tangerines

We pick up a box of tangerines with our Bountiful Basket order this time. I have been busy working that box up. I juiced and froze about 2/3 of them so far. I will be making tangerine-ade and agua frescas with the juice.

The first batch of juice I took the peel and made candied peel. After reading several blogs here recently I was curious. (Hi Leslie!) I used the recipe posted on Leslie's blog La Cocina de Leslie for the candy-ing process. However, I cooked my peel longer than 15 minutes. That maybe because I was doing about five pounds of peel at one time! To dry my peel I ran mine through my dehydrator. They were ready in about 12 hours. Plain was very tasty.

I ran across several that dipped their candied peel in tempered dark chocolate. Hum, Hubby likes dark chocolate. I talked to him about it and his interest was peaked so when we went to the grocery store this week I found some dark chocolate. I haven't tried it yet. That's a project for next week.

By the way the left over syrup is excellent on grits.
EDIT 1/14/12: Omg, you have to try the left-over syrup in hot chocolate! It is divine! I used two teaspoons.

The second batch of juiced peel I cut into thin strips and dehydrated for potpourri. I think some crushed cinnamon sticks and a few cloves will smell heavenly bubbling away.

Hubby is a marmalade hound, so I make my first batch of tangerine marmalade this morning. We both like it so well that I am going to make two more batches of marmalade. I'll have Sister Suzy pick up more lemons on the way home from school next Tuesday when college classes resume. I do think I may have overcooked this batch of marmalade because of the marmalade I got on my shirt and counter. It was more like a hard ball than a jelly. So it may come out of the jar after completely cooling in one piece and we may get to eat it as candy. I think I will cut the boil time back five minutes. Here is the recipe for the marmalade:

Tangerine Marmalade
From dorisandjillycook.com

3 pounds tangerines (about 4 for me)
2 small lemons
1 1/2 c water
4 1/2 to 5 1/2 cups sugar (I used 5 cups and the marmalade was sweet enough for us.)

1) Chop the tangerines, peel and all. I do this by hand, so as to remove the seeds. If you’re using a seedless variety, then by all means use the food processor. Repeat with the lemons. (Next time after I remove the seeds I am going to run mine through the food processor for smaller chucks of peel to see if I like it better.)

2) Combine the tangerines, the lemons, and the water in a pot. Bring rapidly to a boil; simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, cover, and let sit 12 to 18 hours.

3) Add the sugar (or more, if you like a sweeter marmalade) and bring rapidly to a boil. Meanwhile, start heating up your boiling water bath in a separate pot. Stir constantly while bringing the mixture almost to the gelling point. (I boiled for 20 minutes.)

4) Transfer to clean, sterilized jars and screw on two-piece lids. Process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.

I ended up with 3 1/2 pints of marmalade.

I'm not sure what to do with what is left. I may give some to my mother-in-law, maybe to some friends here in town and I guess I will juice the rest.

Have a good day!

Judy