Driving around my neighbourhood, I see a lot of gardens with ripe fruit and I wonder why people plant these trees and don't use the fruit. It seems such a waste! Am I cheeky enough to knock on their door and ask if I can have some. I see a number of local orange trees that are just bursting with fruit.
In a previous house I lived in, we had two orange trees in the garden and we couldn't give enough away. I was happy for anyone to take a box of oranges so I didn't have to eat them all. I hope someone tells me they have oranges to give away soon, because I have a few new ideas to work on and I do love fresh oranges and orange juice. Orange sorbet? Orange Vegan ice cream?
But back to marmalade!
This is the first grapefruit marmalade I have made, because I generally use Navel or Seville oranges. This recipe is a hodge-podge of ones I have used when making orange marmalade. Also from a little research to find an easier way to deal with the peel and the bitter pith instead of spending hours cutting and slicing.
My biggest problem in making this was that I ran out of gas part way through the first 40 minute cooking, even though my husband had checked it the day before and announced that we had 3/4 of a tank full. (we rely on bottled gas in this part of the hills). When the gas ran out I had to wait for the grapefruit to cool down, put it back in the fridge and wait for a gas delivery the following day before I could resume cooking- so that added an extra day of it sitting in the fridge! Not sure what difference this made, if any.
I was very surprised at how quickly the fruit boiled up once I had added sugar and the set was quite robust. The marmalade has a nice tang to it because of the whisky I added and it certainly doesn't have any bitter pithy taste. The whisky has the alcohol cooked out of it but it does give it a great warming taste and the colour is a beautiful caramel.
I will be sure to take a jar to my scottish friends when we go for dinner tomorrow evening!
Grapefruit Whisky Marmalade
Ingredients
Grapefruit - 2 kilos of fruit
Sugar - 2 kilos
whisky - 1/2 cup
Juice of 2 lemons
Water
You can change the quantity of fruit and sugar to suit how much you want to make.
Wash and dry fruit. Don't worry about taking out the pips, that comes later.
Cut the grapefruit into quarters and finely slice.
Place in a large stainless steel pan and cover with water.
Leave to soak overnight.
Following day, bring pan to the boil and cook for approximately 40 minutes until the fruit is very soft. You will notice that over the next hour or so that the fruit is cooking, the pips will rise to the surface. You can take them off using a slotted spoon and discard.
After 40 minutes, add the sugar and stir until it has dissolved. Add lemon juice and bring back to the boil.
Continue to boil until the marmalade reaches setting point (See blog post on cherry jam for setting point and bottling information)
This takes approximately 50 - 60 minutes, but keep checking to make sure the fruit is not catching on the bottom of the pan.
Once it has reached setting point, add whisky, cook for 3 minutes to burn off the alcohol and then turn off, allow 10 minutes for it to cool and spoon into prepared jars.
I ate this the very next day, but it may be better if left for a while for flavours to develop.
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