Over the last few years, I’ve devoted a cold, blustery, day in January making marmalade. My favorite marmalade is Mixed Citrus Marmalade with Rice Wine. I love how the smell of citrus infuses the kitchen, making me think of the tropics and wish for a trip to somewhere warmer.
A few years ago, Scott and I visited Belize in January and spent a week on Ambergris Caye. We rented an apartment in a residential neighborhood and I walked every morning to a nearby fruit and vegetable stand to purchase freshly squeezed juice. The vegetable stand was family-owned and while I waited for the owner to prepare my juice, I visited with her grandchildren and learned about the lives of children on the island. They told me about their school and showed me pictures they were drawing of the Big Blue Hole, a popular landmark for local divers. When I asked if they had been there, they said, “Oh no, it is much too scary!” We enjoyed that juice with breakfast along with local eggs, produced by nearly everyone living on the island, before we left for our daily sight-seeing activities. We traveled around the island mostly on foot, and so we enjoyed a lot of good tropical sunshine and exercise. We enjoyed that juice in cocktails most evenings before dinner, usually local seafood that was so fresh and some of the best fish I’ve ever had the pleasure to eat.
Back to the marmalade, I use the entire fruit. In this case I used a combination of pink grapefruit, oranges, and lemons. The zest is julienned and boiled in water to make it tender, and then the citrus segments are removed from the membrane and added to the zest along with sugar to cook down into yummy jam. The seeds and membranes are packaged in a cheesecloth pouch and boiled in the jam to add pectin, and then the packet is removed and discarded. A small amount of rice wine is mixed in right before I jar up the marmalade, adding a subtle mineral note to the finished jam.
All of the pith, rinds, and other trimmings are jarred up, topped with white vinegar, and aged a few weeks to make citrus cleaner. I love to use it in my mop water to add a natural citrus aroma and grease cutting power. Nothing goes to waste!
As for the best way to serve this marmalade, it is lovely to eat on a toasted English muffin or a croissant. You can also mix a couple of tablespoons with fresh berries that have been macerated with a small amount of sugar, and it makes a fancy dessert on top of a slice of pound cake finished with homemade whipped cream. Marmalade is also good to use along with meat in savory dishes. I especially like to add it to the sauce when I prepare orange chicken or beef stir fry. Yum!
What flavors do you dream of in January? What are your most innovative uses to finish up a jar of jam? Leave a comment and let us know what you are cooking up this January.
