CAN.

The basic cooked citrus mixture is fine by itself, but when you add sugar, you can add flavors.  My little secret ok, it isn’t a secret anymore! – is to add 1/4 tsp of kosher salt to every batch to round out the flavor.  Here are a few of our most successful ideas: add either a scraped vanilla bean or 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract; 1/4 cup brandy, or tequila to limes; dried chili pepper flakes or diced pickled jalapenos; 1/2 teaspoon each of cinnamon and nutmeg, and a dash of cloves; 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper; herb extract, such as 1/4 cup sage or lavender steeped in 1/2 cup boiling water, then strained.  When using fresh ginger, you’ll want to cook the fresh peeled diced ginger along with the citrus, as it needs to soften, too. Start with 1/4 cup, or a small tuber of ginger, adding more in subsequent batches if you like that sweet/hot flavor.  You can even layer in chilis to the ginger citrus mixture, and thanks to Mark Lambert for this inspiration!

Meyer lemon with fresh ginger and lavender infusion and lavender sprigs

Specific recipes will be posted on the ‘Recipes’ tab.  Just remember to cook 6 cups of prepared fruit with 6 cups of water and the pectin bag, let it sit overnight, then measure out 6 cups of the cooked mixture and add 6 cups of sugar.  That’s it!

From two Bearss lime trees in pots, their second harvest yielded 2.6 gallons of natural pectin low sugar marmalade. Thank you, Mary and Mark!

Because the pomegranates on their own are not really very flavorful, I wanted to combine them with some of our abundant citrus.  Mimi’s sweet oranges were the perfect partner. Because I was using the pectin bag technique, this marmalade was made in small batches.   Two large oranges and one large lemon were prepared using our standard marmalade technique.  (Triple wash the fruit, cut off 1/4″ from each end, slice down the middle and put the core and seeds into a pectin bag, then thinly slice the fruit hemispheres.)  I soaked the fruit overnight to help soften the peels, then the next day began cooking the peels in their soaking water.  It took about an hour and a half for the peels to soften, so meanwhile I washed the poms.  Some were for juice, and some were for seeds.  Two poms yielded one cup of juice.   Working with the fruit in a bowl of cold water, two poms produced a cup of cleaned seeds.

To juice a pom, halve it and use your electric citrus juicer.Each cup of juice took at least two poms.  Then I seeded some in a bowl of cold water, and two poms yielded about a cup of seeds.  

Once the peels were soft, I added juice, then sugar in the same proportion as peels and liquid, which in this case was about 4 cups of cooked fruit and liquid, so 4 cups of sugar.  Bringing the mixture up to a brisk boil, it took about 30 minutes to reach the wrinkle or gel stage, which is when I added the seeds. The seeds were simply brought up to a boil, then the mixture was ladled into prepared jars and processed for 10 minutes.  I wanted the seeds to be bright and crunchy, and thought that if they cooked for any length of time in the sugar syrup they would go past crunchy to hard.  This worked well.  Two oranges, one lemon, 4 poms and 4 cups of sugar yielded about 6 half pint jars.  This one is very fruity and not bitter; it whispers ‘put me on your holiday table, please!’