I am so cheerful - I've come across the first rhubarb shoot in my garden. Each year my rhubarb plants grow stronger and produce more. I'm hoping for a bumper crop this year, particularly of the red-stemmed variety.
Last night I was relaxing in front of the TV and saw Nigella make a beautiful pink rhubarb jelly.** Earlier in the day I saw a post on the Stuff website for an old fashioned orange jelly. So jelly was on my mind when I went into Moore Wilson's and purchased (amongst other things) a rabbit shaped jelly mould. Rabbits are the Sweetheart's favourite animal so I knew that it would be popular.
So citrus madness ends a bit quietly with orange jelly (quite nice, never got a picture) and the last few lemons were used as zest/ juice in baking. I gave away a few more grapefruit, and made up a mixed batch of citrus cordial. I saw that Posh Porridge is doing orange curd this week so my last orange will go to that.
The box of citrus nearly killed me. It was just too much at once. But I really enjoyed looking for different recipes, sharing the bumper harvest and reaping the benefits of the preserves! Thanks to those who helped out with taking some of the fruit or preserves!!
Weird fact. While I was in the middle of citrus madness I learnt that in most recipes you can replace lemon juice with citric acid. It makes a lot of sense, actually, and is good to keep at the back of your mind if a lemon is the only ingrediant that you lack!
** note if making this jelly that one envelope of gelatine is 1TBSP, or an amount that will set 500ml of liquid. On the TV show Nigella used a whole half bottle of muscat, about a cup more than the recipe states.
I didn't know about preserving juice. Do you have to add sugar to do that?
ReplyDeleteYou can if you want (to taste). I found this information on the same page as the orange jam recipe. I got the feeling it was the sterile jars and heat treating that was the important thing.
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