Capturing Sunshine in a Jar - Honey Blood Orange Marmalade (part 2)

I have decided that I am not going to break posts up anymore.  I have done it twice now, and while it worked really well the first time with Sauerbraten, this particular journey through preserving didn't turn out nearly as well. 

I had initially intended to use Honey in my Marmalade.  Well I did, but I only replaced half of sugar with honey because I was ill prepared and did not have enough to use ALL honey in my recipe.  On some level, considering the strength of the honey flavor in the Marmalade, I think I am glad that I did not have enough Orange Blossom Honey.  Even with only 1 1/3 cups of Honey in the recipe, the Honey is REALLY strong.

I first I thought it was a little strange that the honey should be so pronounced.  My parents ALWAYS canned their fruits and preserves with honey, when I was growing up, and the honey flavor wasn't this pronounced.  Then I remembered something.... Something deep in the back of my brain.  They didn't use Orange Blossom Honey or Clover Honey when they were canning and cooking; they used Vetch Honey.

(Image courtesy of The Peace Bee Farmer)

Vetch honey is extremely light and pale with little to no flavor other than "sweet".  It's perfect for canning purposes when you want the true flavor of the fruit to come through.  (Mom and Dad knew best)  Alas, it's almost impossible to find now days.  Which is a shame.  Vetch isn't being planted as a cover crop anymore, at least not here in the Pacific NW, so if you want it, you have to order it from a "Specialty Honey Supplier".  I hate ordering food products over the internet.  Besides, I am so use to using what's available in the store, that I didn't even think about it.  Don't get me wrong; Orange Blossom Honey is delicious, but I don't think it's a good Honey for canning.  Lesson Learned.

I suggest using the lightest honey you can find for this recipe.  Then it will be perfectly delicious!

Blood Orange Marmalade

Liquid, Zest, Membranes and Pips from Part 1 (that have been soaking all night)
Honey at the rate of 2/3 cup per cup of liquid
Sugar at the rate of 1 cup per cup of liquid

OK, now that the boiled mixture has sat overnight, it's time to remove the cheese cloth bundle.

Place it in a strainer and press out as much juice and pectin as possible.

Measure the liquid and zest you have.....  I had 5 cups, which you need to return to a large pot.

Now, if you are using Honey, I suggest a 2/3 cup per 1 cup of liquid ratio.  If using sugar, the standard is 1 cup Sugar per 1 cup of liquid.
I used 1 1/3 cup Honey, cause that was all I had left (I thought I had another jar in the pantry)

and 3 cups of Sugar.

Place the mixture over medium high heat and stir until everything is dissolved.

Place a thermometer in the pot and boil until it reaches 220 degrees.

While the marmalade is boiling, place your jars on a baking sheet and move them to a 225 degree oven to warm up. (I did 8, I only needed 6)

Place your water bath kettle over high heat and bring to a boil.

Boil your lids in a small amount of water in a sauce pan for 5 minutes, then remove from the flame and set aside.

Once the mixture has reached 220 degrees, remove the pot from the flame and skim the foamy goo off the top.

Remove the jars from the hot oven, carefully, and ladle the hot mixture into the jars, leaving 1/4 inch of room at the top.

Hold each jar with a pot holder, and wipe the threads of the jars with a damp paper towel before placing lids on top and screwing down the rings.

(See the mess on the pan in the back? That is where I forgot to grab the jar with a pot holder and spilled a whole jar all over the floor when I tried to wipe the rim - oops!)

Carefully lower the jars into the boiling water, bring back to a boil if necessary.

Process for 5 minutes, unless you are above 1000 ft, then process for 10 minutes, before carefully removing the jars from the hot water and placing them on a folded towel.... then wait until you hear a popping noise coming from the jars (they seal as they cool)

Store in a cool dry place until you are ready to pop open a jar,

and enjoy on a scone or, my personal favorite, Portland French Bakery's "Seeded Harvest".

A sultry russet sunset on toast!  Yum!

Mangia!!
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Capturing Sunshine in a Jar - Honey Blood Orange Marmalade (Part 1)

Spring is a bittersweet time for me.  Sweet, as the tree buds begin to unfurl with that intense green, bringing the land back to verdant life.  Bitter, for I must bid a sad farewell to my favorite winter time treats.  For it is the Spring that heralds the end of Blood Orange and Meyer Lemon season.  :(  But all is not lost.  At least not this year.

I watched.  I waited.  I planned.  I schemed.  I snatched up some of the last Blood Oranges that were available this year.    Muah ha ha ha ha!  

Now is the time to set my master plan in motion........  to preserve their Blood Orange-ness, to be enjoyed during the Spring, Summer and Autumn months which, though overflowing with warmth and sunshine, are sadly devoid of the bright and sunny flavor of Blood Oranges.

