The Funky Kitchen

Part of me wonders if the trepidation with which I approached this recipe is what made it not turn out. Like the Dog Whisperer or a lion tamer would say, “They can smell your fear.”

How exactly an orange develops a sense of smell, I don’t know, but those oranges knew I was worried about my marmalade making skills. Even if they didn’t smell my fear, they certainly didn’t agree to be good little oranges and turn into delicious marmalade.

We came into a glut of oranges because there was extra food left over after an exercise with Mister’s work, and to our house came a bunch of oranges, a watermelon, 3 loaves of garlic bread (mmm… garlic bread), and a 4 L carton of coleslaw…

the first salad I've ever seen in a carton, Mister says he likes it

I looked at my pile of oranges and immediately started dreaming of marmalade, sticky sweet marmalade, home made and sealed into jars all by myself. A very Dana type of dream to have. So I selected my recipe, read up on the chemical basis of jellying, researched points of view on marmalade making, and set out.

Has anyone else heard of warming sugar when making preserves? Darina Allen, the writer of the recipe I used for the marmalade, suggests heating the sugar you will be using in a metal bowl in the oven, so that the sugar is closer in temperature to the fruit component when it is added. She writes that warmed sugar will help the mixture return to a boil more quickly after the sugar addition, and the quicker the preserve is made the fresher it will taste. I definitely plan on trying this method again when I make a different preserve, as the rationale makes sense to me. My marmalade (or rather orange peel in juice) is fresh tasting, it just didn’t gel.

Next time there’s a stack of oranges in front of me, I will try again. I want to make my own marmalade, I just don’t know why it didn’t work. Any advice?

Whole Orange Marmalade

(from Darina Allen’s Forgotten Skills of Cooking)

4 1/2 pounds oranges

5 1/4 quarts water

5 Cups sugar

• Wash the oranges and put them into a very large saucepan or stock pot with the water.
• Put an inverted plate atop the oranges to help keep them submerged in the water.
• Bring to a simmer, and simmer for 2 hours until the oranges are quite soft.
• Remove the oranges from the water and reserve the liquid. Allow both to cool. (This is a good point to leave everything overnight, if you wish)
• Put a cutting board into a roasting pan or other container with sides so that you won’t lose any juice that escapes from the oranges.
• Cut the oranges in half, scoop out the soft centers. Slice the peel superfine and put the seeds into a cheesecloth bag.
• 
• Into the pot of reserved cooking liquid, add any juices escaped from the oranges, the sliced peel and the cheesecloth bag.
• Bring to a boil and reduce by half.
• Pour the sugar into an oven safe bowl, and heat it in a 300° oven for about 15 minutes. The sugar should not melt, though it will likely get sticky so it will form a mold of the bowl.
• Add the warmed sugar to the pot, stirring briskly until dissolved.
• Boil fast until the setting point is reached (this is what never happened for me).
• Pot in sterilized jars and seal immediately.

Oh how I wish these jars were not full of orange peel in syrup. Maybe it would be good on ice cream?  Do you have any preserving or marmalade making advice for this trepidatious cook?

I spent time this evening avidly forming plans. Plans of all the multitude of things I want this luxuriously good marmalade concoction to be slathered with, spooned on or spread over. I’m thinking of putting it in/on hamburgers, sandwiches, panini, crackers, scones, omelettes, meatloaf, kofta… and on and on and on.

Admittedly, I read this recipe a long time ago on a great blog, My Husband Cooks, but just hadn’t come to the point of making it even though I have thought of it often. Then, I realized that all of the things I have posted up here are baked goods, and started to worry over the fact that I’m giving the impression that the funky kitchen is only for baking. I cook too! So here we have it: what is most likely going to be my new favorite condiment, soon to be followed by a recipe that it can be used with. Not a baked goods recipe!

After spending ten or so minutes slicing onions (crying until I remembered to chew some gum), then caramelizing the whole lot of them (break out your big pan for this recipe, it’s a lot of onion to caramelize) and finally adding the wine and the balsamic vinegar to reduce away the final result is viscous, unctuous, savory-sweet bliss. Bliss that makes the house smell mouth-wateringly good. Bliss you can put in a jar and spread on things. It was totally worth the tears and the time.

Caramelized Onion Marmalade

(adapted from My Husband Cooks‘ Onion Marmalade)

3 slices thick cut bacon (increase to probably 5 slices if it is regular cut)

1 2/3 Tbsp (or 5 tsp) olive oil

3 pounds white onions, thinly sliced

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 cups red wine of choice

3/4 cup balsamic vinegar

• In a large pan on medium heat, cook the bacon, removing it after the fat has rendered.
• Add the olive oil, sliced onions and salt to the pan. Stir thoroughly to ensure all of the onions are coated.
• Cover the pan with a lid, and let most of the moisture come out of the onions, stirring occasionally. You will know the moisture is coming out when the onions wilt down and steam develops.
• Remove the lid, and let the onions caramelize. This will take a while, due to the quantity of onion, but make sure to stir often. Don’t let them burn!
• When the onions are lusciously brown, add both sugars, wine and the balsamic vinegar. Reduce, stirring almost constantly. There is a lot of sugar in that pan, both from the sugar and the onion. If you don’t keep an eye on it the sugar will burn.
• Reduction is complete when a spoon pulled across the pan leaves a channel that slowly oozes back closed. The marmalade will thicken more once it cools.

• When cool, spoon the marmalade into jars and keep it in the fridge until you are ready to spread some bliss over something.

Just as a note, the wine I used in the making of this marmalade was a 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon, nice and mellow with dark berry notes and just a little peppery. This is another nice recipe that you can sip along with as you cook.

Happy Easter! Ooh, I wonder if this would be good on paska?