Seville Orange marmalade and liqueur recipes
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Liqueurs, Preserving | 20 comments
Organic Seville Oranges
I picked up The Contessa from the vet’s this morning. She’d been staying with them for a day and a night as they carried out a blood sugar curve test. She was diagnosed with diabetes last year and is doing pretty well but recently she has lost a lot of weight and her diabetes needs to be stabilised. The daily injections are not the gruelling trial that I thought they would be. In fact, a kind reader suggested that we give her a tiny treat after the injection and that has worked well. Immediately she spots the syringe she starts to dance with joy and is happy to sit on my chair whilst I do the Doctor Kildaire thing.
The Contessa was alternatively shrieking about her adventures and gazing out of the window of The Duchess as we glided along. Then I remembered that it is The Marmalade month so we swooped into Waitrose to pick up some organic Seville oranges. Wondering whether The Contessa would set off The Duchess’s alarm I whizzed into Waitrose and bumped into Gilbert in the citrus fruit section. He usually makes an annual trip to Seville to stay with his friend Juan and handpick his own oranges from Juan’s grove. Something must have gone wrong.
“Hello Gilbert! It’s ages since we’ve seen you.”
He turned and gave me a bear hug. The thin bags of oranges bumping against my back.
“Despite the Euro and the exchange rate we’ve been holed up in France for months. But Marjorie had a yen for her Aga. Need I say more?”
“Is everything O.K.?”
“Ahh you’re wondering why I’m plucking Seville oranges from Waitrose? Well sadly Juan died. It was very sudden. Happened last July.”
He turned away quickly and started to examine the Seville oranges very closely.
Within seconds he’d pointed out that the unpackaged organic oranges were cheaper than the ordinary ones in handy nets.
“Crazy. Organic make marmalade that reverberates. The others are alright but loads of people must assume that they are cheaper and don’t even bother to check the price of the organic ones.”
We loaded up our baskets with organic oranges and lemons.
“This year I’m going to try making some marmalade myself.” Gilbert confided. “Bella, Juan’s daughter, asked me to stay and pick oranges. I just couldn’t face it but maybe next year. I reckon that if I do go, I’ll fill the boot with orange bounty. The entire lot will be transformed into Seville orange liqueur. Juan loved it.”
You can find Gilbert’s Seville orange liqueur recipe here.
We have several good marmalade recipes that we have developed over the years:
A super three fruit marmalade. A best seller on our gateside stand.
Easy Seville orange marmalade. This fine shredded marmalade is a classic and gets the thumbs up from my mum.
Seville orange and quince marmalade. Lots of deep flavours in this orange and quince mix.
Sultry thick cut maramalde. Only for dark marmalade lovers.
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Managed to pick up a pack of sevilles on Friday and they were simmered in the slow cooker last evening. I will finsh the prep this afternoon and hopefully, this year I too will make some marmalade that is edible. I made seville gin last year without cloves and it is delicious. I have 3 sevilles left over so will try some with the cloves to compare. The weirdest thing is that the rind just dissolves into the gin.
Please bear in mind I DON’T DRINK! you lot have been such a bad influence on me.
In fact this is a real CS house today as I am making undercover bread too, a real favourite in my family.
I’m loth to make marmelade as I eat too mush toeast and buttrer with it!
Hi Audrey
Good point! We have full English breakfast most days so just toast and marmalade is almost a diet!
Saw some seville oranges on the market this morning and decided to have a third and final attempt at makeing marmalade, the last two years have been complete failures. I have the oranges poaching for 3 hours as per your easy seville orange marmalade.
Wish me luck!!
Hi Lisa
Saw your comment on my new post 🙂 Great news! Marmalade can be much easier than our ancestors claimed…
I live in the south of the Netherlands and cannot find Seville oranges. My local greengrocer tried to order some for me but couldn’t find them. Is there an alternative I could use? My Dutch husband loves marmelade and jam, I make all sorts of jam but would really love to give him some homemade marmelade. Any help would be much appreciated. (Can’t use Grapefruit because of medication he takes.)
Hi Lynnblok
I’m planning to develop a mandarin orange marmalade and also a lemon and lime (ask your man if he remembers Roses marmalade!). I’ll email you when the recipes are on the site – it may take some time 🙂
Just viewed Gilbert’s recipe and I’m off to Waitrose in the morning. One question though – are Seville oranges ‘waxed’ and if so how do you deal with that? Scrub them under hot water?
Good news re The Contessa. Our Tibetan Terrier had diabetes and I too had to do the daily injections, never thought I’d manage it but, after practising on an orange, it was a doddle and he had an extra couple of years once I’d conquered my fears, and he too looked forward to his treat.
Hello jjt363
I don’t know whether the organic Seville oranges are waxed or not. I scrub them with a small brush vigorously before cooking just in case.
Its funny that you should post about marmalade today, I was thinking earlier that I can’t wait until I can make my own (along with lots of other tasty treats). It will have to wait until we move though as we don’t have the storage space. Great recipe links.
It’s funny how forgiving a cat will be when a treat is on offer, hope the Contessa is ok.
I hope Gilbert gets to pick his oranges in Seville next year.
Oh that’s sad about Juan, but at least Gilbert has those lovely memories, and can toast to Juan with some orange liqueur.
It’s amazing what you can get done with a little treat, hmmm? I’m glad the Contessa is doing better. A lot of weight off such a little girl is a HUGE concern!
I love orange marmalade.
I hope that the Contessa will be o.k. I am glad that the little treat after the injection made her think of it as a thing to look forward to. It just makes your heart sing to see happiness on a dog’s face.
I can’t see the link to Gilbert’s recipe and it sounds like it might be really good. Can you add it again, please, very pretty please?
Apart from that, and the very good news that the organic Sevilles are cheaper than the others(!), the news about The Contessa is just what we need to hear! A bit of glad tidings on a horribly grey day!
Hi Jenny
I’ve put up the link. Thanks for pointing its absence out to me!
Yes, it’s good news about The Contessa – we are ridiculously fond of her.