marmalade

Lime Marmalade-Make It Spicy and Boozy

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This is the season for small Mexican limes. Trees are usually very prolific and owners are happy to share the harvest. They are also available in produce sections of some store, particularly in the Southwest.

I live a five-hour drive from some glorious Mexican beaches along the Gulf of California. When I was younger, we often headed there on camping trips. As soon as we crossed the border, we’d buy a bag of Mexican limones from kids hawking them on the street and a bottle of tequila. A few sucks on the limes and a few swigs of the tequila and our vacation had begun. It’s Carolyn with you today. My days of crashing on the beach in a sleeping bag are over, but the love of the flavors that evoke our earlier adventures remains. Today I’ll show you how to combine those flavors into an adults-only marmalade.

This is the best season for the small limes called limones in Mexico or Mexican or Key limes elsewhere. If you live in a warm climate and have a friend with a tree, they will probably be happy to give you some. They are also widely available in grocery stores. Spike them with tequila or mescal and maybe jalapeño and you’ve got a treat made for gift giving. But keep some for yourself.  This is an adaptation of a recipe from the 1965 version of “Joy of Cooking” that I have used for all my citrus marmalades for decades.

This is all you need to make a delicious lime marmalade: limes, sugar, some tequila or mescal, and a jalapeno

While tequila will work just fine, I prefer mescal for the smoky distinctive flavor. The soaking steps are to make sure the the rinds are very soft and almost melt into the rest of the marmalade.

Here’s the marmalade happily boiling and getting thick.

The thermometer registered 220 degrees but had risen another degree in the time it took me to focus the camera. Moves fast at this point.

Boozy Spicy Lime Marmalade

(Makes 3 cups)

1 cup ground Mexican limes (11-12)

3 cups water

3 cups sugar

1 small jalapeño (optional)

1/4 -1/2 cup tequila or mescal

Quarter the limes and remove any seeds. Slit the jalapeno lengthwise and remove seeds and ribs. If you are using a food processor, add the quartered limes and jalapeno and process until all pieces are very fine. If you are using a blender, add the quartered limes and jalapeno and one cup of the water. Whirl until all rind pieces are fine.

Add fruit mixture to a large pot and add three cups of water or just two if you already used one cup in the blender. If any larger pieces of rind made it through, take them out and chop or slice finely. Let this sit for at least 12 hours. This softens the rind. (No, don’t get up at 2 a.m. if this is when the 12 hours are up. Proceed when convenient.) Bring the mixture to a boil and let sit for at least another six hours.

During the wait time, you can collect your jars. You will need enough jars for 3 cups. Sterilize them by covering with water and bringing to a boil or run them through a hot dishwasher cycle. If you use standard jars with two-part lids, they will seal. If you use recycled jars that don’t seal, you will need to store the marmalade in the refrigerator. Place the clean jars on clean newspaper or a kitchen towel.

When ready to proceed, add the sugar to the fruit, stir to combine, and bring the mixture to a slow simmer. Cook until it registers 220 degrees on a thermometer. This will take about 30 minutes. If you don’t have a cooking thermometer, take out a little and put it on a saucer in the freezer. (Turn the heat off under the marmalade while doing this.) If it firms up after 5 minutes, it’s done. If not, keep cooking. Watch closely. Once the temperature is reached, pour in the tequila or mescal. It will bubble furiously while the alcohol burns off. You’ll have to cook a little while longer to bring the temperature back up. At the end the temperature goes up quickly. Stir, scraping the bottom, very frequently to keep it from sticking and burning.

Ladle into jars. The marmalade will firm up as it cools over the next day.

(Note: If you’d like to make this quite spicy, add either more jalapeno or a small serrano chile.)

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Carolyn Niethammer is a cookbook writer and cooking teacher. Find more Southwestern recipes in The New Southwest Cookbook and Cooking the Wild Southwest on-line or ask your favorite bookstore to order for you. Discover why Tucson was named a UNESCO City of Gastronomy in her book A Desert Feast: Celebrating Tucson’s Culinary Heritage.

Citrus Season is Time for Marmalade

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Mix citrus for a delicious marmalade with my favorite recipe.

It’s Carolyn Niethammer here today to share my favorite recipe for citrus marmalade. It comes from an early version of The Joy of Cooking that I received as a gift in 1965. The most recent Joy of Cooking doesn’t even have an entry for jams though I hear there is a resurgence of interest in making them. I love citrus marmalade, but don’t like the overly sweet grocery-story version. I like a little bitterness, more like the English version rather than the American style.  I’ve used this recipe for at least 30 years, varying the proportion of fruit according to what I have.

Some of the oranges come from a Sweet Orange tree in my front yard that my husband as a small child planted with his dad, Dr. Leland Burkhart, a half time extension agent, half time college ag professor.  Dr. Burkhart used to travel all over the state consulting with citrus growers. Since my own grapefruit tree died, I have to snitch a few of those from my neighbors. I also gather a few sour oranges from street trees in the neighborhood because I like the tang it gives my marmalade.  If you don’t have access to free fruit, the farmer’s markets are full of all varieties right now.

Farmers’ markets in the Southwest have abundant citrus for sale now.

Although I have been using this recipe successfully for years, a couple of years ago I decided to get fancy and carefully cut away all the white pith on the inside of the fruit rinds. Then the mixture simply would not jell no matter how long I cooked it. So….I learned this is where the pectin is, what makes the marmalade thicken up. Leave the white stuff on; it disappears during the soaking and cooking.

Use whatever fruit you have; don’t worry about the proportions. You could use all lemons. Last year I foraged an abundance of kumquats and used those. You might decide to make your version of spring marmalade special by adding some thinly slice barrel cactus fruit, or a little prickly pear juice if you have some, or even some berries. This is a very adaptable recipe. I always try to stress experimentation. Here’s a place to construct your own signature jam to your special taste preference.

The recipe is very easy, but you have to start the process a few days before you plan to do the cooking. The fruit soaks and softens in a corner of your kitchen. During the days when the fruit is soaking, gather up your jars. If you have those with the sealing lids, fine. If not use any jars. Put them in your biggest pot, cover with water, and boil for a few minutes to sterilize. If you don’t have the lids with the rings that seal, be sure to refrigerate the jam until use. If you give it away, caution the receiver not to stick it on a shelf and forget it.

I use whatever jars I have for the marmalade.

Mixed Citrus Marmalade

1 grapefruit

3 oranges

3 lemons

Sugar

Scrub the fruit, cut each in quarters, and remove the seeds. Slice very thinly. Measure the amount of fruit and juice and add 3 times the amount of water. Set aside and let the fruit soak for 12 hours. Simmer for about 20 minutes. Let stand again for 12 hours.

For every cup of fruit and juice, add ¾ cup sugar. Divide into two pots if you have them or cook one half at a time. Cook these ingredients until they reach 220-222 degrees F. on a food thermometer . It will seem like it takes a long time at first and then at the end it moves rapidly. If you don’t have a food thermometer, once you think it’s looking a little thicker, turn off the heat, put a little of the jelly on a china plate and put it in the freezer for a minute. If it firms up, it is ready. If it is still liquid, cook for a little while longer. It usually firms up a bit more once it cools in the jars.

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Ready for another challenge? It was a rainy winter this year in the Southwest which means lots of edible wild desert plants. You can find recipes for 23 of the  easiest to gather and the tastiest in my book Cooking the Wild Southwest available from Native Seeds/SEARCH and from on-line stores.