Bar Top: Frozen Pomelo Minty Margarita

Now this is a margarita you can eat with a spoon!

This is quite a yummy take on margaritas and my own special concoction!  Since pomelos are pretty fibrous and not very juicy, this margarita is best serve frozen.  Remember the left over  mint syrup we had from canning the grapefruit in minty syrup?  We are going to use it here (see, I told you not to throw it out!).

First, you will segment your pomelo.  Now that you have your pomelo ready to go, you will need the following:  Tequila, cointreau, fresh lime, minty syruip, pomelo segments, ice, bar shaker, shot measure, and a blender.

Ignore everything in the background…I have a small kitchen, ok!

In your bar shaker, throw in a small handful of pomelo segments, add about a 1/2 oz cointreau (or triple sec), 1/4 oz minty syrup (or to taste),  juice from half a lime, and 2oz of tequila (oh, who are we kidding?  Make that 3!).  Place the top on your bar shaker and give it a good shake.  Next, throw a few ice cubes in there, pour into your blender and whir it up into an adult slushy.  Rim your gass with kosher salt, pour in your margarita, and enjoy!
haha, you can see some lemon zest drying in the background – oh, and my very sad basil plant…
Frozen Pomelo Mint Margarita
Generous pinch pomelo segments
1/2 oz cointreau or triple sec
1/4 oz of minty syrup or to taste
Juice from half a lemon
2 oz tequila
Kosher salt
  1. In your bar shaker add pomelo segments, cointreau, minty syrup, juice from half a lime, and tequila.  Give it a good shake.  Add a few ice cubes, pour into blender, and blend well.
  2. Rim a glass with kosher salt, pour in glass, and enjoy!

    

    Three Citrus Marmalade

    I’ve always been on the fence about marmalade.  Some commercial marmamalades are too tart, some are too bitter, and some are too sweet.  There are hardly any that I could find that I really truely liked.  So, when I recieved Eugenia Bone’s book Well-Preserved, it surprised me that I really wanted to try her Three Citrus Marmalade.  It sounded so good on the page.  Yes, the very first jam I ever made was a marmalade (what can I say?  I’m an overachiever!).  It was hell.  I stayed up until 4 am making it…but you know what?  The next day when I tried some of the excess marmalade with toast, it was amazing.  The.  Best.  Marmalade.  Ever.  Having a mix of three different citrus really balances out the individual strong flavors of all the citrus.  I really want you to make this marmalade.  Really.


    The name of the marmalade says it all:  Three Citrus.  You can use any three citrus you want just be sure to use oranges and lemons.  You can use ruby red grapefruit, seville oranges, navel oranges, cara-cara oranges, meyer lemons, ponderosa lemons, etc; as long as you stay with the ratio 1 grapefruit:  3 oranges: 2 lemons  For this batch, I used a pomelo, 3 navel oranges, and 2 lemons.  The easiest way to make this marmalade is in two days.  If you break it down into two days, you won’t be up until the wee hours of the morning finishing the marmalade.

     
    On the first day, once you have scrubbed and dried your citrus, you want to peel each citrus in as large of pieces as you can get.  It’s easiest to do this with a paring knife.  A paring knife will allow you to make equal sizes of peel.  You’ll then cut off as much pith from the peel as possible. 
     
     
    Once you have the citrus peel cleaned.  You will cut the citrus peel into small matchsticks until you have one cup.  I don’t like the taste of grapefruit peel so I leave it out (I find it too bitter) but I alternate between lemon and orange peel so that I have an equal amount of both.  Some people like all orange, some people like all lemon.  It’s really up to you and what you enjoy.

    In a medium pot, add the slivers of rind and cover with 3 cups of water.  Cook over medium heat for about 25 minutes.  Do not drain.

     
    

     You will cut the citrus in half across the equator and pop out any seeds.  Using your food processor, blend up the citrus into a pulp.  At this point you want to measure your pulp.  However much pulp you end up with, you will add that much sugar on day 2.  I had 4 cups of pulp. 

    Pour this pulp into the pot with the rinds and water.  You will stir this up, cover, and put in the fridge overnight.

    On day two, transfer the pulp mixture into a wide heavy pot.  Add the sugar in accordance with how many cups of pulp you ended up with the night before (I added 3 cups, 4 cups is just too sweet for me) and a teaspoon of butter (the butter will help the marmalade from foaming up).   Cook over medium low heat until your candy thermometer reaches 220 degrees.

