TO COOK, VEGETARIAN, BREAKFAST AND BRUNCH, JAM AND PRESERVES TO COOK, VEGETARIAN, BREAKFAST AND BRUNCH, JAM AND PRESERVES

Sunset in a Jar - Blood Orange Marmalade

This red is just stunning. It's like the brightest red sunset caught in a jar! I'm hooked on blood oranges, I have them all the time, as a snack or as fresh juice. They are so sweet and juicy at the moment that I much prefer them to normal oranges or tangerines even. I buy huge bags of the Italian ones, now that they are in season, organic with thin skin, and I think I could live off them (for now).

All good but I want to bring some variety in, therefore I decide to put them in a jar and made some blood orange marmalade. I've never made it before but so far my marmalade recipe worked very well with Seville oranges and tangerines, so why not with blood oranges (I wrote about my tangerine marmalade in December)? It worked, and more than that, the result is amazing! This marmalade is so sweet, yet slightly bitter, it's just right! I spread it on a slice of white English bread, impatiently, it just finished cooking, and I couldn't stop smiling.

Blood Orange Marmalade

For 3-4 medium sized jam jars you need

  • organic blood oranges, rinsed, 1200g / 2 1/2 pounds

  • granulated sugar 600g / 1 1/4 pounds

  • juice and seeds of 2 lemons

  • spirit to sterilise the rims of the jars

Sterilise the 4 jam jars in boiling water for 5 minutes.

Fill a large pan with water and bring to the boil. Cook the oranges for 25 minutes or until soft (mine needed 25 minutes but they were small with thin skin). Take them out and keep some of the water.

Quarter the cooked oranges (don’t peel them, you use the whole orange!), take out their seeds and put them aside (you will need them). Cut the lemons in half and keep their seeds as well. In a small pan, heat up some of the blood orange cooking water (it should come up to 2cm / 3/4"), add the lemon seeds and orange seeds and let them cook for 5 minutes.

Shred the quartered oranges in a food processor for a few seconds. Put them in a large pan, add the sugar, the lemon juice and the water used to boil the seeds. Bring to the boil gently (the sugar has to dissolve first) and boil for 18-20 minutes.

Dip the rim of your jars in the spirit and wash out the lids of the jars with the alcohol as well. Fill your jars with the marmalade and close well immediately.

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