Brandied cumquats
Cumquats are a small citrus fruit popular in many Australian gardens for their compact size, attractive foliage and fruit and the ease with which they grow.
I don't have a cumquat tree in my garden, but there are 3 or 4 in my neighbourhood. Surprisingly, these seem to be largely ignored by their owners, as the fruit either falls to the ground to rot, or shrivels up on the tree.
A friend of mine once told me about the brandied cumquats her mother used to make, and with memories of this, I decided to rescue some of these neglected fruit and have a go at brandied cumquats myself.
The method is very simple - take an equal weight of cumquats and sugar, put them in a sterile jar, and top up with brandy. The jar will need to be shaken a couple of times a day until the sugar dissolves, and then left to sit for a couple of months.
One recipe I have suggests adding a vanilla bean. Having enough cumquats to make a second jar, I tried this as well. This also got me thinking about what other flavour ingredients I could use, and I decided to pick a few more cumquats and make a third jar with a couple of cinnamon sticks thrown in.
When ready, the cumquats are apparently very good with ice-cream, or baked into cakes and desserts. The resulting brandy liqeuer is supposedly really nice as well. I will of course confirm this when I start eating mine in a couple of months!
Cumquats can be made into a marmalade as well, which is one of my next projects.
I don't have a cumquat tree in my garden, but there are 3 or 4 in my neighbourhood. Surprisingly, these seem to be largely ignored by their owners, as the fruit either falls to the ground to rot, or shrivels up on the tree.
A friend of mine once told me about the brandied cumquats her mother used to make, and with memories of this, I decided to rescue some of these neglected fruit and have a go at brandied cumquats myself.
The method is very simple - take an equal weight of cumquats and sugar, put them in a sterile jar, and top up with brandy. The jar will need to be shaken a couple of times a day until the sugar dissolves, and then left to sit for a couple of months.
One recipe I have suggests adding a vanilla bean. Having enough cumquats to make a second jar, I tried this as well. This also got me thinking about what other flavour ingredients I could use, and I decided to pick a few more cumquats and make a third jar with a couple of cinnamon sticks thrown in.
When ready, the cumquats are apparently very good with ice-cream, or baked into cakes and desserts. The resulting brandy liqeuer is supposedly really nice as well. I will of course confirm this when I start eating mine in a couple of months!
Cumquats can be made into a marmalade as well, which is one of my next projects.
posted by mproeger at
11:15 am
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