{Tomato Marmalade}

It's been yet another summer with abundance of tomatoes! Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining; just running out of ideas on what to do with them... Until I looked in this book I have that contains recipes of various preserves.

Salsa? Done...
Spaghetti sauce? Been there...
Tomato marmalade? Well, that's interesting!...

So I decided to give it a try... until I was in the middle of chopping and measuring my tomatoes and I realized that the recipe has an error in it - it states 2.5 lbs/2 kg of tomatoes. But wait, 2.5 lbs is only about 1.1 kg rather than 2 kg!!! AND the book recommends to follow the recipe exactly as the balance between fruit, sugar, pectin and acid is crucial for gel formation. What was I to do?!... I just decided to sort of wing it. I am quite please with the result (including my kid that now wants it on her sandwich ALL THE TIME!). Try it with your chicken or fish :)

INGREDIENTS (as I used them):

* about 2 kg tomatoes
* 2 large oranges
* 1 lemon
* 4 cups sugar

YIELD: about 1.5 L of marmalade

DIRECTIONS:

1. Peel tomatoes, quarter and remove liquid and seeds; coarsely chop enough to yield about 1.5 kg of tomatoes. Place into a large saucepan/pot.

2. The recipe wasn't clear whether the oranges should be peeled... I did peel them (although, I think next time I would leave the peel on; make sure you wash them before). Halve and seed oranges and lemon. Finely chop in food processor/blender and add to the tomatoes.

3. Bring the mixture to a full boil over high heat (ensure to stir now and again). Slowly add sugar and keep stirring until it fully dissolves it will look pretty liquidy).

4. Return to a boil and continue to boil until the mixture starts to form a gel (so for about 1 hour, stirring frequently, or it WILL burn).

This is what the "gel" will look like

5. Remove from heat and ladle into sterilized jars. Process for 5 minutes.









Cheers,
Nadia.