Blood Orange Marmalade is my master plan.  It's a bit of a departure from the famous Dundee brand Marmalade, made with Seville Oranges, but I feel that this is the best way for me to preserve my Blood Oranges for future enjoyment.

There is no way around it.  Making marmalade is more time consuming than making jam or jelly.  It's a big chore, and as such, it takes a couple days.  Granted, 8 -12 hours of that is waiting time.  So technically, if you started early in the morning, you could make it in a single day.  I didn't get started till this afternoon, so it will take me 2 days to complete.

This is mainly because I am being stubborn.  I know, you are gasping with surprise, right?   The whole process can be sped up if you add powdered or liquid pectin from the store, BUT I am all about the good old fashioned way of doing it.  The way it was done before you could buy pectin in a box, or pouch, from the grocery store.  You see, the membranes and pips of the orange contain a significant amount of pectin.  So I am boiling and soaking them to release as much pectin as possible in order to achieve a good set on my marmalade.  I feel that it will give my marmalade a more authentic flavor.  Then again, maybe not.... Who knows, it's not like store bought pectin actually tastes like the apples that it is made from.  So lets just call it an OCD moment and leave it at that. :)

I am breaking the post up into 2 parts, simply because of the wait time on the pectin transfusion.

So let's get started, cause day 1 takes the most effort........

Blood Orange Marmalade

9 Blood Oranges
2 Lemons
6 cups Water
1-2 cups Orange Blossom Honey (this will be determined by the amount of liquid you have left over after you simmer the juice and zest together with the membranes)
1-2 cups Granulated Sugar (again, this will be determined by the amount of liquid you have left over after you simmer the juice and zest together with the membranes)

Begin by removing the peel from the Blood Oranges with a vegetable peeler. (this will take off the outer layer and leave most of the pith behind.... The pith is bitter, so you don't want that part.)

Next, julienne the peelings to your chosen size. (I like mine very finely julienne, you can opt for simply chopping if you like, or mincing, or dicing, or matchsticks... Your choice)

This is the part that takes the most time.... because I wanted my strands of peel to be super fine.
You should end up with about 2 cups worth of Blood Orange Zest.

Place the julienne zest into a medium pot and cover with about 6 cups of water.

Bring to a boil, then simmer for 1 hour.

While the zest is simmering, begin juicing the Blood Oranges and the Lemons. (be very careful with the Blood Oranges, the pith is much more delicate and they will rip and tear very easily)

Filter the juice into a measuring cup, reserving the pulp.

Your should have 2 cups worth of juice.

Next, begin scraping the remaining membranes or the Blood Oranges, as well as the Lemons, away from the piths using a knife or a spoon; whichever is easiest for you.

Place all the scraped membranes, pips and the pulp you strained out of the juice into a large doubled square of cheese cloth.

Tie the cheese cloth into a nice little bundle with kitchen twine.

The zest should be done cooking by now, so strain it and reserve the liquid.  (You should have about 4 cups.)

Add 4 cups of the zest liquid, along with the zest, into a large pot.

Add the strained juice.

Place the bundle of membranes, pips and pulp into the pot as well.

Bring to a boil, and simmer for an additional 30 minutes.

Remove from the heat and cover.... letting it sit for 8-12 hours and allow as much pectin as possible to permeate the liquid.

And that is the first part....   Whew!

Stay tuned for Day 2 when we turn this sticky messy Blood Orange Soup into beautiful jars full of sunshine.

Mangia!!
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Food & Wine and Fennel - Risotto al Finocchio

Over the years that I've been posting anecdotes, recipes, and pictures, as well as some exceedingly boring stories of my childhood, here on Culinary Alchemy, I have made no bones about the fact that I adore Fennel.  Sadly, that adoration sometimes borders on obsession.  But I figure, hey, if I don't blog and talk about how delicious fennel is, then who will?

Honestly, I believe it is one of those vegetables that gets ignored in the United States.  We just don't consume enough fennel here.  Then again, we don't consume many leeks either.  But that is another post.  It could be because all the grocery stores mistakenly label it "anise"... Silly grocery stores.  They don't even look alike.

This is Anise.......

Which looks more like Yarrow or a flowering Fern......

This is Fennel......

Fennel looks like Dill Weed, but with an edible white bulb at the bottom.

So now that we have established that grocery store owners are obviously not botnists....

