Blood Orange & Vanilla Bean Marmalade
About those blood oranges. I found a few more of them. And so I turned them into marmalade. Because blood oranges tend to have a more mellow flavour and are less acidic, I thought they might get along well with vanilla.
Orange seeds contain pectin, so if you pull them out before (and while) slicing the fruit and put them into a tea ball, you can simmer it along with the oranges and sugar to utilize the pectin and easily extract them afterwards. My oranges had no seeds.
I went for it without, and it didn’t set. Not wanting to cook it to death and eventually produce candy, I cut an apple core into chunks and threw it in the pot – apples, and apple seeds in particular, are also high in pectin.
I pulled the chunks of apple out, not wanting them to turn to mush (horrors!) in my marvy marmalade. It remained soft, but I’d always choose a runny jam that a stiff, Jell-O-ey one.
Blood Orange & Vanilla Bean Marmalade
This recipe would work as well with seville oranges or really any variety you want to turn into jam; I might try it next with pink grapefruit.
3 large blood oranges (or regular oranges)
5 cups water
pinch salt
4 cups sugar
1 vanilla bean (optional)Cut the oranges in half and poke the seeds out; put them into a tea ball if you have one, otherwise wrap them in cheesecloth. Slice the oranges thinly and then chop them crosswise as big or small as you like. Put them (and the tea ball) into a pot with the water and salt and bring to a boil; simmer for half an hour. Turn off the heat and let it sit for a few hours or overnight.
Stir in the sugar and bring the mixture to a boil. Cook for about half an hour, or until the mixture gels; you can test it by dropping a small spoonful onto a saucer that you get nice and cold in the freezer while the marmalade simmers. Meanwhile, cut the vanilla bean lengthwise with the tip of a sharp knife and scrape out the seeds. When the marmalade is the consistency you like remove it from the heat, pull out the tea ball of orange seeds and stir in the scraped-out vanilla seeds. Divide into clean, warm jars and seal or cool completely and store in the fridge or freeze.
Makes about 4 cups.
April 19 2010 | preserves | 9 Comments »
