Wednesday 4 March 2015

Orange & Chilli Marmalade



For our first party in the flat we are having a cheese & wine party - a few difficulties to combat will be the fact we own a total of zero wine glasses and a very limited number of places to park your behind but what I do have is three jars of this very delicious Orange & Chilli Marmalade. 

I have never made a marmalade or a jam before - terrified of how difficult I assumed it would be. This was not difficult - time consuming would be truthful but also very very worth it. Peeling and cutting the pith off 5 oranges was enough to drive me insane. I used just standard oranges you would find in your fruit bowl but I saw in the supermarket yesterday some marmalade oranges which I assume have been grown to be less pithy. Pith, the white stuff on your oranges, will be bitter in your final marmalade so worth trying to get as much off as you can possibly bear - it's worth it I promise.




The original recipe called for a food processor which I own but in the move I have managed to lose the central spindle which means at the moment it's unusable so instead I successfully used a stick hand blender. Don't make my mistake and hand blend this in a white shirt - it will not be all that white for very long!!

Cheese & Wine party here we come!!

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ORANGE & CHILLI MARMALADE
(adapted from Good Food magazine recipe)
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YIELDS 3 500ML KILNER JARS - STORES FOR 6 MONTHS

INGREDIENTS
5 oranges
6 red chilies
4 red peppers
900g jam sugar with added pectin
8g sachet of pectin
500ml white wine vinegar

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1. Peel the oranges and take as much of the pith off the peel as you possibly can. Cut the peel into thin strips (size is dependent upon your preference - mine are quite chunky - like me). Peel as much pith a you can from the orange flesh itself and roughly chop this into medium pieces.

2. Chop and deseed the peppers and chillis and place this into the bowl with the orange flesh. Pulse the mixture until you have a vibrant frothy orange soup - a few chunks here and there won't matter. Pour this into a wide deep pan along with the orange zest strips and the sugar, pectin and vinegar.

3. Heat the mixture slowly until the sugar has dissolved and then bring to a vigorous boil and then bubble for approx 40 minutes. The best way to test if the marmalade is set enough is by placing a small plate in the freezer before heating the mixture and once 40 minutes have gone by putting small teaspoon on the plate. If after a minute the marmalade wrinkles it's ready - if not bubble away for a couple more minutes and repeat. 
(As my freezer is in the garage which is quite some way from my kitchen - I'm not exaggerating I promise - I just did this by eye - it could have done with a few more minutes maybe but it's still pretty good)

4. Allow the mixture to cool for 10- 20 minutes and then ladle (or if you don't yet own a ladle like me use some measuring cups) the mixture into sterilised jars. Store in cool dry environment.

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Just a note on sterilising your jars - the best way I found to do this was to wash them in hot soapy water and then put them upside down in an 140°C oven for about 10 minutes.

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