Seville and Rosemary Marmalade

A friend of mine entered a marmalade competition last year, I remember looking at a photo of her certificates and awards and feeling suitably impressed. So when she said she was entering again this year I thought I would give it a go. The fact that I had never even made marmalade before was just a triviality...

I ended up entering the first jar of marmalade I had ever made, which I obviously didn't tell them, but it was actually nice; and I won an actual award... So I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself and my marmalade making skills. I was awarded a Silver certificate, next year I'm going for Gold...

The Marmalade Awards are held at Dalemain, a beautiful country house near Ullswater. They decorate the whole house with oranges, hold a farmers market and dedicate the whole weekend to all this marmalade. I imagine they must tire of tasting so many marmalades, the entries run into the thousands, but they get through them, and here is what they said about mine...

I had various ideas for what I would like to do, I wanted to add something unusual to the oranges. I thought about coriander seeds, juniper berries, earl grey tea, ginger... but finally settled on rosemary. I have used rosemary in various citrus puddings and always love it, especially my Lemon and Rosemary Posset; so hoped it would turn out ok...

I had 750g of Seville oranges, which I juiced. Keep the juice then finely slice all of the skin and pith, removing and keeping all of the pips. Put all the sliced skin into a large cast iron pan, add the juice and pour over 1.8 litres of water and leave to soak over night.

The next day I added 3 large sprigs of rosemary and the seeds in a little bag of muslin. Some people say that you need the seeds in to help with setting as they contain lots of pectin, which makes a jam or marmalade set, others say there is enough pectin in the fruit itself to do this, I added them anyway just to be on the safe side. Bring the whole lot to the boil and simmer for a couple of hours, until the skin is soft and the water has reduced by about a third. You want to end up with a volume  approximately double the quantity of oranges, so approximately 1.5 litres after cooking.

Then add 1kg of caster sugar and 500g of light brown sugar, adding darker sugar will result in a darker marmalade. This is double the weight of the oranges again. At this point I added another large sprig of rosemary too. Bring everything to the boil and stir to dissolve the sugar, then keep at a fast rolling boil until it reaches setting point. I used a thermometer, it needs to get to about 104 degrees Celsius. Oranges are quite high in pectin so can set a few degrees lower than this but I kept on till 104 just in case. It took about 20 minutes. I also tested it on a cold saucer, dropping a bit on and leaving it for a minute, if it wrinkles when you push it it has reached setting point.

So when you are all done leave your marmalade to sit in the pan for ten minutes. This lets it cool and set very slightly so all the peel doesn't sink to the bottom when you put it into jars. I put it all into little sterilised jars, these quantities produced 11 8oz jars. I put a fresh sprig of rosemary in each jar and then filled them up. I was pretty proud at this point, actual marmalade that tasted lovely, but still nervous that it wouldn't set...

However, they set within an hour and were very tasty. The rosemary is mild but definitely present, the oranges are bitter and delicious and it isn't too sickly sweet. I been enjoying it on toast and serving it to customers in Cook House, who have been very complimentary so far.

I was pretty pleased with my actual scores, I will know better to fill my jar up a bit more next time, I thought it was pretty much full to be honest... but they are obviously a stickler for detail; and next time I may not leave the rosemary loose in the marmalade but keep it in a muslin bag just for flavour, although it does look pretty and the judges didn't complain... First prize was getting your marmalade stocked in Fortnum and Mason's, I'm after that next time...

Lemon and Rosemary Posset

I'm in a bit of a manic cycle of shopping, supperclubbing, travelling, packing, unpacking, washing up, shopping, supperclubbing... You get the picture. It's very challenging, particularly as I'm hosting suppers three weeks in a row... but also beautiful and fun. The Farne Islands was the latest challenge, this weekend just gone, a much more unusual dining location than Lindisfarne, but really stunning. The sun shone, looking back over the calm hazy sea to Bamburgh guests had drinks and watched puffins hop around, it was just beautiful... A minke whale was spotted passing just hours earlier... Each time I'm only envious I'm not joining in with them; but someone has to be in charge of the kitchen chaos...

Running the gauntlet through the diving arctic terns with plates of food was interesting, either getting pecked, or worse... the other end. Luckily they just missed the food each time, splatting only us, a camera lens, the dining table and the floor... the baby terns kept on making a run for our dining room determined to see what was going on in there... But there weren't many sand eels on the menu so they eventually lost interest...

 

I have served this Lemon and Rosemary Posset for pudding at both Lindisfarne and the Farnes so far, it's one of my new favourites... I love a lemon pudding but the addition of rosemary is really special. It's basically just cream, sugar, lemon and rosemary and pretty simple to make.

These amounts will make 8 little puddings or 4 large ones. Peel off two big bits of lemon rind and take two big sprigs of rosemary, add them to a pan and give them a bit of a bash to get their oils out. Add 300ml of double cream and heat till it is steaming, don't let it boil. Then leave to infuse, anything from half an hour to overnight.

 

Remove the rosemary and lemon from the cream and put the cream back on the heat, adding 110g of caster sugar, bring it slowly to the boil and simmer for two minutes, then remove it from the heat and add the juice of 2 lemons, about 60ml. Add to glasses, cups or bowls, however you want to serve it and pop it in the fridge to set for a few hours or overnight. It is so delicious and creamy, very lemony and sweet but also dusky with rosemary... It's gone down very well so far, I've been serving it with almond meringues and clotted cream, even more delicious...