12/08/07

Kumquat Marmalade with Grand Marnier

Kumquat season is in and I thought I'd make some Kumquat marmalade for my breads. As usual, I made up the recipe by feel. The weight of the Kumquat was 600g. Since I did not want the jam to be too sweet, I used only 300g of sugar. The kumquats were sliced. It took me some time to remove all the seeds. This was the toughest part of the job. As I had never used Kumquats before, I thought that they were seedless. The sugar and the fruit was cooked over a low flame. I thought of adding some pectin but decided otherwise, as the fruit itself has plenty of that.

After it had thicken, about 25 g of unsalted butter was stirred in. A teaspoon of Grand Marnier was stirred in after it was jarred and cooled. Eaten with butter on a slice of bread, it was excellent. I thought it was better than the marmalade that I had bought at Bunalun. The yield from 600g of Kumquat costing S$5/- was only slightly over a jar so it was not really cheaper than store bought jam. However, the homemade quality is unmistakable and I have yet to see Kumquat jam in the stores.