Anise Flavored Kumquat Marmalade

I have always been a big fan of marmalade especially Orange marmalade. I always have a jar ready in my refrigerator. Store bought marmalade is always too sweet and full of preservatives.  My first foray into jam (i.e. marmalade) or preserve making was a huge success! I made 10-12 8oz bottles of Persimmon-Orange marmalade that was fantastic! After sharing some with friends and family, devouring almost all the rest with some healthy, delicious Quinoa bread making Paneer toast, I am down to my last bottle.

Right now, kumquats are in season and pervading grocery stories. Kumquats are sweet but tangy and delicious to eat.

Ingredients:
1 lb kumquats
1 cup orange juice
1 cup maple syrup
1-2 anise stars

Rinse and trim the edges of the kumquat fruit. Thinly slice the fruit, extracting the seeds and setting them aside. Add the sliced kumquat to a bowl. Add one cup orange juice (juice of about two oranges), and 1-2 anise stars. Add maple syrup and mix well. Place the seeds of kumquat in a cheese cloth and place in the bowl and transfer the bowl to the refrigerator for 12 hours.

After 12 hours, remove from the refrigerator. Remove the cheese cloth with the seeds and throw away. Place the bowl on the stove and bring to a boil. Reduce flame to medium low and continue to cook until the jam thickens, about 25-30 minutes. If making large batches, prepare canning jars and preserve.

Cardamon Flavored Persimmon-Orange Marmalade

I recently received about almost a couple a dozen Persimmon from my sister, from her garden. I shared some with my colleagues at work and carried some for that mid-afternoon snack and meanwhile thought about recipes I could use them in.

I totally love Orange marmalade. I made the Cranberry-Orange Marmalade a while back and that was a lot of fun. Maybe it is the bright color of Persimmons, but Persimmon-Orange marmalade was the first thing that popped into my mind.

Here’s how I made my jam…

Ingredients:

1 Orange pulp, pith removed
4-5 Persimmon ripe pulp or raw grated
Peel or rind of one Orange (grated or sliced thin)
1 cup orange juice
1 cup maple syrup or agave or honey
2 cups sugar
juice of one lemon
1 tsp cardamon powder
a dash of all spice

Add orange pulp, persimmon pulp or grated persimmon, maple (or honey or agave) syrup, sugar, orange rind,orange juice, lemon juice  and cardamon to a large pan and bring to a boil. Reduce flame and continue to cook till the mixture thickens approximately 60-90 minutes. The cardamon gives a nice aroma too as you make the jam!

Cool and transfer to air tight jars and refrigerate for immediate use or can in air tight canning jars for future use following canning procedures. This was my first attempt at canning and it was really exciting to hear the jar’s popping!

Enjoy fresh with some toasted bread and butter with your morning cup of tea or coffee. Or make some french toast with goat cheese and eggs. Or make some Sweet or Spicy  Paneer Toast!

Links:

How to can some jam

Cranberry Orange Marmalade

If there are two ingredients I love most, this is it. A couple of year’s ago I picked up some delicious Cranberry Orange Marmalade at the local farm in Virginia.

Who knew making Cranberry Orange Marmalade was this simple?

I adapted this one from here.

Ingredients:
Rind of one orange sliced into strips
Pulp of two oranges cut into sections with pith removed
1/2 pkg cranberries
1/2 cup water
1 cup sugar (or use half honey)

Bring 1/2 cup water to boil with sugar, orange sections and rind to boil. Lower heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Add cranberries and continue cooking for 30-40 minutes or until the mixture thickens and is sticky.

Store in an air tight bottle in the refrigerator and enjoy with a slice of fresh toasted bread!

 

Orange Cranberry Scone!

Finally!

I got to make my favorite scone! For a while this used to be my favorite breakfast. Each day as I headed to work I made a stop at the local Starbucks and picked a coffee and scone (typically orange cranberry if they had one). Yummy!

I still had fresh cranberries and oranges left over after the Cranberry Orange Bread I baked last week. The weather was gloomy with overcast skies and periods of rain. After the beautiful, warm fall weather we’ve been having, it was a sharp contrast to have the temperature dip into the 50’s. Time to turn off the air condition and turn on the heater!

It was definitely the perfect day to turn on the oven and do some baking…

As usual I scoured the web for the perfect recipe with the condition that I would try one if I had all the ingredients already in my pantry. So here is my final adapted version:

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup amaranth flour
1 cup fresh cranberries
Orange rind from 1 orange
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1/4 tsp salt

Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl: flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar. Take cold butter and cut into cubes and add to the flour. Put the bowl in the refrigerator. In a separate bowl whisk egg, buttermilk and orange rind. Place the bowl in the refrigerator.

Meanwhile preheat oven to 425 degrees. Prepare parchment paper or baking dish to bake the scones.

Remove the dry ingredients. Either chop the cranberries or use whole (I used them whole) and add to the dry ingredients. Mix well with a spatula or hand. Add the egg buttermilk mix and mix thoroughly. Prepare the counter top table with some flour. Roll out the mixed dough into a 1 in thick circle. Cut the circle into 8 or 10 wedges. Or use a cookie cutter for more fancy shapes.

Bake on a parchment or baking dish for 13 – 15 minutes, until golden. Remove from oven and cool.

Serve warm scones with either orange marmalade or raspberry jam. Or glaze scones with some orange glaze and serve warm with tea or coffee.

Yum!

Cranberry Orange Bread

I love just about anything that has orange in it: fresh or flavored. Dried cranberries is another of my favorite fruit . Mix the two of them and I just can’t get enough of it. I have a particular weakness for orange cranberry scones. I see one in a coffee shop, I just have to  try it. So when I came across this recipe I just had to make it, right away.

With perfect timing, fresh cranberries are already available in abundance in grocery stories. I have never used fresh cranberries before so this was a fun recipe to bake. This is adapted from the recipe posted on Eat, Live, Run .

The orange flavor in  a lot of baked items is too subdued for me. So I ramped up the orange in this recipe. I added more rind than the original recipe recommended and I also added some orange juice. I quite liked the result.

Other change I made is of course add some super food grains: flax meal and hemp. Next time I think I will try to substitute amaranth flour for some of the white flour.

The final bread turned out more crumbly that I was expecting. It looked like a perfect cranberry crumble coffee cake. And the taste was delicious.

Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 stick butter (4 oz)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
zest of 1-2 oranges
1 tbsp flax meal (optional)
1 tbsp hemp (optional)
1-2 tbsp orange juice (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl whisk egg, melted butter and sugar. In a separate bowl mix all dry ingredients. Combine the dry and wet ingredients. Fold in cranberries, orange rind and walnuts. Mix well. Transfer to a greased 9in bread pan. Bake for 60 to 75 minutes until the tooth pick rule passes.

Cool and Enjoy!