The Year of the Kumquat

 A very small portion of them shown here.

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade, or in my case Lemon Mead, and when you've been blessed with a load of kumquats, you need to be creative with them.  We haven't really had a whole year of them, it just sounded good, and sometimes feels that way.  Bob has had a strange obsession with the fruit ever since Thanksgiving when I made a Cranberry Kumquat Sauce.  I know it was only partly my delicious creation, with the other driving factor being humor.  Really, the name is not that funny.  He started with Facebook posting a W.C. Fields film clip on kumquats.  Yes, that was funny, ha ha ha.  Then Googling and posting all sorts of information on the fruit, health benefits, recipes and etc.  And which has caused other people to give him kumquats.

Bob notwithstanding, I still needed to deal with the second large bagful of those tasty little citrus, thanks due to Nancy, whom some of you might remember from my fabulous post on chocolate making.  First up was marmalade, which I simplified.  I did not like the sound of most of those lengthy recipes.  So, rather than mincing them all, one at a time, I tossed the halved, seeded fruit into a food processor and voila.

Passion Fruit (Lillikoi as we say in Hawaii) Jam Recipe

You will not need to add pectin.  I don't usually mess with the stuff myself, and just add fruit with high pectin content if what I'm using (say pineapple) is low.  I like the old fashioned boil it down method.  Since lillikoi are dropping off the vines around our place and this jam is an old favorite, I thought I'd share the secret recipe.

Passion Fruit have a thin tough outer yellow (unless you have the purple variety) shell (which resists fruit flies nicely) and a thicker, fibrous inner white shell with lots of pectin, and then the fruit and seed mixture inside.

You will be using both the juice and inner white shell.  First wash the fruits, then cut each one in half, scoop out the juicy pulpy seedy part and reserve in a jar.

Then take half the shells (I use the nicer looking ones - without fruit fly stings) and set in a large bowl.  Cover with water, top with a plate to keep submerged, and let sit on your counter overnight or 24 hours.  The next day, dump shells and water into a large pot and bring to a boil, turn down heat and simmer for about 45 minutes.  Pour into a colander (saving enough of the water for later) and let the shells cool down enough to handle.

Now you take a spoon and scoop out the softened, thick inner pulp, discarding the brittle outer shell.  You can either chop the pulp finely or put into a food processor.  I like the jam with a bit of texture, rather than blending smooth.

Passion Fruit Jam

Ingredients: (adjust to the amount you have)
36 passion fruits (or 6 cups juice)
half the shells reserved and cooked, pulp chopped finely (see above)
1 1/2 cups water
3-4 cups sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice

When you are ready, juice the fruit to separate out the seeds.  I use an Acme juicer, which is centrifugal so the seeds don't get crushed into the juice.  Add your chopped pulp to the juice, reserved water, lemon juice and sugar in a medium saucepan.

Bring to a brisk boil, stirring constantly until sugar is dissolved.  You will need to stir frequently to keep the jam from sticking to the bottom and burning, as I have been known to do. Then I tell myself that the hint of caramelized fruit is nice. Ha.  Boil rapidly until set.  Ladle into clean, sterile jars and label if you like.

Now that is a vibrantly flavored, delicious jam for your toast, scones or inside of cookies or tarts.  Going over to Hearth 'n Soul Blog Hop for this week, hosted by Swathi, check it out.

Happy Christmas! Hawaiian Gold Bars

 This recipe is sooo old.  How old?  It's written on a recipe card.  In an actual file box.  That's how old.  I've made it many times over the years, varying only the type of nuts I used and the kind of jam.  To be honest, the recipe was formerly named California Gold Bars, however we are no longer in the location of my birth.  For quite some time now, so a new name was in order.

A rich shortbread bar, the crunch of nuts, with preserves sandwiched in between two layers.  Quite good, if I do say so.  An added benefit is the seductive aroma drifting through your house, of butter and jam baking together.  If you happen to have a house for sale, you might put these into the oven and hold an open house.  Can you tell I'm married to a Realtor?  On to the recipe...