More Marmalade

This batch is Blood Oranges, Red Grapefruit and Ginger. I was going to do Mellie's recipe on Tummy Rumbles but I fancied adding some ginger so I tracked down this one from the internet.
I must admit I'm not a ginger fan because of having been forced to eat preserved ginger with my semolina pudding when I was five. The nuns who fed us our school lunches were tough and even at that age I was not allowed to go out to play until I had cleaned my plate and considered all the poor starving children in the world. Of course I would have been only too glad to share my plate with them. I was watched by my sister, through the window. She had a bad heart and was not bullied so much by the nuns and indeed, she had been allowed to leave her ginger. I loved her dearly but it was such an unfair thing for the nuns to do.

Quite a few people at the market, have asked me if I have ginger in my jams. So I decided to have a go and make something to suit other peoples' tastes and not just my own.

RECIPE

1. 600 gm Blood Oranges
2. 600gm Red Grapefruit with most of the pith cut off but using the flesh and hard peel
3. 50 gm grated Ginger
4. 125 gm Crystallised Ginger
5. 1600 gm Sugar
6. 3 litres water

The oranges and grapefruit were de-seeded and blitzed in a food processor. (I've never done this before, usually I hand cut all the peel, but I decided to follow the recipe for a change). They were put in a pan with all the other stuff except the crystallised ginger and boiled for about an hour.

When it reached 103+ degrees I started testing in on a cold saucer but it took another 15 minutes before it wrinkled when I pushed my finger through it.

I cooled it for a bit, then added the crystallised ginger and then bottled it.

As you can see here, it is quite a reddish colour and looks a bit like broken mozaic. It made just over 9x250 ml jars.

And it tastes divine. Robert and I both had some on toast and the ginger was just right. In fact it was so good that I shall add ginger to more things now. I have some rhubarb growing in the garden and apparently that goes well with ginger too.











On the knitting front, I have completed the main cardi pieces and am now doing the lacy band. It will be a close finish. I have to force myself to do a pattern block at a time because I've now got the worries. If it's not finished then it still might be alright!!!

Cheers Gillian