    You will need to prepare at least 4 half pint jars.  I always have extra with this recipe, however, so I always prepare 5-6 half pints.  I ended up with 5 half pints and an 1/8 of a cup that I poured in a ramekin to put in the fridge.  Process using BWB for 10 minutes

     
    
     
    
    Three Citrus Marmalade
     
     
    Yield:  4 half pints
     
    1 Grapefruit
    3 Oranges
    2 Lemons
    3 cups of sugar
    1 teaspoon of butter
     
    Day 1
    1. Peel citrus in as big of pieces as possible.  Cut most of the white pith off of the rind.  Cut the rind, alternating between citrus peel, into little match stick until you have 1 cup.  Pour rind into a medium pot, cover the rind with 3 cups of water and cook at medium high heat for 25 minutes.  Do  not drain.
    2. Cut the citrus in half across the equator, pop out the seeds, and grind in your food processor until you have a thick consistent pulp.
    3. Measure the pulp and take a mental note of how many cups you had.
    4. Pour the pulp into the pot with the citrus rinds, cover, and put in fridge to rest overnight
    Day 2
     
    1. Prepare 6 half pint jars per “Kitchen Tactics:  Boiling Water Bath Canning”
    2. Pour pulp mixture into large, wide pot.  Add 1 cup of sugar to 1 cup of pulp.
    3. Add 1 teaspoon of butter
    4. Cook over medium low heat until candy thermometer reaches 220.
    5. Pour into prepared half pint jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space.
    6. Process for 10 minutes
    

    Kitchen Tactics: Segmenting Citrus

    Segmenting citrus is not my idea of a good time, however, for the sake of quality it is very important to segment citrus for canning (and for some recipes in general).  Keeping the membrane on any citrus will turn your canned product into an overly bitter item that is uneatable and, trust me on this, when you spend time canning a product it sucks to throw it out because it’s unpalatable.  Also, there are  some citrus that have very thick membranes (like grapefruit and pomelo) that just ruins the flavor of the fruit because it’s just too chewy to enjoy.  I love grapefruit but I hate cutting it in half and eating it with a spoon (I know, I’m high maintenance) so when I buy grapefruit, I will segment 2 or 3 of them at a time and then eat them within a few days.

    For the sake of example (and because I have 8 pounds in my fridge),  I will show you how to segment citrus using a pomelo.  Pomelos are a very big grapefruit.  In fact, they are  considered the grand-daddy of grapefruit.  Their rind is thick and their pith is extra thick and super spongy.

    You will need a boning knife, a bowl, a cutting board, and your beautiful citrus!  Make sure you sharpen your boning knife before hand; the sharper your knife the easier and quicker segmenting your citrus will be (just be sure not to cut yourself)!  Make sure you wash and scrub your citrus and dry it.

    First, you will cut the top and bottom of your citrus so that you can lay it flat on one end.  You want to make sure you cut low enough so that you expose the fruit.

    My picture taking is questionable in general but this is where my picture taking gets uber-questionable. 
    I only have two hands, people!
     

    You’re going to slice down the citrus, following the curvature of the fruit.  Your goal is to just get rid of the membrane.  You will lose some citrus in the process but if your knife is sharp enough, it will be neglible.

     

    Once you finish slicing around the curvature of the citrus, it will look like this.

    It’s depressing to see how much fruit is actually inside all that rind.
     

    Now, this is where a sharp knife is important and where I ran out of hands so I have no pictures to show you how to do this particular step.  Sorry!  Holding the fruit over a bowl, you will slice down between the fruit and the membrane down to the core, repeat on the other side of the segment of citrus.  You should be able to scoop out the fruit and let it fall into the bowl.  Hopefully the following picture shows you the gist of what we are trying to do.

     

    The first few times you segment a citrus, it will take you a while to do it and you will be cursing me to the high heavens for even talking you into doing it.  However, with practice, you get really quick at it and something juicy and not fibrous, like a lemon, will be super easy to do.  You’ll work your way all the way around the fruit and will end up with just the core and membranes.

     

    Give it a good squeeze into the bowl and toss it out.  You’ll end up with a bowl of lovely segmented citrus!