Hi!
Im not sure if it is the seemingly endless flu season, but I have been craving all things citrusy like mad - well at least after my sense of smell and taste came back. It is a thoroughly unpleasant experience eating most things when you can’t taste anything at all. Chocolate and bananas were the worst, but the list of things where texture alone makes it a pleasant eating experience is very short! That didn’t mean I didn’t fantasise about all the things I could have been eating for the past two weeks.
Risking sounding older than I am, there is something magical about oranges and citrus fruits around this time of year when they are at their very best. I remember as a kid my mom would rant and rave about December oranges and I would stuff my face with cheap advent chocolate and thought she’d lost her marbles. Now I am the batty mum making my kids roll their eyes when I speak lovingly to about oranges, mandarins, tangerines, clementines, citrons and kumquats…
But there is just something inherently christmasy about kumquats, right? They look like bright orange ornaments ready to hang on a Christmas tree and the flavour is almost like the distilled idea of “citrus flavour”.
Every year I end up buying a bunch of kumquats planning all kinds of experiments to see what I can make with the fragrant little fruit, but I typically end up just candying them in a simple syrup made with mandarin juice, water and sugar to serve with cakes or over ice cream, but this year I wanted to make the ice creams with the fresh kumquats instead.
I found the kumquats a little too strong on their own for my liking, so I mixed the kumquats with mandarin juice to balance the tartness with a sweeter citrus flavour but play around with sweet oranges, or lime for a sharper, zestier flavour or even passionfruit juice, which pairs lovely with the kumquats too.
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