Blood Orange and Chili Marmalade

I love some marmalades to have with bread, cheese and tea in the evening. And cooking marmalade is fun, if you have built a playlist with a bit over 25 songs and have some nice book or good articles to read, 'cause it takes a good hour.

So what do you need? Well, the thing I like about cooking marmalade is that there are no rules. What I did was three cans of Blood Orange and Chili Marmalade.

I used:

• 4 blood oranges
• 1 carrot
• 2 green chilies
• sugar (3-5 dl)
  
• bag of pectin (1-2 table spoons)
  
• some green tea leaves (for 3-4 tea cups)
  
• some Sambal Oelek (~tea spoon)
  
• some lemon juice (~ table spoon)
  
• some honey (~ table spoon)
• 3/4 - 1 liter of water

But remember: there are no rules in cooking, except that you should wash your hands. The items with parenthesis after are typically variable after taste. If you like your marmalade stiff as a corpse, well put 2.5 table spoons then, if you like it sweet then use 5 dl of sugar. You get the point!

Now for some action:
Put the water to boil (preferably in a water boiler). Wash the oranges thoroughly - the peel is more or less poisonous.

Chop the oranges finely.

Put the Sambal Oelek in a large sauce pan on mid-heat and when it sounds like it's getting hot, get the oranges in there and pour 1/4 liter of water on top. Now this little brew has around 30 minutes of mild boiling to do.

While waiting grate the carrot and chop the chilies finely. When these are finished put it in the pan. Don't forget to stir sometimes.

Make green tea of the other 1/2 liter of water. When finished - yes - pour it in the pan!

When this mixture starts to look like marmalade, but too wet and juicy (after about 30-40 minutes of boiling that is) it is time to harden it. Mix the pectin and sugar and stir in bit by bit. Pectin has the nasty habit of showing its effect after the marmalade cools off so you have no chance of knowing if you have the right amounts - but calm down - worst case you have jelly and can use it as dessert or thick lemonade and can serve it with tequila :)

Let this boil with some more heat for 10 minutes. Add honey and lemon juice. And let it boil for a minute or two. (If you like add this with the sugar, it doesn't matter.)


Time for some creativity - or saving what can be saved:
Now here comes a crucial moment: Taste. What did you think. Yak - so sweet! Hmmm... Not too good, hard to fix, but you can try to add some more fruit, water and lemon juice. Not sweet enough - eeeaaasy! More chilies - probably since you chickened out and only took one and skipped the Sambal Olek, right? Keep tasting until you like it...


Serving:
Take 3-4 cans that you have washed (and maybe even had in the oven >100 degrees if you like) and pour the marmalade in. This needs to cool for an hour or so, but I recommend to cut yourself a slice of bread, put some butter and cheese on and taste your hot marmalade right now! BTW - after a day or two it gets it right consistency.