Ignore the jar filled with marmalade for a second and look at the plant behind it. It's a Kangaroo Paw. I've been spending the past week going to work and wondering if today was the day it was going to shine for me. Those used to flowers that open like popcorn should remember that this is a slow and ancient continent (possibly close to 12,000 years!).
Jams are the preserve of those with an abundance of time and fruit. I had 12 grapefruit given to me and told I should make jam with it and so I did.
The Women's Weekly Cookbook was my first stop but I got to the part where they suggested using kerosene for testing and thought I was falling into home made amphetamine territory. Anyway went for an easier approach.
In
10 smallish grapefruit, 1 lemon, 2mandarins, 4 cumquats*, 1 kilo of sugar, 150gm palm sugar**, 2 .5 liters of water.
*It's a very small tree. **Didn't have any brown sugar so made do.
First job is to slice the grapefruit thinly (peel and all) making sure to keep the pips out. Ditto for the cumquats and the mandarins. The lemon gets halved and the juice without the seeds goes in as do the halves.
Into a large pot they went with the water, brought to a boil, simmered, for thirty minutes, lidded and left for a day and a half.
Then heated up, the sugar added, stirred and then boiled until it reached it's right jamminess. This took a couple of hours (maybe too much water) but I wasn't too worried as grapefruit has high levels of pectin allowing a large margin of error. I'd check every now and then by pouring some onto a cold spoon (ow!). When I was happy with it, into oven sterilised jars it went. The lemon halves were left. The jars were sterilised by washing, then leaving them in a 150C oven for 15 minutes – mind your fingers
It's nice and sour and the amazing thing is how soft the peel becomes. The recipe made heaps though – friends, relatives and a pork marinade maybe.
Glaring Omission Thank you Gail for the grapefruit and kickstarting this, jar waiting for you if you're quick.