When life gives you oranges, make marmalade...

I guess it all started when my mom was a teenager and learned how to make this delicious orange marmalade.  Almost 60 years later, she still makes about 3 dozen jars every year from the trees in her backyard.  Then, she gave me the recipe and for the last 20 years, I've been making it on and off depending on what I can get my hands on!  For the last 8 years, I've been fortunate enough to be invited to the annual orange picking party in Riverside at Sandy's place, a friend of our good friend June.  Now June is a veteran.  She's been going there for 23 years, only missing one party!  This year, I brought Darrell with me.  He was like a kid in a candy store and started climbing trees!  The crop was plentiful and for 3 hours, he picked oranges only to stop briefly to take a sip of fresh squeeze mimosas that June would send out from the deck!  Those long orange pickers are very handy... 


About 20 grocery bags later, Darrell made a lot of people happy, some he knew and some he didn't, and then we started squeezing and cooking!  This month, we've been buried in vitamin C and last week, we made 36 jars of marmalade!    So to make a long story short, if you get a jar of this marmalade, you have to thank a lot of people: my mom for the recipe, June for the connection, Sandy for the oranges, Darrell for the picking and slicing and your host for cooking and posting! It takes 3 days to make this marmalade but it is the best I've ever had.  It has converted many and addicted the rest.  So find a tree, pick oranges and start slicing!


Orange Marmalade
It takes about 1 orange to make 1 (8-ounce) jar.  For about 10 oranges, use an 8-quart heavy stockpot.

On the first day, wash the oranges throughly.  Then cut them in half and slice them as thin as possible.  Discard the ends.  Save the seeds if any and wrap them in a small cheesecloth tied with kitchen string to make a small bag.  Add 1 lemon cut in the same way for every 6 oranges and wrap the lemon seeds in the bag too.  I also collect lemon seeds from other lemons and add them to the bag.  (Lemons have more pectin than oranges and you'll need the seeds to thicken the marmalade.)


Weight the fruits and measure 1800 milliliters of water for each kilo of fruits (1000 grams).  Place the fruits, water and seeds in a large bowl and refrigerate overnight.


On the second day, pour this mixture into a large saucepan and bring to a slow boil.  Boil for one hour.  Cool and place back in the large bowl.  Refrigerate overnight.


On the third day, discard the cheesecloth bag with the seeds after squeezing it tightly.  Weight this mixture and add 1300 grams of granulated sugar for every kilo (1000 grams) of the mixture.  Mix well into a large saucepan, bring to a slow boil and boil gently for 1 hour, skimming as necessary.

Test the marmalade by pouring a small amount on a plate and placing it in the freezer to cool quickly.  If it is thick enough, it is time to can, otherwise keep cooking for another 15 minutes.


Place the jam while it's hot into hot sterilized jars.  I place the empty jars in the dishwasher when the marmalade starts boiling.  I run a full cycle to sterilize and heat the jars.  I use self-sealing jars and the marmalade keeps for about a year.

Irish Soda Bread

St Patty's Day is tomorrow.  There is nothing Irish about me.  You could say that I'm a total M&M or Mediterranean Mutt.  Nonetheless, I intend to celebrate this holiday as most American do, Irish or not.  I'm going to wear green (I don't want to be pinched) and I'm going to cook my first ever corned beef and cabbage.  Actually, I even started the festivities today.  I wrapped a green bandana around my dog's neck and I baked an Irish soda bread.

There are a lot of debates out there about what is a true Irish soda bread.  Everyone agrees on the basic ingredients: flour, baking soda (hence the name), buttermilk and salt.  After that, any recipe can be called Irish!  Some use white flour and some use whole wheat flour creating two main groups of soda bread: white or brown.  Most of the white versions have raisins giving it a very American twist .  Others use nuts and seeds giving the bread a more wholesome texture.

I chose to make my own version using a recipe by Noreen Kinney.  It is a brown version loaded with sunflower seeds, whole wheat flour and oats.  My version uses toasted pepitas seeds that I had in my freezer instead of the sunflower seeds and oat groats and oat bran.  You can create your own version by substituting these ingredients with your own nuts, oatmeal or wheat germ.

My Irish soda bread turned out great.  It has a very rustic texture that reminds me of a whole-wheat yeast bread, only it took me just one hour from start to finish to enjoy a slice with cream cheese and orange marmalade (recipe to come in the next blog).  I can't wait for breakfast to do this again and then for dinner to try it with cheese.  And I won't wait until next year to make it again!

Have a great St Patrick's Day!  Wear green, drink beer, eat corned beef and be safe...