Let me dispel the myth that Fennel tastes like Licorice.  It doesn't, not really.  At least the bulb and fronds don't really taste like licorice... Sweet, yes.  Licorice-y, not so much.  The seeds on the other hand?  Well, I'll give ya that one. They do have a flavor that is decidedly similar to anise seed and/or licorice root.  The active ingredient, that most people perceive as licorice-ness, is Anethole.  It is found in the Fennel seeds in much higher concentrations than the leaves, stems or bulb of the plant.  The funniest part about this is that actual licorice root contains only an infinitesimal amount of this "anethole".  The flavor of licorice really comes from a chemical called "glycyrhhizin" which is 30-50 times sweeter than table sugar.  Unlike sugar, it's sweet flavor builds up and then lingers afterwards.  In essence, it pummels your taste buds with sweetness. Then it continues to linger and hang around like an unwelcome house guest.  So, technically, the flavor of licorice is really nothing more than a taste bud overload.  This is very different from the "fresh" taste of the anethole found in Anise, Star Anise and Fennel.  Though to be fair, candy manufacturers cheat and use anise and fennel oils in their licorice products as a filler for the more expensive glycyrhhizin.

If you want to taste REAL licorice, you'll have to order it over the internet from the Netherlands or possibly Italy, where they revel in the true flavor of the root.   

The point though, is that we should ALL be consuming more anethole.  It's GOOD for you.  I cannot stress this fact enough.  Anethole is an Anti-Inflammatory as well as a Cancer fighter.  Anethole has the amazing ability to shut down the inter-cellular signaling system called tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-mediated signaling.  By doing such, it prevents the release of an inflammation-triggering molecule called NF-kappaB.  Being high in vitamin C is also a bonus, since it's a water soluble antioxidant that boosts your immune system and assists in keeping your joints lubricated.  It also contains a healthy dose of Folate, which is necessary to convert the blood vessel damaging Homocysteine into less dangerous molecules.

It's a boon to the cook due to the fact that ALL parts of the plant are edible and taste slightly different, thus it provides multiple textures as well as multiple degrees of flavor depending.  The bulb is almost celery like in texture making it perfect in cooked preparations as well as being eaten raw.  The stems are more tender and great for seasoning soups.  The delicately flavored feathery leaves are excellent in salads for both texture and beauty.  The seeds, which come from a different cultivar than the bulb/stem/leaves, are of great importance when making sausages. I think you would be surprised to find how many different sausages contain fennel seeds, in varying amounts of course, but they are there.  Then there is the infamous fennel pollen.  What can I say?  It's the strongest flavored of them all, so a little goes a long way.

This is obviously one of my soap boxes.  I simply love the stuff.  All parts of it. So imagine how thrilling it was to see that the last issue of Food & Wine magazine featured a Risotto recipe containing Fennel.  I was absolutely beside myself with giddy delight.  Risotto is the great love of my life, and pairing it with one of my favorite vegetables is enough to throw me into a swoon. (I guess I truly am a food geek)

I had to change the recipe slightly though.  Not that I think I am an expert of anything, but I felt there was something missing from the recipe when I read it.  I do cook A LOT of fennel, so I am fairly opinionated as to how it should be cooked and what it should be augmented with. (OK, that does make me sound just a bit ego-centric doesn't it?)  How bout if I just say, "I know what I like with my Fennel".  I stayed open minded until the very end, and followed the recipe... but when I tasted it, right before removing from the heat to let it rest, I was right, it was missing "something"....  Citrus is always the perfect accompaniment to fennel.  In fact, I think it tastes a little odd if it's missing...  Thus, my addition.

Fennel Risotto

(Risotto al Finocchio)

3 cups Chicken Stock
1 cup Water
2 TB Olive Oil
1/4 of a Fennel Bulb, finely chopped
1/2 a Shallot, minced
1 cup Arborio Rice
1/4 cup White Wine (Look for citrus flavors)
1 TB Butter
Zest of 1/2 an Orange (Blood Orange, Meyer Lemon or Minneola are nice) 
1 oz Ricotta Salata or Mizythra

Combine Chicken Stock and Water in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. (Please note the gratuitous shot of my Corningware 4 cup Sauce Maker)  LOL

Heat olive oil in a saute pan set over medium flame.

Add the Fennel ans Shallot, sweating them slowly (about 15 minutes) until they start to caramelize and turn soft and sticky.

Add the Rice and cook until it begins to smell nutty.

Add the white wine and stir until absorbed.

Begin adding stock, and stirring, one ladle at a time.....

Continue adding the stock until the rice it al dente and well coated in creamy goodness.
Remove from the flame and add Butter and Orange Zest, then cover and let rest for 3-5 minutes.

Stir the risotto and serve with shaved Ricotta Salata or Mizythra.

I opted to try the Lamb Sausage as well and serve them together.....

The Risotto was phenomenally delicious, but the lamb sausage was a little TOO warm and pretty much masked the fennel as well as the lamb itself.  I will cut the red pepper flake in half the next time.

Mangia!!
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Wordless Wednesday - Fennel Risotto with Lamb Sausage

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