Category: Suburban Life

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Kumquats are small, orange oval shaped citrus fruit. The inside is sweet and delicious and is wrapped in a skin that is thin, tart and edible. They are rich in nutrients, the skin is high in antioxidants and they make amazingly delicious marmalade.

I was asked how I made Kumquat Marmalade after I mentioned in a previous post. Try it!

We picked about three kilos of kumquats. Typically the trees are quite small but unless they’re pruned they can become tall and this makes the fruit difficult to harvest.

I washed the fruit in the sink and patted it dry with a towel.

Kumquats are quite small, so I cut off the top and the bottom, then halved the remaining fruit, flicked out the pips and kept them, then cut the halves in half! Preparing the fruit for cooking is a lot of work but worth it.

Then I processed the cut up fruit in three batches to ensure the skin was finely chopped then put it all in a microwave proof bowl to cook.

I couldn’t find any muslin, so I  tied the pips and cut off tops and bottoms in a Chux (a kitchen wiping cloth), securing it with kitchen string and added it to the flesh while it was cooking. This provided the pectin, the natural setting agent to the jam. It looks very unattractive!

You need to weigh the fruit at this stage and measure out 75% of its total weight in sugar to add during cooking.

I cooked the fruit on HIGH for eight minutes, stirring it once during the process.

Add the sugar and stir before microwaving for ten minutes, stirring, microwaving again for ten minutes and stirring. Be sure to mix in all the sugar from the edges. So, eight minutes, then add sugar, then ten minutes and then another ten minutes and then test for readiness for bottling.

I dropped a teaspoon of the hot jam onto a saucer and let it cool before running my finger across it to check if it was ready to bottle. The skin wrinkled and held its shape, so I poured the marmalade into sterilized jars. If it wasn’t ready I would have cooked it in five minute bursts until the saucer test worked.

I wash the jars in the dishwasher then just before I’m ready to pour in the marmalade I pour boiling water into then and pour it out using tongs. They dry out almost instantly. I also pour boiling water over the lids before I use them.

Kumquat marmalade, made from fruit and sugar and nothing else! It smells wonderful and tastes delicious and I know I will be making more very soon.

Today is Good Neighbour Day, so say hello to your neighbours, ask them in for a chat or just give them a wave.

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Look at these beautiful winter foods! We’ve had a lot of rain this winter and citrus fruit has been plentiful. I’ve made jams, lemon meringue pie, lemon drizzle cakes and all sorts of salads, sauces and marinades with limes, pink grapefruit and lemons. My husband says the mandarins are the best. I gave up on my mushroom farm  and bought these luscious, big brown mushrooms. I am the only one who eats them….lucky me!

The last of the passion fruit. They were heavy and full of pulp and I was going to make passion fruit butter, but we just ate them instead.

Lovely lemons made a lovely lemon meringue pie.

Put leftover bread in the oven while the spinakopita, a fetta and spinach pie, cooked and then processed the toasted pieces to make breadcrumbs. I’ve made chicken, beef and turkey rissoles  almost every week this winter and they all call for breadcrumbs.

Spinakopita. I used to make this years ago and made it again for a vegetarian friend and have kept making it. Really enjoying the contrast of flavours. Delicious hot or cold.

A busy day and sushi for dinner. We really enjoy sushi and there’s leftovers for lunch the next day. We always order from the same place.

Fresh mussels were $4 a kilo at The Boatshed  so I cooked them in white wine until the shells popped open, then sprinkled them with parsley and poured them into  bowls with crusty bread. So fresh and so tasty.

Made a big pot of soup using carrots, cauliflower, celery, a swede, a parsnip, an onion and some potato plus homemade stock. I fried the onions first in a splash of olive oil then added the other vegetables and the stock and let it boil until it was soft, then used a Bamix to puree it all. Forgot to take a photo as we were too busy eating it!

This Kleenmaid Brandt double oven is nearly twelve years old and has been used almost every day. It has been very good, until it wasn’t; the ON/OFF dial stopped working. The electrician came and the replacement part was going to take three months to arrive, cost a frightening amount of money and then needed to be installed. By the time he’d had shown me another problem he’d have to fix, I knew the answer was a new oven.

Set off intending to get another white oven but that wasn’t possible. Oven shopping isn’t fun and when we found a stainless steel double oven with the qualities we wanted we bought it.

Old oven out, new oven in. So glad the cavity was a standard size and the new oven slipped in and was screwed into place. Then we had to run it for 30 minutes. It smelt awful but has been fine ever since. I baked a loaf of sourdough the next morning. The new oven has the ability to be set at 40 degrees to prove bread dough, one of 50 cooking programs and is pyrolytic, or self cleaning. Steep learning curve!

Recently we visited a cousin’s farm and lunch ended with cheese, crackers and quince paste. Delicious.  I had three quinces so made some paste myself. Quinces are unfashionable and hard to get and not very attractive. They cannot be eaten raw and need to be cooked for a long time with sugar. They go from white fresh to a gorgeous pink when they’re boiled or baked and taste great.

