RECIPE: Lemon-Ginger Marmalade

One of the best parts of spring and summer is getting to preserve your favorite flavors for later use. Jellies, jams, pickles, etc. are all fun to make and let you save the fruits and vegetables that are in season so that you can enjoy them even in the winter.

I've tried to make marmalade once before and it didn't quite work. I used a recipe that didn't involve pectin, relying on the pectin in the fruit to thicken it and I ended up with a lemon syrup rather than a marmalade. Luckily it could still be used for something (ice cream!) but it wasn't what I was really trying to make.

This time I chose a recipe that was virtually foolproof and as a bonus it had an added ginger flavor that was really appealing to me. The only difficulty I had was in reducing the recipe, since I had a different size of pectin packet than the recipe anticipated so figuring out the amount to use was kind of tricky. I probably could have used a bit less than I did, but the marmalade still turned out great, if a bit stiff.

It's sweet, not tart and the ginger adds some kick. I find it really good on any sort of toasted bread item with butter, as the hot toast and the butter melt it down a little and it turns into a hot mass of flavors that is really delicious.

Serving suggestions: On buttered toast or english muffin; as a topping for yogurt, ice cream, or frozen yogurt.

Recipe: Lemon-Ginger Marmalade

Comments

RESTAURANT: Ristorante Belvedere, Monterosso al Mare, Italy

We started off our second-to-last day in the Cinque Terre by taking the train to Vernazza for breakfast: There was supposed to be a market that day, but since the weather was threatening, there were only a few meager stalls, mostly selling non-food items. We had our breakfast and walked around the village a bit. Vernazza used to have a river flowing all the way through it, but now the river has been shunted underground at a certain point. If you walk to the top of town you can see it, along with some ducks and geese that hang out there to get fed by whoever comes along. J. and I then went to sit and have an espresso and wait for the train to Corniglia, the only town we hadn't yet visited. Corniglia is home to the local nude beach (which we skipped) and is the highest of the towns, elevation-wise. We had to walk up a buttload of steps to get there. Look at me go: That's actually me going down (a lot faster than I came up), but I did come up them as well. There is a bus that ta...

ABOUT THIS BLOG

I've been evaluating my blog and have realized that, while I have lots of nifty posts, I don't really have a good overall explanation of what exactly this blog is all about, and what one can expect to find here. So I'm creating this post and will link to it in the sidebar for anyone who's interested. I am not a professional chef. I have not been cooking for years. I am not an expert who is going to make beautiful and amazing and complicated dishes to "wow" you. I am, in fact, quite the opposite. I am a total beginner. I've always lived in places with miniscule kitchens and concerned myself with schoolwork and studying and working and not paid the least bit of attention to what I was eating every day. And that's what this blog is all about. It's about me learning where my food comes from, how to make it properly, and how to enjoy it to the utmost. It's no fun to learn by myself, so I started the blog to keep track of what I learn, kind of like a...

INFO+RECIPE: Isaac Brock: Rock Musician, Chef

MODEST MOUSE Modest Mouse is not my favorite band. It is one of those bands that everyone around me loves and I am overwhelmingly indifferent to. I can think of one song of theirs that I like. I saw them live one time and came away with the impression that I like the music, the vocals just leave a lot to be desired. That vocalist is Isaac Brock. Isaac Brock has never come off as a nice person to me, when reading his interviews about music. I'd basically written him off as a bad vocalist, and arrogant twat. Then, I read an interview with him in the Believer . The interview was not about music, it was about food, and cooking. And I was shocked. It was like I was reading about a whole different person. A person I liked and wanted to know. A person like me. I discovered that he was born a mere two days before me. If astrology has anything to say about it, then he probably IS a person like me. Not quite the same ... that two days mak...

Gastronomy 101

Search This Blog