Sunshine in a jar from Seville

We all express our love in different ways, and it will be no surprise mine is through food! Getting no mother of the year awards during the week (getting 2 boys ready for school each day) I often feel in the quiet backwaters of the weekend, it’s a great time to express my love.  In a relaxed, non-shouty, hanging out in our dressing gowns type of way eating this is a great way to start any weekend!

So enter stage left…Seville oranges. Noticing them locally on sale this week I thought it was a great time to make a few pots as they are just in season. Plus they are only around for a few weeks. If you fancy making your own marmalade but you’re not quite ready to make it yet, it’s worth buying some oranges and popping them in the freezer.  Then when you are ready to make your batch just defrost them and follow the recipe.

On these wet and wild days, why not haul up and give it a try….get the ingredients in and have a go! It will make a wonderful breakfast on the weekend!

Let me know how you get on at The Fuss Free Foodie FB group and if you want to see what I get up to when I’m not in the kitchen don’t forget to follow me on my FB page. Lisa x

Seville Orange Marmalade
Cooking time 2 hours. Makes 1.5kg of marmalade

450g Seville oranges
1.2litres water
900g sugar
3 tbsps lemon juice 

1. Put the whole fruit in a medium sized pan with the water. Simmer slowly, turning once, for about 1 1/2 hours, or until the fruit is pierced with a skewer with ease.
2. Remove the fruit from the pan and cool until it can be handled to cut in half. Using a fork or spoon, scoop out all the pips, inside and membrane, leaving an orange shell.
3. Place the pips/pith back into the cooking liquid and boil steadily for 10 minutes. Then strain the liquid and return back to the pan to remove the pips/pith.
4. Cut up the fruit into small chunks or slices (I did 1/8 ths) and add to the liquid. Bring the liquid up to the boil and add the sugar and lemon juice.
5. Stir over a low heat until the sugar is dissolved and then boil rapidly until setting point is reached. It will be frothing up and for me, took 25-30 mins.
6. It’s important to NOT stir as it does this. I did, so that probably slowed the process down. You want it to reach the setting point as soon as possible to retain all the flavour. (*1).
7. Allow to cool in the pan until slightly stiffened, then stir to evenly distribute the peel. Spoon into hot jars, put on a disk of parchment paper (you can buy special disks, but I just cut out of parchment) and seal the jars. (*2)

Fuss Free Skills!

(*1) To tell whether the marmalade is at settling point, spoon a little of the marmalade onto a cold saucer. Allow the marmalade to cool on the plate. If the preserve is set it should wrinkle when pushed with your finger. If it wrinkles only slightly, and boil and re-test in 1-2 minutes until it wrinkles.

(*2) To prepare your jars, either wash the jars and lids, and place them on a baking tray in the oven for about 10 minutes at 100℃ or simmer them in a pan of boiling water for ten minutes, or wash them in the dishwasher before use.