To make QUINCE PASTE, peel, core and cut up 2 kilos of quince. Bring to the boil with half a cup of water (125ml) in a heavy based pan, reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. It should now be a thick pulp.

Puree in a blender or with a stick blender then weigh the puree and add 250gm sugar for every 500gm of puree. ( I reduced the sugar by 50gm and it is still very sweet ) Return to saucepan, simmer for 45 minutes uncovered, stirring regularly then pour the mixture into a baking dish, about 2.5 cm deep, lined with parchment paper and allow to cool.

The paste was still runny, so I put it in a moderate oven for 35 minutes, then allowed it to cool and it was glossy and firm. I cut it into rectangles and wrapped it in parchment paper.

The paste needed to be stirred regularly while it simmered for 45 minutes so I made crepes, too, using batter made of the “discard” from the sourdough mother/starter I use for sourdough bread, with an egg and almond milk added. So,  pour crepe batter into pan and swirl to spread, stir paste, walk from one end of the house to the other ( 75 steps) flip the crepe, stir the paste and walk. Repeat until all the batter was  cooked and the paste was ready to pour into a dish.

Quince paste, or Dulce de Membrillo in Spanish, is a delicacy eaten with cheese and crackers.

Served the crepes with strawberries seeped in kirsch and icing sugar, plus lemons and sugar. Very nice weekend lunch.

PLUTO. On the 24th of August, 2009, following intense debate, astronomers decided to demote Pluto from being a planet, so, officially, there are now eight planets in the solar system. Pluto is now a dwarf planet.

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I was very interested when a friend mentioned she’d made marmalade in the microwave and decided to experiment. This seemed a quick and easy way to replenish our marmalade supply and use up some of the winter citrus crops.

The same friend gave me large, luscious pink grapefruit so I decided to use them to make marmalade. This was so successful I will try the same method to make lime and kumquat marmalade, too, as I have access to both at the moment.

To begin, I scrubbed two grapefruit, weighing one kilo, then peeled them using a potato peeler.

Using a sharp vegetable knife I cut the peel into thin strips, which released the wonderful aroma of the oil in the peel.

I carefully removed as much pith as I could, then cut the grapefruit into segments making it easier to remove any remaining pith and seeds.

Put the fruit ( about two cups) with their juice and peel into a large microwave safe bowl with two cups of sugar. Cooked it on HIGH in 5, five minute bursts, stirring at the end of each five minutes. I dropped some on a saucer at the end of four five minute bursts (20 minutes) and thought it was not ready and repeated this after the fifth session and thought it was just right and it was thick and ready.

I had washed the jars in the dishwasher earlier but put them in the sink and poured boiling water over them and the lids before emptying them and leaving them to air dry on the sink.

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The marmalade was thick, rich and not too sweet, so just as my husband likes it. Chunky with peel and fruit pulp, it smells and tastes wonderful. I’ll be making marmalade this way in the future.

This is the first time I have made marmalade in the microwave. This way is much quicker than making it in a pot on the stovetop and seems less sticky, too, but I don’t know why! Two very big pink grapefruit made two jars of marmalade so next time I will double the proportions.

Set the table for lunch. We’re a family who like serviettes/napkins but I don’t like washing and ironing small, elegant ones, so years ago I bought a set 0f three similar tea towels and we use them instead. They are a generous size and are 100% cotton so wash well. I no longer iron them. They come off the line and straight back into use on the table.

First thing I made this morning was French Onion Soup for our lunch. I peeled and thinly sliced four onions and cooked them in a little butter until they were translucent, then stirred through a dessertspoon of plain flour. Next I added 1 lt of water and 110 ml of white wine and let it cook for about half an hour, stirring every now and then. Seasoned to taste. Served four.

I didn’t have any ovenproof bowls so toasted the sliced baguette topped with gruyere cheese under the grill and put slices on top of the soup. Delicious.

My husband and son went out to get the cheese for the soup and returned with some surprises, too. We had one box of the bakery treats with coffee after the soup and then settled to the weekend papers. I also have the sourdough “mother” out in the weak winter sun, hoping it will bubble and froth enough to start a loaf this evening so I’m going in and out, checking on it, but think I will have to slightly heat the oven and put it on the door for a while.

The other box of treats was enjoyed at dinner time. Pretty colours, delicate flavours and very easy to eat! We always get macarons from the same place and they are always very good.

While things were boiling and bubbling away I went out and collected the seeds from the basil plant, put them in a paper bag and hung them to dry until it is time to replant.

Today is International Beer Day, recognizing breweries, brewers, bartenders and, of course, beer itself.

Beer has been enjoyed since about 6000BC. Ancient civilizations considered beer a food staple. Often, it was more pure and safer to drink than many water supplies.

So celebrate International Beer Day today with your chosen brew!

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