EDITOR'S CHOICE

EDITOR'S CHOICE

BEST OF THE QUARTER!!

It’s the season for home-made jam and marmalade, says Editor, Farzana Contractor.

Here are two recipes she has perfected in her own kitchen. Check them out, try them at home and let us know how it turns out:

Strawberry Jam

Strawberries are in abundance in Panchgani. So I went to a field called Inshydale and picked as many as I could. Not big ones, but small and medium. They are good enough for jams.

Washed them and left them in the sieve to drip dry. Then in a large stainless steel degchi, I slow-cooked them, with lid off, stirring now and then. Once they softened just a bit, I added sugar, let it melt, turned off the heat and left the concoction overnight to macerate further. Next morning, I added lemon juice and cooked it until it reached the consistency I wanted – which is a bit runny. I don’t like to fight with my jam while spreading it on bread!

P.S. You can cook in whatever quantity you require. The ratio of sugar to strawberry will depend on your taste as well as the sweetness of the fruit.

Orange Marmalade

I went a bit berserk making marmalade. Tried different ways before I zeroed in on this method. I made marmalade from New Zealand, Australian, Thailand and Indian oranges, both from Nagpur and Punjab. The colour was best with the ones from NZ and the worst (very pale) from the Indian variety.

But the ones you see here are oranges from Egypt. Which I picked up from the UpperCrust Show. Turned out to be the best.

So wash the oranges, preferably in warm to hot water, to remove any wax that unscrupulous sellers may have polished on the skin to give it a shine.

Then with a sharp peeler and with a light hand, peel the skin gently, removing only the orange part, leaving behind the white (which tastes awful). Cut the skin into thin slivers (thick if you prefer that) and keep aside. Then cut the oranges, separating the white outer layers and the seeds. Also try to remove as much of the membrane which separates the flakes.

In a stainless steel dish, bring some water to boil, dunk in the sliced peels and cook for about 10 minutes on medium flame. By now the water will have reduced, add the orange pulp, turn down the flame to simmer and let the fruit cook. Add the sugar. Once it has melted, be careful to stir the pot so that the now almost sticky concoction does not burn. You will know when the texture is right. Turn off the flame, let it cool down before you bottle the heavenly manna.

P.S. My advice. Turn off the flame when the orange mix starts to get sticky, for the cooking process continues for a while. You could end up making toffee instead of marmalade, as I did at one of my enthusiastic attempts!