so i bought this book. it had pretty good reviews on amazon and i wanted something relatively easy that would allow me to get a hang of the basics but with a somewhat modern twist. once it arrived i ogled the book - but of course, never got around to making anything. my parents have a white peach tree and i had hoped to try a recipe out of the book using the white peaches from their yard. but by the time i asked, the tree was done for the season. so it kind of got pushed to the back burner.
but every time i looked at the book in my pile of cookbooks, the urge to make a jam was there. and even though it seemed daunting, i knew that i wanted to. especially after i made the vanilla extract for the holidays. i read squid ink (the la weekly food blog) on a regular basis and i came across this post. which led me to this recipe for kumquat marmalade from food in jars. the best thing about it was that it was small batch. i couldn't wait to try it. the recipe said labor intensive, but i figured, i'd give it a try.
kumquat is one fruit that my parents don't have in their yard. the saturday over president's day weekend, i was going to meet up with some friends in anaheim, so i decided to get an early start and hit up the soco farmer's market that was sometimes mentioned on stick a fork in it (the oc weekly food blog). it's held every saturday morning in the parking of the soco collection and the oc mart mix. (which also allowed me to pop into portola coffee lab before meeting up with my friends!) it's a very small farmer's market (it's only one small portion of the torrance farmer's market which is the one i usually go to) and the selection is pretty limited. but the quality of the produce available is still great. i picked up about a pound of kumquats (to make the marmalade) as well as sweet limes, blood oranges, and beets.
i didn't get to it as fast as i had hoped, but i did get around to trying out the recipe. it is REALLY energy and labor intensive. if my sister didn't help me with prepping the kumquats, it would have taken a little bit longer. since i'm slow, it took me a good portion of the day from start to finish.
i started with just over a pound of kumquats, and followed the recipe exactly - 1.5 cups sugar and 2 cups water. the only thing that i had difficulty with was the time. it took a little longer than i thought it would, and even though i had 2 thermometers, i still had difficulty reaching the desired temperature of 220F even though i had surpassed the minimum 212F. good thing i had stuck in a saucer in the freezer so i could do the plate test. it passed the plate test with flying colors! the down side of the thermometer fiasco was the fact that i think i overcooked the jam. now that it's cooled, it's pretty stiff!
the bundle in the pot are the seeds and the inner membranes of the kumquats wrapped in cheesecloth. these contain the natural pectin needed for the marmalade to set.
i actually did the waterbath canning process and so my finished marmalade can be stored away for a bit. with the exception of the slight stiffness to the marmalade, i'm pretty happy with the results. it's not too sweet, and you still get the flavor of the kumquats and the slight bitterness it has when you eat the kumquat fresh.
the recipe yielded 2 half pint jars. and since i had just over a pound of kumquats when i started, i had just a little that didn't fit in the jars that i can enjoy right away. not that i couldn't pop open one of the jars i made, but at least i can savor it a little bit and enjoy the taste of kumquats when i can't find fresh ones. and as an aside i'm so loving these ball jars i found out at target!
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