I went up there this Thursday on the off chance of getting some things from the nursery, and had a peep in at fruit and vegetable stall. Readers it would have been completely rude of me not to take on the offer of a whole box of limes. I still cannot believe that I paid very nearly the same as for a small bag from a supermarket, and there was no plastic whatsoever. OK they were not the bright dark green variety. They were an even colour, some were slightly green but most were more yellow. Maybe they did not quite make the price at the wholesale market because of this. They had come all the way from South America and because they were yellowish I guess they must have been picked ripe or were a different variety. They were firm, smooth, and may have even been Meyer Limes. They taste like limes, are very juicy and have no pips whatsoever.
With my first Kg I made a batch of lime marmalade following Dan Lepard's Recipe but with the addition of a few crushed gin berriers. With the same proportion of raw limes as weight in sugar this makes a very fruity and zesty marmalade.
For the second batch of another Kilogram of limes, I devised my own recipe to include fresh chopped ginger and whole cardamom. I have used both ginger and cardamom before and really love the twist they bring. To the 1Kg fruit I added 1.5Kg sugar this time.
For both batches I followed the same procedure for cooking up the fruit:
1 Litre water to 1 Kilo of Fruit
Wash the fruit well in warm water.
Half the fruit, squeeze out the juice, which is stored in a jug in the fridge and used later.
Cut the halved limes into two, still with their pith and membrane, and soak the quarter peels in 1 litre of fresh cold water. Keep the fruit submerged by putting a plate smaller than the bowl on them, and leave to soak overnight in a glass bowl.
The next day transfer the peels and water to a pressure cooker, and cook at 12lbs for 10 minutes.
When the pressure has cooled down naturally, and the peel is cool enough to handle, stain it from the liquid over another bowl, catching the liquid.Remove the membranes with a small spoon, and cut the peel up finely.
Return the chopped peel with the draining cooking liquid to the pressure cooker. At this stage add whatever spices, bring to the boil and pressure cook for a further 5 minutes. Allow the pressure to drop naturally.
In the meantime, pass as much of the removed membranes and tissues through a sieve as you can.
Measure your sugar, add this and the sievings of the membrane, the cold juice from the fridge, and the spices to the contents of the pressure cooker. You can boil this quantity in a large pressure cooker, without the weights and lid, but I prefer to boil up the marmalade in my larger preserving pan.
I used both a thermometer and wrinkle test to gauge when the marmalade is set.
From the 1Kg of Fruit and 1.5Kg of sugar I got 8 large jars
From the .9Kg of fruit and sugar I got 3 large and 3 medium jars of Lime and juniper Marmalade.
