Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Kinnow Marmalade

I abhor kinnow! Its difficult to eat and doesn't taste like an orange. When I asked Ajay to get oranges, guess what he thought was an orange! Apparently its a type of Mandarin orange. The best thing I found out to do with kinnow is to make marmalade. Jamming transforms this fruit. This marmalade is made with natural pectin and sets beautifully. Also it has a slight bitter component due to the rinds, that makes it delicious.


Ingredients:-
Kinnow - 4
Lemon - 1
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Water -1 cup

Procedure:-
Wash and peel the kinnows. Keep peels of two kinnows, cut them into thin strips. Slice the kinnow right in the half like slicing into two hemispheres! This makes it easy to remove the seeds which are generally in the center. Also remove and keep as much of the white pips as possible. Put the sliced fruit into a heavy bottomed pan. Add the juice of a lemon and strips of kinnnow peel.
In a muslin cloth or handkerchief put all the seeds and pips, including the seeds of the lemon and also the squeezed out lemon itself.  Tie this into a nice bundle and throw it into the pan. All the natural pectin is released from this bundle.
Add the sugar into the pan along with the water. Boil on slow flame for about 1.5 to 2 hours. At 1.5 hour stage check for the consistency. To do this, keep a small plate in the freezer. Add a drop of the marmalade onto this chilled plate and check if it sets into a jelly. If it does, then the jam is made otherwise cook for a further 15 mins and repeat setting test.
We got 1.5 small jars of marmalade.

Monday, December 2, 2013

Pecan Pie

Please excuse my torpidity lately! I have been meaning to put up many posts. Have been fairly busy baking. Here is something I tried by pure coincidence on Thanksgiving day!


It all begins with the story of how I got hold of pecans. Well these nuts are non existent in India. Ajay's aunt was visiting us from London and she is known to come bearing many gifts! Thank you auntie! We are enjoying your presents. Pecans down, only if I could figure how to finish off the truck load of spanish saffron now!

Ingredients:-

For Filling
Brown sugar - 1 cup
Normal sugar - 1/4 cup
Whole wheat flour - 1 tbspn
Eggs - 2
Vanilla extract - 2 tspn
Milk - 3 tbspn
Melted butter - 1/4 cup
Salt - 1/4 tspn
Chopped Pecans - 1 cup
Rum - 1 tbspn

For Pie Crust
Whole wheat flour - 1.5 cups
Sugar - 1/2 tbspn
Salt - 1/8 tspn
Oil - 7 tbspn
Liquid (Milk or Water or Juice) - 1/4 cup

Procedure:-

For pie crust - Mix in a bowl all the ingredients till moist clumps form. Add the liquid slowly into the dry ingredients. There is no need to refrigerate this pastry. With your hands press down the dough on the pie mold evenly on the bottom and up the sides. Score with a fork. Pie crust is ready for filling.

Filling - In a mixing bowl add both the sugars, flour, salt and two eggs.  Beat very well till all the sugar is dissolved. If the sugar is not dissolved it would sink to the bottom of the pie during baking. So ensure it is nicely mixed. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well.

Pour this filling into the pie shell and sprinkle with pecans on top. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 40 - 45 mins. Cool completely before cutting the pie.

For a variation, one can add a bit of chocolate to the filling.