Favourite Quotes

" When I can no longer create anything, I'll be done for"
Coco Chanel



Marmalade Tutorial

Hello friends, hope you are keeping warm in the freezing weather hitting Europe right now, we have had frost here for the first time in the 10 years I have lived on the Costa Blanca. This means not just an extra cold house to heat (with no insulation, no central heating and no carpets) but luke-warm showers and gas fires that struggle to stay alight. (The butane gas changes into a jelly in very low temps and will not burn...)
Am I downhearted, no! Well not for long anyway, the best way to keep warm is to cook up a storm in the kitchen, so the marmalade factory has been going strong. If you have never made your own Seville orange marmalade I invite you to try, nothing tastes as good in my opinion and its not difficult. Here we go....

 Weigh out approx 1kg of Seville oranges plus one lemon, or a mix of grapefruit, oranges and lemons (Three fruits is my favourite). Cut in half and squeeze the juice out. Collect the pips in a bowl with a muslin square in it.
 You will need a deep aluminium pan and 2kgs of sugar too.


 Now chop the peel into strips, thickness is up to you.
 Put juice, peel and 4 pints of water in the pan, tie up the pip bag and secure to the handle of the pan and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to simmer and go and do something else for 1-2 hrs while the peel softens.
 This is what it will look like, the liquid will have reduced a lot. Take out the bag and squeeze hard to get the pectin out (this what makes it set). Now slowly stir in the sugar until dissolved. Turn the heat up to maximum and get the mixture up to a full boil. This is where you have to hold your nerve! It will rise in the pan furiously, drop a knob of butter in now to stop the foaming. YOU MUST LEAVE IT ON HIGH HEAT to boil for 20mins. DON'T PANIC, it will be fine, trust me!

 Meanwhile wash and heat your jam jars in the oven to sterilize them. If you have a fancy schmancy jam thermometer like me you can see when the mixture is hot enough when it reaches JAM.

Put a saucer in the fridge and leave it to cool down. When the 20 mins is up dribble a little mixture on the saucer put it back in the fridge for 1 min then do the finger test, if it wrinkles when you push it like this the marmalade is ready, take it off the heat.
 Leave it for 5-10mins to cool a little then pour into your jars, be VERY careful it is still extremely hot at this stage.
 Now you will have your TADAH moment, its just so satisfying seeing all those jars full of yummyness made by you!
Now put the lids on and print or write your lables, (with the date) and put in your store cupboard. The little dish of left overs is your chance to try some on some warm crusty bread spread with butter...
 These make lovely presents when you are invited to someone's house, they are always appreciated!
Now a bit of crafty goodness in case you are bored with all this...
 My friend Liz's beautiful rug, in the finishing stages, isn't it pretty?

 A stationery box project I did with the Craft club this week..

 The inside....
quite tricky, but worth the effort for a lovely gift..
And lots of Lucy goodies....!

Lucy is at attic24 and I have caught her bug of covering everything is bright stripes, this is what my table looks like next to my chair by the fire, nice and bright on a cold winters day eh?
Hope you are keeping cheerful too and that this little missive helped to banish the winter blues a bit..
Talk soon.

1 comment:

  1. YUM!!! I love marmalade! Thanks for sharing...I think even I could do this :)

    I'm a HUGE Attic24 fan and I love your "scummy" crochet works :)

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