Free Your Lady Marmalade
Sophie Lombardi
Here at Poppy and Honesty HQ, we are obsessed with the colour orange. No, I'm not ranting about the President Elects skin tone (much), but the gorgeous and under-rated colour that will feature strongly in our next unisex collection. I have a Paddington-like enthusiasm for Marmalade, so it is only fitting that as a tribute to 'The Donald' we make a sticky orange mess to mark his inauguration.
If you have the time or the inclination, making Marmalade is a very satisfying way of passing a lazy afternoon - and the recipe below is pretty fool proof. Do make sure that you test the Marmalade properly for the elusive skin, which indicates that it has set. You can get the darling moppets to help with the orange squeezing and the cutting if they are older too. They can also make pretty labels and think of imaginative names for their pots of gold (Donald's foundation?).
Yours with zestiness,
Sophie x
Recipe for Marmalade (makes 6 x 450g jars-ish)
800g Oranges (Seville if you can get them)
x1 Lemon
x1 Lime
x1 Pink Grapefruit
2kg Preserving Sugar
Method : Put a saucer into the fridge to cool. Wash and dry the fruit. Pour 2 litres of water into a big pan and add all the squeezed juice from the fruit. Chuck away the lemon but keep all the pith and skin of all the others fruit. Scrape the pith and pips into the centre of an old clean tea-towel. Draw up the corners of the tea towel and secure with a good knot or a bit of string to make a bag. Pop the bag into the pan. Cut the fruit peel into small strips and add to the pan. Bring to the boil and simmer for 1.5 - 2 hrs.
Squeeze your tea towel bag into the pan and discard the bag. Add sugar and heat until dissolved. Bring the boil and boil rapidly for 15 mins. Get the saucer out of the fridge. Test that the marmalade has reached setting point by placing a teaspoon of it on the cold saucer. After a few seconds push the marmalade with your finger tip. If it wrinkles it has reached setting point, if not boil for a further 5 mins, Leave the marmalade to rest for a 15 mins and then spoon into sterilised jars.
YUM
