With a glut of oranges (read over flowing fruit bowl) and a rapidly depleting store of marmalade I felt the urgent need to get preserving.
Image courtesy of Google Images.
I love preserving, it’s a very cathartic, soothing activity. Regular readers will have come to understand just how much I love preserving but for those of you who would like a reminder or are new readers have a look here.
Preserving isn’t an activity all that easy with an almost 9 week old Italian Spinone puppy by the name of Maximus running around your feet, nosing into everything and generally being a cheeky little pup, requiring you to have eyes in the back of your head.
Sure he looks innocent and sweet enough but let food be smelt and the jumping and yodelling (yes yodelling not typical barking) will commence. Certainly not soothing I’m sure you’ll agree, and then the whole kitchen activity becomes fraught and wracked with anxiety.
I settled on a marmalade that requires no cooking.
No cook marmalade? How can that be so? Doesn’t marmalade need time, effort and hot pans to be slaved over?
All those thoughts went through my head when I noticed @aforkful over on Twitter discussing her latest marmalade, a no cook version which you can read about here.
For conventional marmalade yes, preserving pans and thermometers galore are required, not that is in any way a bad thing, but for this gem of a recipe from Darina Allen, (of the esteemed Ballymaloe cookery school in Cork, and author of many excellent books; including Ballymaloe Cookery Course, from which this recipe comes) you need nothing more than a sharp knife, blender or food processor and a few sterilised jam jars.
Whether this is truly a ‘marmalade’ or not is a matter of debate. I feel it should be named a citrus spread rather than a marmalade. Why? Well the word marmalade derives from the Portuguese word marmelada which actually was a cooked down quince paste; and hence I feel marmalade refers to a cooked product, but hey, whatever it is called, the result is the same – a gorgeous spread.
Conventional marmalades can have a rather bitter edge to them, whereas this one doesn’t. It is bursting with citrus tang with an almost sherbet sweet edge, a real winner.
Find out you’ve run out of marmalade of a morning to have with your toast, well you could have this rustled up in a jiffy, go on trust me.
No Cook Marmalade
- 5 oranges (organic if possible), roughly chopped and discarding as many pips as possible
- 1 lemon, roughly chopped
- 1 grapefruit, roughly chopped
- Caster sugar, the combined weight of the above fruit, minus 110g
- Put all the ingredients into a liquidiser and whizz together.
- Then transfer to sterilised jars.
- This fresh-tasting marmalade will keep in the fridge for approximately 3 weeks.
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
I think I will have a go at that! Thanks George.
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Hope you enjoy it Grannymar.
I wish I’d known about Helen’s marmalade before I bought my seville oranges. They are sat in my kitchen making me feel incredibly guilty right now!!
.-= Sarah, Maison Cupcake´s last blog ..Scotch Pancakes with Pink Grapefruit and Whisky Marmalade Sauce =-.
I don’t think this marmalade would work too well with the Seville oranges as they’d be too bitter (although it might be worth a try with a very small batch). I have another recipe for Seville orange marmalade on here if you need one.
Yummmm! I love orange but I’m not a marmalade fan because I don’t like the bitter after-taste, I’ll definitely try this. Can I ask a questions as a first-time preserver… what’s teh best way to sterilise a jar?!
I sterilise my jam jars by putting them through the dishwasher on the hottest cycle. Time the cycling to finish when your preserve will be ready. Use the jars one at a time from the dishwasher as needed making sure you fill while the preserve is hot (as is the jar). Do NOT add cold food to hot jars, or hot food to cold jars.
No cook marmalade, who would have thought? Love the idea.
So unusual isn’t it Marcus, but, it works so well.
j’adore les oranges et l’amertume des confitures d’orange!!je vais tester cette merveilleuse marmelade sans cuisson!! merci et bonne journée
.-= kouky´s last blog ..Petit dessert en cœur et bonne fête à toutes les femmes!! =-.
Thank you and I hope you’ll enjoy it.
I want to dive into that, roll on summer.
I cannot wait to eat it again either, it has become a favourite.
What a lovely preserve, perfect for this time of year.
Thank you.
I’ve never tried to make an orange marmalade in my life, but am quite keen to give it a go. I love your recipe, however it is unclear to me whether you need to peel these oranges first, or do you use the peel, too? Thanks.
Hi Dorina, you use all the orange (including the peel) but try and get rid of as many pips as possible. Hope that helps.
When you say liquidizer do you mean blender or juice maker?
The Little Chef´s last [type] ..Kindness
I know what caster sugar but, I don’t know what you mean when you say to use the combined weight of the fruit used minus 110g. I also understand this to mean we do not peel any of the fruit used
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