Marmalade: Mandarin Ginger Aperol

Marmalade: Mandarin Ginger Aperol

I’m a compulsive jam maker.  Making raspberry, strawberry, plum and apricot jam is a summertime ritual and then once the season cools and citrus fruits are in their prime I make marmalade. A few pots made from each fruit is enough to last between seasons.

Last week, the citrus stalls at our Saturday Farmers market were laden with citrus fruit: oranges, limes, lemons and cumquats. I made a bee line straight to the mandarins because I’d been hoarding a recipe for mandarin and star anise jam since spring last year. I was keen to try it out.

Alarm bells rang when I read the recipe before starting, the fruit seemed to play second fiddle to water, sugar and lemon juice and the method had a clear instruction to discard the zest, the most flavour filled part of the fruit.  Despite my hesitation I followed the recipe and made a small batch of the jam. As anticipated the fruit flavour was lost in the over dosed sugary sweetness. On the upside, the perfume of the star anise was alluring.  It was pleasant enough, but I wanted to taste the mandarins.

To prove to myself that it is possible to make a delicious mandarin preserve in which the fruit sings, I tried again. This time I included the zest for flavour and the seeds bundled into a muslin bag to extract the pectin. Having depleted my star anise stock with the first batch, I added fresh root ginger instead and then at the end a slosh of Aperol for bitterness, the hallmark of a good breakfast marmalade.

It was a productive day in the kitchen. I added five jars of our favourite cumquat marmalade and five jars of experimental mandarin preserves to the pantry.

Mandarin and Ginger Marmalade with Aperol

500g mandarins

40g peeled root ginger

375mls water

250g g castor sugar

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons Aperol

Peel the mandarins. Remove as much of the white pith as possible from the fruit.

Halve each mandarin, flick out the seeds and collect them in a small bowl.

Break the fruit into segments and put into a large shallow saucepan.

Cut the white pith from the back of the zest. Discard the pith.

Cut the zest into fine julienne and add to the pan.

Slice the ginger finely on a mandolin then cut into fine julienne. Add to the pan.

Tie the mandarin seeds into a little bundle in a piece of muslin and add to the pan.

Add the water, then bring the pot to the boil, lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

Add the lemon juice and sugar, increase the heat to a high simmer and cook until the jam is set*.

When the jam is set, remove it from the heat, lift out the bundle of seeds and use a pair of tongs to give it a good squeeze, then discard.

Stir the Aperol into the hot jam, allow to rest for 5 minutes then ladle into sterilised jars*.

Seal while hot.

• testing the set of jam: as the jam begins to thicken, to test for doneness put a small dob of the hot jam on a saucer, put it into the fridge for a minute or two then remove it and drag a finger through the cool jam. If the jam doesn’t run back into the finger track then it is ready.

• to sterilize jars: wash jars and lids in warm soapy water, soak off the old labels, then put the jars on a tray in a preheated 120C oven for 30 minutes. Boil the lids of jars in a small saucepan of water for 5 minutes before topping the hot jars of jam.

About ladyredspecs

I live in sunny Brisbane, Australia. My love of good food drives me as a cook, a reader, a traveller, an artist and but mostly as an eater. I cooked professionally for many years but have no formal training. Simply guided by a love of eating good food, respect for ingredients and an abhorrence of artificial additives, I cook instinctively applying the technical know how acquired by experience. I hope you enjoy what I share Sandra AKA ladyredspecs

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