Irish Soda Bread
1 3/4 cup flour
1 cup whole wheat flour plus more for shaping
3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup oat bran
1/4 cup oat groats
2 tablespoons flaxseeds
1/3 cup toasted pepitas
1 large egg
About 1 3/4 cup buttermilk

Adjust an oven rack to the center position and preheat the oven to 425ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, stir together the flours.  Add the butter and work it with your fingertips until the fat particles are very fine.  Stir in the baking soda, salt, sugar, oat bran, oat groats, flaxseeds and pepitas.

Beat the egg lightly with a fork in a 2-cup glass measuring cup.  Add enough buttermilk to come to the 2-cup line and stir with the fork to combine well.  Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until the dough gathers into a thick, wet-looking mass.

Sprinkle the parchment paper with some whole wheat flour and scrape the dough onto it.  Dust the dough with a bit more flour.  Pat the dough into a circular shape about 7 inches across and 2 inches high.  Using a rubber spatula or plastic scrapper, gently make a cross-shaped indentation on the top of the loaf going right to the edges.  Don't cut through the dough.

Bake the bread for about 40 minutes, until it is well browned and an instant-read thermometer inserted in the center registers 200ºF.  Cool the loaf on a wire cooking rack and serve warm or at room temperature.  Cut into wedges and serve with butter, jam, cheese or dipped in your favorite stew.

(Will keep up to 3 days wrapped well at room temperature.)

Torta de dos naranjas

After looking all over the web for the perfect spanish orange cake (and starting this blog...), I gathered a couple of recipes and came up with my own. I liked that most of them didn't use flour but just ground almonds. The rest of the ingredients were pretty straight forward: eggs, sugar, oranges.

Some recipes used whole oranges cooked into a compote. Others used just the zest of the oranges and then poured an orangy syrup over the cake at the end. Well, I decided to use both hence the name: Torta de dos naranjas!

It is a delicious cake with a coarse texture specked with tiny bits of candied orange pieces giving it an intense but not overwhelming orange flavor. It is also moist from the syrup made of orange and lemon juices. Serve it with a dollop of creamy mascarpone for a true culinary delight that makes you want to come back for more... It was the perfect ending to my spanish inspired dinner last night.

Torta de dos Naranjas

For the cake:

2 oranges, about 280 grs or 10 ounces, scrubbed and roughly chopped (with skin) pips discarded

5 eggs, at room temperature, separated

200 grs or 7 ounces sugar

220 grs or 7 ½ ounces ground almond or almond meal

A few whole blanched almonds

For the syrup:

1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice

¼ cup sugar

3 tablespoons lemon juice

2 oranges, cut into segments

Mascarpone cheese for serving

Make the cake: Place the chopped oranges in a small saucepan. Add 2 tablespoons water, cover the pan and simmer gently for about 30 minutes or until the oranges are soft and all the excess liquid has evaporated. Leave to cool.

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan with parchment paper and lightly greased the sides. Finely chop the oranges.

Place the egg whites in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until they form stiff peaks. Gradually add half the sugar, then beat for 1 minute.

Place the egg yolks and the remaining sugar in another bowl and beat for 2 minutes or until pale and very thick. Add the oranges and beat to combine well. Carefully fold in the ground almonds.

Stir in ¼ of the egg whites to lighten the batter then gently fold in the remaining whites. Transfer the mixture to the tin and level the surface. Arrange the whole almonds on top of the cake.

Bake for 50 minutes or until the cake is golden and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Check the cake after 25 minutes and cover lightly with aluminum foil if it is browning too quickly.

While the cake is baking, make the syrup: Place the orange juice, sugar, lemon juice and orange segments in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and cool completely.

After removing the cake from the oven, leave it to cool in the pan, then turn it out, peel away the parchment paper and transfer to a serving plate.

(May be made the day before and kept covered at room temperature.)

A few hours before serving, brush half the syrup over the cake and arrange the segments on top. Serve the cake with the remaining syrup and mascarpone cheese.

My first blog!

Wow, I can't believe I'm actually doing this... I finally gave in and I'm starting to blog...

It all started this morning. I was checking my emails, glancing at my facebook page and looking for an orange cake recipe. Also, it is very windy outside and I'm not ready to face the weather! Going through recipes of spanish orange cakes, I ended up in a blog. At the top right corner of the page, there was a link: create a blog. So guess what, I clicked on it: Curiosity killed the cat and, meaow, here I am...

My main excuse with blogging and writing a cookbook is always the same. English is not my main language so I'm afraid to make big grammatical mistakes. Oh well, you might find them funny or may be offensive and I just hope it's going to be the first one than the later... (see I'm pretty sure this was not quite correct...)

So I'll start with blogging and throwing ideas, thoughts, recipes, pictures and so on. May be it'll last a few months, may be just a few days but at least I'm doing it, I'm in, I'm blogging... :-)