Cara Caras, Meyers and Kumquats – Oh My!

Back in December, when a wide variety of citrus began showing up in the produce isle, I told myself to resist.  I had gone way, way overboard making citrus marmalades last year and still have quite a surplus.  I lectured myself that there was absolutely NO need for any more marmalade.  Despite the fact I was trying to talk myself out of even buying citrus, I ended up with three pounds of Cara Cara oranges, a pound of Meyer lemons and half of a pound of kumquats. 

No marmalade.  No marmalade.  No marmalade. 

Repeat the mantra.

The Meyer lemons and kumquats actually had purpose when I bought them.  I’d seen recipes for Preserved Lemons of the Maghreb and Salt & Pepper Preserved Kumquats from Hungry Tigress.  I think salt preserved citrus is an acquired taste, but one I developed quite readily - I love salt; I love citrus.  Making them couldn’t be easier:  quarter, seed, add salt and spices, cover, let sit in the sun and shake once a day.  Seven to ten days later you have salt preserved citrus. 

salt & pepper preserved kumquats and preserved lemons of the Maghreb

The Cara Caras are navel oranges with a lovely pink pulp.  There was no planning involved in buying them and they were the most difficult to resist making into marmalade.  Local Kitchen has a recipe for Cara Cara Chile Marmalada that sounds fabulous!  Instead though, I ended up eating them.  I did save all of the peels.  Candied peel is a project I’ve wanted to revisit. 



Last April I tried to candy the peels from some oranges and tangerines.  I failed miserably.  What I ended up with was a pot of burnt peels and sticky, thick syrup.  This is the first time I’ve attempted them since.  I’m happy to report more positive results.  Not walking away from boiling sugar syrup made a huge difference.

drying to slow way



The peels were boiled twice to remove some of the bitterness.  Most recipes I've read recommend three times, but personally I like some of the bitterness.  After that, I added four cups of water and two cups of sugar and brought it back to a boil for two to three minutes before removing them from the heat.  I let them sit overnight and repeated the boil and cool process over the next two days. 

drying the not-quite-as-slow way

On day three, I boiled them until they were almost translucent before letting them cool and removing them to a rack to dry.  Impatience got the better of me, however; and I chose to employ the dehydrator to speed up the process.  I dried them for the better part of a day at 95 degrees.

If I was going to serve these peels as a candy, I would coat them in granulated or turbinado sugar.  These, however, are going naked into the refrigerator for the next time I make pannetone.  I didn’t have any candied orange peel when I made pannetone for Christmas and it was missed.  I’m thinking I need to do some candied lemon peel, too.  And maybe grapefruit . . .

perfectly candied cara cara peels



Anonymous Citrus and Chile Pâte de Fruit

Yes, that’s correct:  Anonymous Citrus.  I could have called it “little, orange unidentified citrus fruits that finally grew on my tree and chile pâte de fruit” but I get annoyed by recipes with really long titles. 

The truth is that I still don’t know for certain what kind of tree I have.  I may never be certain.  I thought mandarins until I tasted one.  Then I thought calamondins.  Then I saw Shea’s Rangpur limes and that seemed like a very plausible option.  I do not know what these are.  What I do know is that they are small, extremely tart fruits on a thorny tree that put up so much of a fight when I tried to pick them that I had to clip the stems.  If there are any citrus experts out there, feel free to chime in with suggestions.

Beyond trying to figure out what kind of citrus I have, I’ve also had to figure out what to do with it.  As you may recall, the marmalade didn’t quite work out as well as I had hoped.  In light of that, I didn’t feel the need to make any more with the remaining six cups of prepared fruit.  Since these fruits seem to have a very high pectin content, I felt a pâte de fruit attempt was in order.  

All in all, these turned out better than I anticipated.  I was fairly certain they would set well, but I was more concerned about the taste.  To be honest, these probably will not be my favorite, but I was pleasantly surprised.  The more of them I ate, the more I liked them.  Since the fruits are so tart and lime-like and I think lime and chile are a fabulous combination, I added one-half teaspoon of cayenne.  You don’t even notice it at first.  At first, you get the sweetness from the sugar coating.  Then the tart from the citrus hits you as the pâte de fruit starts to melt in your mouth.  It’s not until you swallow that you notice the chile and then it heats up the back of your throat.  If you don’t like spicy, the cayenne could be reduced or completely omitted.

The recipe is below if you ever find yourself with a surplus of small, extremely tart citrus fruits.

