Something else to do with Seville oranges

Actually, there are tons of things - I made a wonderful Seville orange granita one year, and I'm sure it would do a good ice cream as well.  But the most favoured use of the oranges in this house is making vin d'orange.  This is a knock-out aperitif which is almost addictive.  The drawback is, you can't drink it for 2 months - then again, we wouldn't want to drink it before April usually.

On this occasion I was the proud possessor of the remains of a wine box of rose wine which had gone "past its sell by date".  So although it was not terribly unpleasant to drink, it was a bit flat - dull and unexciting, but this is not problem for vin d'orange.  Take 1.5 lits rose, cheap is good - expensive probably better, but I've never tried, slice 5 seville oranges and a lemon and mix into a large sealable container with the wine (I use a big square tupperware style box).  Then take a vanilla pod, scrape the seads into the mix, add 100ml dark rum and 250 ml vodka and 300 g caster sugar (granulated is fine).   Mix them up, seal them up and keep in a    cool place for 6-8 weeks (this means my cellar - the recipe says chill, so a fridge might be better.).   After 6-8 weeks strain, bottle and serve chilled.

I think there is too much vodka in this, we usually find the drink rather strong - two glasses seems absurd at times.  So this time we used about 150 ml vodka - and hope for the best.

The real trick is whether you can make the vin d'orange last the 6-8 weeks it takes to make the next batch. Perhaps I should just buy another box.   You can also make this wine with sweet oranges - add a bit more lemon or a bit less sugar - it won't be the same but it will still be wonderful.

Marmalade

I haven't made marmalade for a couple of years,  The last time I made it I was meant to be giving a "masterclass" to Claire Dugue - but we started drinking and laughing and forgot about the marmalade which turned into an orangey glue... it loosened up a bit after a few months apparently, but I was deeply ashamed of this terrible production.

This year, feeling ashamed at having had to BUY marmalade, I made a vast quantity.  I made two very large jars to give to aging parents (Stella and Peter) and the rest about 450 g jars - 18 of them.   I used about 3kgs of oranges, and about 5.5kg of sugar.  I do not like to use 1:2 ratio as it is much too sweet to my taste - I also use a mix of granulated sugar (about 70-80%) with dark muscovado sugar.  I bought a 5kg bag of sugar for £4.95 - and the oranges were about 65p per kg (I bought about 3.5kg - the rest I used elsewhere).  The only other ingredient was a lemon and the muscavado sugar, say £1.50 in all... and of course the gas used to cook it.  I started at about 11.30 this morning and finished at about 5.15 - so approximately 5 hours work really... but some of the boiling time was usefully occupied doing other things.

So, 20 jars of marmalade for £8.50 - about 45p a jar,. not a bad bargain at all - bet I could sell them for £2.50 or so if I put pretty labels and covers on them.... but there's no outlet for that, unless I revive my market stall.  But it would be £40 for 5 hours work - £8.00 an hour.  Quite a good whack locally.  I doubt if I could make any other product quite so cheaply... apple chutney perhaps - and if I ever had a bumper quince crop...

The trick that has really made marmalade making a joy, is being able to wash the grotty old pots in the dishwasher - spending hours scrubbing at them and drying them in the oven was a terrible bore.