I peel for you

SUNNY ORANGE

Oranges and lemons, so full of pennies
All the school girls are so many...

That's how I used to sing the nursery rhyme when I was a child, not knowing the actual words - citrus fruit stuffed with money? Ooh gimme! And with one sen coins out of circulation, 10 or 20 sen would be nice. (The first line is actually, "Oranges and lemons, SOLD FOR A PENNY". Yeah, that's more believable.)

I just looked up the nursery rhyme, and some of the words have been changed - political correctness and all that, I suppose. The last few lines are now: "The grass is green and the rose is red/ Remember me when you are sad." Originally, it ended, "Remember me WHEN I AM DEAD." Sad? Red?... er, doesn't rhyme.

Now, if you have a bag of Valencia oranges, like I did recently, and they're not very nice to eat ­­– the ones I bought weren't very sweet ­­– you might want to turn them into...

Chunky cupful

I chose the firmer, thicker-skinned ones for the jam. The recipes I have in my cookbooks are a bit complicated but I found a simple recipe online and have tweaked it slightly. The original one is smooth because the orange skin is zested and the flesh pulverised in the food processor. I decided to add a little extra peel to give it a bit more body and texture.

One thing to remember is to taste the fruit before making the marmalade. The amount of sugar you use is approximately ½ cup to every orange but that depends on how sweet the fruit is.




EASY MARMALADE WITH BITE 
Makes 1 cup

2 medium oranges (the original recipe calls for Navel; I used Valencia)
1 cup sugar (approximate; depending on sweetness of fruit)
4 tbsp water

• Wash the orange well. Cut off the ends. Zest 1 orange; peel off the skin (without the white part) from the other one and dice quite fine. If you want the smooth marmalade, zest both oranges.
• Cut off the skin from both oranges. Cut the flesh into quarters and remove any large seeds (some seeds are necessary as they provide the pectin that helps the marmalade gel). Place the flesh into a food processor and blend to a relatively fine pulp.
• In a medium saucepan, combine zest, dice, orange pulp, sugar and water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 10-15 minutes until mixture becomes thick and sticks to your spoon. Pour into small jar or covered container. Keep refrigerated. 

PRINTABLE RECIPE