Foodie Friday: Orange and Ginger Marmalade Disaster and Frozen Oranges

Let’s talk about food. This week, I focus on oranges.

Mr Piglet picked a bowl and a shopping bag full of oranges from our tree—about 12kg. Unfortunately, they are waaaay too sour this year to juice, so I decided to get creative and make …

Iced Oranges

I’ve made them before, and they were seriously delicious!

Iced Oranges – Piglet’s “Foodie Friday” Recipe Challenge

As they say, ‘the best-laid plans…’ Mr Piget went shopping and as Lydls was offering a 10% discount, he took advantage and stocked up the freezer to bursting, which sadly put my plans of making batches of iced anything on hold.

Not to worry. Plan B. Marmalade. The arthritis in my hands did not respond well to micro peeling 3kgs of oranges and removing all the pith from the peel and orange segments. Apparently, it is the pith that makes the marmalade bitter. The process took me most of the day. I photographed every stage so I could share my success. I made some minor adjustments to the recipe re liquid as there looked way too much water. Sometimes, you must cook using your eyes and common sense when trying a new recipe. I only added one litre of water instead of the two in the recipe. There was plenty of juice from the oranges, and the quantity I added looked about the same as in the video.

Exhausted, I finally set the contents to simmer. Set a timer and went off to have a large glass of wine. I asked Mr P to stir the bubbling liquid as he passed by. He did and informed me it was about to boil over. Warmed by the wine and cosy log fire. ‘Rubbish’ I said. Sigh… Men can be SO dramatic at times. ‘It’s simmering’. Sigh. ‘I’ve been watching it for the last hour.’ Wiggled my aching hands and feet and took another sip of wine.

The timer beeped. Excited, I lept (limped) into action. It was time to transfer the marmalade gloop into the sterilized jars and enjoy the fruits of a day’s hard labour. Ummmm. The marmalade had stuck to the bottom of the pan, and as I stirred, I dislodged the cremated bits.

Let’s just say Marmalade ‘à la Piglet‘ has an interesting toffee flavour. I just hope it doesn’t set like toffee in the jars.

E.T.A. I do not recommend the YouTube recipe above. It took far too long to prepare. The quantities aren’t accurate, and the cooking times are way out.

I also have another Marmalade recipe I’d like to try from Fred the French gardener.

“Rather an easy recipe for jam: 10 big mandarins, 1 lemon – Peel a mandarin to collect the zest. – Squeeze the peeled mandarin with 4 others and collect the juice – cut the last 5 mandarins – Peel the lemon to get zest and squeeze the lemon to collect the juice -Put all the juice, peel and pieces of fruit in a jam pan, weigh and put 50% of this weight in sugar.- Add spices – For my part we have a ready-made mix in France called “4 spices”. It is used in what is called “Vin Chaud” in the Alps which is composed of cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg. Wait 24 hours and cook. The cooking time is proportional to the volume, but you have to count 30 minutes minimum“

Kumquat Ice Balls

Freeze the kumquats or orange segments whole. They are far better to add to drinks than plastic cubes.

Beetroot and Orange Salad

This is an interesting combination

Beetroot and Orange Salad

Health Benefits of Oranges

I am always interested in the science behind food.

The benefits of oranges may include: Quote: BBC Good Food

• The benefits of oranges may include:
• Rich in vitamin C, which may help to protect cells from damage
• Contain antioxidant compounds which may support heart health
• A good source of citrates which may protect against kidney stones
• May help prevent iron-deficiency anaemia
• May promote better brain function

*

How to Join the Foodie Friday Challenge Blog Hop

Let’s talk about food, whether it’s sharing your favourite recipes, growing fruit and vegetables, your harvest ups and downs, hints and tips, or pictures of plates of food – even diets. If it’s food-related, why not post it on your blog and add it to the Foodie Friday Blog Hop

Create a post about food, such as sharing your favourite recipes, growing fruit and vegetables, etc and include the tag: Foodie Friday. You’re welcome to use previous ‘food-related’ posts.

Link to my weekly food share post to create a pingback, and I will endeavour to visit and comment.
You are welcome to include the Foodie Friday badge on your blog. If you can’t save it from the image below, please send me an email, and I’ll send it as a jpeg.

Don’t forget to add a link to your post when you comment below so we can keep track and support each other.

tag #FoodieFriday

Related Links

40 Recipes Using Oranges