Lemon marmalade

January 24, 2012

There’s one language we have in common, no matter what our ethnic background and that’s food. I was having a discussion with some tradesmen recently in my study, which has a wall of cookbooks. The conversation quickly moved to food.

“Where are you from?” one asked another.

 “I’m Croatian.”

“Hi, neighbour,” said another. “I’m from Hungary.”

The third said he was Polish.

When the Croatian grouting expert returned to fix our tiles, I loaned him a Croatian cookbook and he returned with another he’d received for Father’s Day so I could copy some of his favourite recipes.

He was back again last week and offered to bring me some lemons from his tree. I never refuse lemons and I ended up with a kit of them to play with – large fat ones.

First up I made some marmalade. Unfortunately I can’t eat grapefruit and I don’t really fancy orange marmalade. However, three of these huge lemons made a superb batch of lemon marmalade which set beautifully and tastes great – a good mix of sweet, sour and slightly bitter thanks to the pith.

If you can get lemons straight from the tree, so much the better. They’ll just need a quick scrub. Waxed lemons with need a bit more work in hot water.

Lemon Marmalade

1kg lemons
500ml water
800g sugar

Cut off both ends then half the lemons lengthwise and slice finely. I have small handheld mandoline that did a great job. A slicing attachment on a food processor would also do the work quickly.

Place the lemons in a large pot and add the water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 further minutes until the lemon  softens. Add the sugar, return to the boil and cook a further 10 minutes and check for setting. Place a teaspoon of the marmalade on a cold plate and allow to cool then push with your finger. If it wrinkles, it has reached setting point.

Pour into sterilised jars and cap with screw-on lids.

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