Fair-y preparations

[wiseheart]

I've made the orange marmalade. It turned out thick like porridge but it tastes grand, thanks to the pinch of cardamom I added to keep the sweetness at bay. I know, the British would be probably scandalized that I call this... thing marmalade, but I read somewhere that marmalade requires the whole orange innit, and mine certainly has it - with the exception of the seeds - so it counts as marmalade... or does it? Anyway, it's done and I'll post a pic of the tiny jars as soon as I've labelled and decorated them, promise.

I also worked on my little pillow cases for the cherry stones. Two of them are ready to be filled, another five have been sewn together while turned inside out. Three more to go, then I can turn all eight of them back to the right side and seam them with blanket stitch. It's time-consuming, but doubly sewn they hopefully won't tear along the stitches; plus the blanket stitch looks very pretty. When that, too, is done, I can finally fill the pillows and sew them closed.

That about ate my whole day, so any other activities got postponed. I gave up the idea of the peanut butter cookies and put the whipping cream into the freezer. Tomorrow there will be banana bread and croissants in the making - bananas were drastically reduced in price at Aldi and I bought too much; and my ready-made puff pastry is about to reach its "best before" limit, so it has to be used up right away.

Comments

[meathiel]

Marmalade is made from citrus fruit, all other fruit makes jam.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Really? Well, thanks, I've learned something important again.

[red-day-dawning.livejournal.com]

The addition of cardamom sounds intriguing. I love an unexpected spicy twist. Cardamom and oranges, sounds especially delicious!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

True, although I think I was a bit too careful with the cardamom. But again, I was making this stuff to sale it, not to cater to my own preferences. ;))

[mirasaui.livejournal.com]

Good to see you and your mum are doing well, despite the weather and other circumstances. I love what you’ve done with the quiet books and can’t wait to view more. Also, all your kitchen creations sound delicious..

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Yay, Mira, it's wonderful to hear from you! How are you and hubby doing?

[noadvertising.livejournal.com]

Oranges and cardamom sounds good. Since I still have oranges in the fruit bowl I might give the Greek orange cake a try, with additional spices...

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Greek orange cake? Do tell me more about it!

[noadvertising.livejournal.com]

Basically it´s a sponge mixture with olive oil, soaked in selfmade orange sirup after baking. In Greece they replace the flour with dried up remains of phyllo pastry. Since phyllo pastry is not exactly cheap here I prefer to replace it with flour.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Hmmm — that sounds like that recipe from "Backvergnügen wie noch nie". I used to make it for Christmas, before the big Plätzchenbacken madness started. It was very yummy indeed.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Oh that sounds good — I have an almond and orange cake recipe that you have just reminded me about. Hopefully I will remember it again next time I have an unloved orange lying around.

[noadvertising.livejournal.com]

i always buy a kilo of oranges- two will be part of the recipe, the reason they got bought for. Two will get eaten by husband mine. That still leaves two in the fruit bowl...

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

That sounds like us!

[chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com]

Orange and cardamom go GREAT together!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think so, too. Although I should have been more generous with the cardamom this time, I think.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

A British marmalade has none of the orange apart from the outer rind in the finished product — although the pulp is an integral part of the making. So making it is a bit of a faff! Here's the basic recipe.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Interesting. An English online friend has just told me that indeed the entire orange is supposed to go into the proper marmalade. Can it be that different parts of Britain have different traditions?

I'll look up the recipe, but if it's too complicated, I think I'll stick to my unauthentic marmalade recipe. ;))

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Can it be that different parts of Britain have different traditions?

No, for it to be marmalade you use the whole orange, but the orange flesh, after boiling the whole fruit, is put into a muslin bag and removed before the marmalade is put into jars. If you leave the flesh of the fruit in as you would with say, strawberry jam, it is orange jam, not marmalade — but equally good :)

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Well, that tears it. Too much fuss for me. I stay with my inauthentic all-in-one method. *g*

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Don't blame you — I totally agree. And, as there is so much choice of marmalade in the shops, I see no reason to go through all that at all!