Lemon Marmalade!

Having been given a big bag of HUGE lemons by a friend with a lemon tree (wish mine would start producing) I thought I had better make good use of them.  Two lemons weighed 900 grams!!

So, lemon marmalade it is... the theory is as follows:

1.  Lemons (look at the difference in size from the ones I was given and the one I already had from the supermarket).

2.  Cut them and juice them and then remove some of the pith (but keep it along with the pips).

3.  Shred the rind finely or thickly to taste but keep the pieces even sized (if you are not sure if the lemons are organic then you need to clean them thoroughly first to remove any wax coating or pesticides).

4.  Put the pith and pips into a muslin bag - or use the gadget thingy you got from Lakeland years ago and have never used before.

5.  Boil the shredded lemon rind and bag of pith and pips along with the juice until the rind is soft.  This may take some time.  Test the rind to make sure that it is soft before proceeding.

6.  Add the sugar and bring up to jam setting point and then boil until the marmalade is set.

Test for this by putting a plate in the freezer and every so often put a teaspoonful of hot marmalade onto the cold plate and wait for it to go cold... you should be able to see the tell tale wrinkles as you push the marmalade, this is the sign that it is ready to be jarred up.  Let the marmalade cool a little.

7.  Marmalade loves alcohol.  Not too much but just a little brings out the flavour of the fruit.  I couldn't get the lid off the Disaronno bottle so I added a tablespoon of port.  Port and lemon goes doesn't it?

8.  Sterilise the jars with boiling water and then fill the jars with the marmalade while they are still hot.

9.  Do not disturb for 24 hours.

Now the reality.  After 24 hours the marmalade had not set.  Even though it wrinkled perfectly when put on the cold plate.  Ho hum, its not the end of the world with marmalade or jam because you just re boil it until it does set.

That didn't exactly work either.  It turned very dark, very quickly and I had to take it off the heat.  It is thicker but its still more syrup than set marmalade and then when I put it on toast, not all of the rind is soft!!!!!  So.  Important things I have learned from this exercise.  Always shred the rind evenly.  Test for pectin before adding the sugar.  You do this by taking a little of the solution out and adding a drop or two of methylated spirits or denatured alcohol... this should cause the pectin to ball up... and the consistency of the ball (really thick or not) should indicate whether you need to add pectin or not.

 

The pith and pips is where the pectin resides which is why I added them back into the mixture but obviously these lemons are not high in pectin - which is quite unusual.

So.... have I wasted my time?  Nope.  It's still edible apart from the odd bit of thick peel which can be removed as you come across them.  And I have learned loads.  Don't be put off by difficult stuff... give it a go.  There is no such thing as failure!  (Well almost no such thing).

Parma Duck

No I don't think I can call it Parma Duck since it doesn't come from Parma and there is probably a protection on this particular name anyway... but in the same way that Parma Ham is a cured meat so is my version of it made with duck breast.

Firstly.  Take a duck breast and remove the skin.  Except I couldn't remove the skin because it was so firmly attached to the very thin layer of fat and I wanted to keep the fat layer.  Ideally you will ask for a really fatty duck breast - or grow your own.  The fat is quite important for the flavour.

Wash and dry the duck breast thoroughly.  Then mix together a large amount of slightly chunky sea salt and some fresh thyme.  Coat the duck in this and leave it in the fridge for 24 hours.  Give it a turn or a squidge around in the salt a couple of times during this period.

You will see a lot of moisture/water comes out of the breast.  After the 24 hours is up rinse off all the salt and thyme and again dry the duck breast thoroughly.

Wrap the breasts in clean (previously boiled is good) muslin and tie with string.

Hang it up in the fridge so that the air can get all around it and leave it there for two weeks.

Ah the joy of having an empty fridge just for special projects like this.

The duck can then be cut very very thinly and served on canapes or toast or with a salad for a light and tasty lunch.

The outdoor fridge comes into its own for things like this.

Sadly mine was still a little salty.  The error.... My sea salt was fine not chunky and it obviously penetrated the duck while curing during the first 24 hours.  I was quite disappointed but this was my fault not the recipe... sometimes you can cut corners and play fast and loose - which I do, often, but on this occasion it didn't work.  Hey ho... this is how a cook learns.

Rice Pudding Cake

As things start to get a little chilly here, and we are about to start the olive harvest too, I always feel the need for food a little more on the substantial side.

This is a recipe from Two Greedy Italians aka Antonio Carluccio (my hero) and Gennaro Contaldo.  I loved this programme, of course because of both their personalities but also because so much of the food was just so very honest and simple and tasty.

This recipe uses a lot of eggs - at the moment I am getting near enough 6 a day so I love recipes that are heavy on eggs.

Ingredients:  3 pints of milk (1.7 litres); 1 vanilla pod (I used a teaspoonful of vanilla paste); 1/2 lemon, zest only cut into large pieces (I used a zester and did not remove the lemon zest later); 7oz (200g) sugar; 10 1/2 oz arborio rice (300g); 5 large free range eggs, separated; 2floz (50ml) orange liqueur; 1 1/2 oz raisins (40g) I used double the amount and made half moscatel sultanas and half pre soaked dried figs (from Finca La Reina of course); 1 orange, zest only grated.

Dried figs chunks soaking

Method:  Preheat the oven to 180C and grease and line a 24cm (10 inch) loose bottomed cake tin with greaseproof paper.  I actually forgot to grease the sides but I did cover the base with paper.  It stuck to one tiny bit of the side of the tin, it could have been a lot worse... you should try not to forget to grease the tin.

Place the milk, vanilla pod (if using paste like me add it later when the mixture has cooled and you add the egg yolks), lemon zest and sugar into a large saucepan and bring to the boil.  Add the rice and then lower the heat and simmer gently for about half an hour or until it resembles a nice thick creamy rice pudding.  The original recipe says the rice should be al dente - or still have a little bite to it.  Mine was well and truly cooked but it hasn't affected the finished cake.

Remove from the heat and leave to cool.  At this point you should remove the vanilla pod (if using) and also the lemon zest chunks - unless they are nice and thin strips like mine were in which case I think its a matter of choice.  I transferred the rice pudding to a bowl to help it cool and added the fruit.

The original recipe says to whisk the egg yolks and liqueur until creamy.  I simply added them to the cool rice pudding along with the orange zest and orange liqueur and then stirred really well.

In another bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff.

 Then fold in the egg white and put into the tin.

This is simply a HUGE cake but don't worry if it comes right up to the top of your cake tin, it doesn't rise very much at all and shouldn't spill over.

Bake in the oven for one hour.  When it first comes out of the oven you will see that it has risen quite a bit.

But it starts to collapse as soon as it begins to cool.  That's what its supposed to do.

It can be served warm or cold sprinkled with a little orange zest (although it is already very rich I might add a dollop of cream too!)

 

 Enjoy Enjoy Enjoy!