Forget the toast... it’s time to celebrate the magic of marmalade!
Marmalade. You either love it or loathe it – and I adore it. Orangey, citrusy, sharp and bittersweet all meld into one delicious mouthful. marmalade is an irresistible pleasure, a comfort food reminiscent of warm toast with mugs of tea on cold mornings.
When my husband and I took over the Three Chimneys restaurant on Skye in 1984, I spent a few days making marmalade – and this is Seville orange season – filling the kitchen hearth with steamy warmth and exotic fragrance. marmalade is not simply to be spread upon toast. Use it to add flavour and zest. Bake with it, roast with it, flavour with it. Season with it, spice up with it and sweeten savoury dishes, too. marmalade has a unique versatility...
The Three Chimneys Traditional Seville Orange Marmalade
1kg of Seville oranges 2 lemons 2l water 2kg granulated sugar THIS is a suitable quantity to make at home – between eight and 12 jars, depending upon size.
Place the whole fruit in a basin of lukewarm water and give them a gentle scrub. remove the button where the stem would have been. Place the fruit, whole, into a saucepan with the water and cover with a lid. Bring to the boil and simmer on a low heat for 1½-2 hours. You should be able to easily pierce the skin of the fruit when they are ready. remove from the water and leave to cool. reserve the water. Using a sharp knife, quarter the fruit and scrape out all the pulp and pips, right down to the peel. add the pips, pulp and any residual juice, into the pan with the reserve fruit water. Boil for 10 minutes and then strain through a sieve. Keep the juice and discard everything else. Pour the sugar into a flat roasting dish and put it into the oven at 150C/300F/gas 2 to warm through for up to an hour, while you prepare the fruit. It will be easier to dissolve the sugar.
Using a sharp knife, chop the orange and lemon peel to your favourite shape. machine-cut peel makes cloudy marmalade. Butter the base of your pan with a thin skim of unsalted butter.
measure the strained juice and add extra water to make up the quantity to 1.5l, as some will have evaporated. Put the strained juice into the pan with the chopped peel. Slowly bring to the boil. reduce the heat, add the warm sugar and stir over a gentle heat until the sugar is completely dissolved. Put up to 12 thoroughly clean jam jars into the pre-heated oven to warm.
Once the sugar has dissolved, bring the mixture to the boil and continue to maintain a ‘good rolling boil’, without stirring, for at least 15 minutes. To test for setting point, put a spoonful on a very cold saucer from the freezer. allow it to cool a little and then push it with your finger or tilt the dish to one side. If the marmalade wrinkles up, it is ready. leave the marmalade in the hot pan until it shows that it is beginning to set. The peel will be showing signs of becoming ‘suspended’ in the mixture. Carefully ladle the hot marmalade into warm jam jars. It is handy to have a jam funnel for this job. Seal the jars.
For other marmalades, using different citrus fruits, follow my basic recipe above.
Roast Duck with Port and Marmalade Sauce
SERVES UP TO FOUR 1 oven-ready duck 2tbsp Scottish rapeseed oil 1 large onion, peeled and cut into eight pieces
1 large carrot, peeled and cut into eight chunks
1 large stick of celery from the outer bunch, washed and cut into chunks, plus a few leaves from the centre
4 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
A few sprigs of fresh parsley, with stalks
A handful of fresh sage leaves
Freshly ground rock salt and black pepper
2 heaped tbsp Seville orange marmalade Juice of 1 large orange 4 tbsp ruby port 20g soft butter HeaT the oven to 200C/400F/gas 6 and prepare a roasting tin for the duck, lined with foil. Heat the rapeseed oil in a heavy frying pan and add the prepared vegetables. Cook until beginning to soften, season with salt and pepper and add the fresh herbs. Stir well and spoon the mixture into the roasting tin, covering the base.
Place the duck on top of the vegetables. Put the marmalade, orange juice and port into the hot frying pan and heat through. Pour this mixture over the top of the duck and vegetables. Season with a little more salt and pepper.
Take a sheet of parchment or greaseproof paper and butter it on one side. Place the paper, butter side down, on top of the duck and put on the middle shelf of a preheated oven for 75 minutes. Half an hour before roasting time is complete, remove the paper and baste the duck with the collected juices in the tin. return the uncovered duck to the oven for a further ten minutes before removing again and lifting the duck on to a dish. Pour the tin’s contents through a strainer into a saucepan.
replace the duck in the roasting tin and return to the oven to complete the cooking time and allow the surface to turn golden brown. discard the cooked vegetables and herbs. re-heat the cooking juices in a saucepan and keep warm.
Once the duck is cooked, lift it on to a carving board to rest in a warm place. Pour any more cooking juices from the roasting tin into the sauce and whisk all together well, while allowing the sauce to reduce and emulsify.
Taste for strength of flavour as well as seasoning and add a little hot vegetable water from a pot cooking the accompaniments, or a dash more port, or more marmalade, as required.
When carving, more juices may escape, so add these to the sauce. Before serving, strain the sauce through a sieve into a sauceboat. Serve the duck with the sauce poured over the meat, with accompanying vegetables. roast parsnips would be excellent, perhaps with mashed sweet potato and finely shredded Savoy cabbage.
Carrot and Marmalade Cake with Marmalade Frosting
150ml Scottish rapeseed oil 2 eggs 140g soft light brown sugar 85g wholemeal self-raising flour 85g white self-raising flour 2 tsp each ground cinnamon and mixed spice 1tsp bicarbonate of soda 50g sultanas 1 tbsp Seville orange marmalade 150g carrot grated 50g chopped walnuts, plus a few walnuts halves for garnish WHISK the eggs with the oil and set aside. In a bowl, mix together the sugar, flour, spices and bicarbonate of soda, then add the sultanas, marmalade, carrots and chopped walnuts. mix together well. add the egg and oil mixture.
Put the mixture into a prepared loaf tin and place in the centre of the oven. Bake for one hour until risen, golden and springy to touch, remove and set aside to cool in the tin completely.
FOR THE FROSTING 200g soft cream cheese or crowdie cheese mixed with 1 tbsp cream 50g soft Scottish butter 50g sieved icing sugar 1 tbsp Seville orange marmalade
Pinch of ground cinnamon TO finish, beat together the soft cheese and the soft butter, and add the marmalade, icing sugar and ground cinnamon. mix together really well to form a creamy frosting. remove the cake from the tin, spread the surface with the frosting and decorate with walnut halves. Slice and serve. The Three Chimneys Marmalade Bible by Shirley Spear is published by Birlinn, £4.99