(Apologies for the blurry pics.  I realized halfway through I forgot to change the settings on my camera.)

The set on this was nearly perfect. 

It cut like a dream - no swearing involved.

 

I rolled some in granulated sugar, some in turbinado.

Anonymous Citrus and Chile Pâte de Fruit

Equipment: 

digital scale; large (about 6 quart), heavy-bottomed pan; blender or food processor; mesh sieve; heat-proof silicon spatula; candy thermometer; parchment paper; 9 x 13 baking pan; containers for measuring out ingredients; baking sheet for finished candies

Ingredients:

12 - 13 Rangpur limes, calamondin oranges or other small sour oranges

579 g water, divided (575 g + 4 g)

1350 g granulated sugar, divided (135 g + 1215 g)

1/4 – 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (totally optional)

31 g powdered pectin (I used Ball flex-batch pectin)

200 g light corn syrup

4 g citric acid (also called sour salt)

Non-stick cooking spray

Granulated or turbinado sugar for rolling

Quarter the citrus and thinly slice, removing seeds as you go.  (Or check out Shea’s method of preparing citrus.)  Add the sliced citrus and 575 g of the water to the large pan.  Bring to a simmer over medium heat.  Simmer five minutes, remove from heat and let sit 8 hours or overnight.

Spray a little bit of the cooking spray on the bottom of the baking pan to keep the parchment in place.  Line it with parchment on the bottom and all sides.  I make diagonal cuts from the corners to make the parchment sheet fit in the pan better.  Lightly spray the parchment with cooking spray and set the pan aside.

After the fruit has sat and cooled, puree it with its liquid in batches in the blender or food processor.  Pour the puree through the mesh sieve into a container.  Rinse out the pan, set it on the scale and zero out the weight of the pan.  Measure 1350 g of the citrus puree into the pan.

Over medium heat, bring the puree up to 120°F on the candy thermometer.  Meanwhile, combine the 135 g of sugar with all of the pectin and stir to combine.  When the puree reaches 120°F, add the sugar/pectin mixture and stir well to dissolve.  Bring the mixture up to a boil.  (This may take some time.  Stir occasionally to keep from scorching on the bottom.)  When a full boil is achieved, boil for one minute then add the remaining sugar and the corn syrup.  Stir to dissolve the sugar. 

Continue to cook over medium heat until the mixture reaches 223°F.  (Of note, this is the standard temperature for pâte de fruit but I only made it to about 215°F when I realized mine was already beginning to set.  Use your own judgment.)  Mix the citric acid with the 4 g of water to form a slurry.  When the puree reaches 223°F, pour in the citric acid slurry and cook for 30 seconds.

Immediately pour the mixture into the prepared pan.  Allow the pâte de fruit to cool overnight.

The following day, remove the pâte de fruit from the pan.  Cut into cubes with a thin-bladed knife or cookie cutters sprayed with cooking spray.  Just before serving, coat with sugar and place in a single layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Marmalade Day 3 (or is it 4?)

The red onion marmalade:  I'm not mad at it at all.  I think it could be better and may try it again, but not until I work my way through and/or give away the nine half-pint jars I currently have.  So what does red onion marmalade taste like?  Think about the warm bacon vinaigrette on wilted spinach salads.  A lot like that without the bacon.  The things that I think could be better about the batch I made yesterday:  1) more onions.  A lot more onions.  2) The added pectin jelled it just a bit too much.  I was hoping for a softer spread.  Beyond that, even the hubs conceded, "that's not bad, Luv."  We sampled in on Cabaret crackers with Laura Chenel goat cheese crumbles.  Quite tasty.

Grapefruit, blood orange, and red onion marmalades

Today I'm finishing a citrus-ginger marmalade.  I spent a great deal of time prepping this one and will be attempting a natural pectin method.  All the membranes and seeds of the grapefruits, oranges and lemons went into a jelly bag that will later be vigorously squeezed to release the pectin.  With the time and effort involved in preparing this one, I'll be rather disappointed if it doesn't work.  But some things you never know until you try.

I'd be lying if I said today was my last day of marmalade.  I still have quite a few regular and Meyer lemons left, so tomorrow will probably contain lemon marmalade, which to date is my absolute favorite. 

I am anxious, however, to move on to stock.  I absolutely adore making stocks.  This time I'm going to attempt canning them in the pressure canner instead of freezing them and taking up valuable real estate in our tiny freezer.  I've never used a pressure canner before.  I'll be calling my daddy for some sage advice!