Seville Orange Marmalade with Bay Leaves and Chiles

Here it is! (my first marmalade, and my first online self-portrait)

I came dangerously close to not cooking my headily fragrant Seville orange. I had never made marmalade or any kind of preserves, and I wasn’t ready to bite into a whole new area of cookery, especially not one that involved straining anything through muslin, but then I read this comment from Lindy:

We never see Seville oranges in Pittsburgh. I am jealous, jealous, jealous.

In case you missed my answer:

First, don't be jealous; Pittsburgh is the only place I ever saw a vegetable called Jew's mallow, so that's pretty cool.
Second, this is for you. I was thinking I am so busy, and the holidays are so soon, and my writing project is so massive, that maybe it was enough just to get a few pots of orangeade out of Senora Sevilla, but having read your comment just a few minutes ago, I said, if they can't find Seville oranges in Pittsburgh, I just HAVE to make marmalade, so I fished my now thrice-poached orange out of the icebox, hacked it to gobbeties, mixed it with an equal weight of sugar (7 ounces) and cooked it with two bay leaves and three mild chile peppers. I am boiling the jar as I type these words.

And so I was. I stayed up much too late so I could try it as soon as the marmalade was cool enough to taste. This is a complex, wonderfully satisfying marmalade. I made a small quantity, which will be completely engulfed by the end of this week, but if you are planning to keep your marmalade for a while, do take the time to find out how to sterilize the jars correctly. My lid never made that pop, which I understand is the sound of properly made preserves. The chiles I used are very mild decorative peppers, mountain-grown in Colorado by my cherished friend Shmuel, to whom great thanks.

Seville Orange Marmalade with Bay Leaves and Chiles

1 Seville orange (7 ounces)

Sugar equal in weight to the orange

2 bay leaves

3 mild chiles (optional)

pinch salt

Cut the orange in quarters and boil it in three waters. Drink the orange water with or without sugar and/or spirits. Cut up the orange and remove the seeds and the coarsest bits of membrane at the very center. Grind half of the fruit, and chop or slice the rest. Combine the cut and ground orange in a stainless steel saucepan with sugar, salt, bay leaves and chiles. Cook until the color deepens to a darkish amber (I did not check the cooking time). Pour into a sterile jar, and boil the jar.

Enjoy on toast with tea, or in the tea, a la Russe.

Be sure to see Kalyn's roundup of this Weekend's Herb Blogging.

Food and Drink, Recipes,, Vegetarian, vegan, antioxidant-rich foods, Cooking, Food, Weekend Herb Blogging, whb