Sunday, January 17, 2010

Can Jam January - Citrus

The first Tigress in a Jam - Can Jam!

The theme for this month is citrus.
Pure Gold Marmalade, my own recipe of orange, lemon, passion fruit, mango and peach, is my first choice for citrus, but I still have quite a few jars of it in my pantry and I couldn't find any frozen passion fruit, so I made something new.



I combined Minneola oranges, clementines, peaches, mango puree and guava puree.


The Minneola orange is a cross between a tangerine and a grapefruit.
Deep red-orange and sometimes called the minneola tangelo, sometimes misspelled mineola, is easily recognized by its characteristic slightly elongated "neck" on one end.
At its peak of maturity, its pebbly peel turns to a very attractive bright reddish-orange color.
This tasty fruit is easy to peel, has a high juice content.


The ingredients above.

I like to buy fruits like mango, guava and passion fruit as frozen puree.

Because (a) it's easier - I hate peeling mangos (b) I feel like it might be fresher - the difference between tomatoes frozen at their peak in summer and fresh shipped tomatoes in the middle of winter might hold true with mangos too. (c) I can't buy local exotic fruits and it's cheaper to ship flat packages of frozen fruit than fresh fruit.

Just my opinion.



Above: The clementines in the food processor.



Some of the fruit before cooking.

I also added one bottle of ginger beer, 3 Tbs ground ginger and 1/3 cup bottled lemon juice.
Plus one pound of white sugar.



Jars bubbling away.



Removing jars from canner.




Finished orange/citrus ginger sauce.



Mmmmm, yummy!
Good for sauces or salads.
Or just on bread.
I think it is a little too runny to call marmalade, so I'm calling it Citrus Sauce.




Tilapia with citrus sauce.



Citrus sauce tilapia on a bed of shredded cabbage slaw.


The orange and ginger really taste amazing together.


I had a lot of fun with this Can Jam!
I know that on my own I never would have canned anything in January.
Now I have a nice gift to add to the gift baskets I'm making for the dinner party on Saturday.
I think I might include a card with recipe ideas for this Citrus Sauce.



22 comments:

  1. How interesting, never seen the canning process like this.

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  2. What a wonderful idea! Looks great!

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  3. looks good! Happy can jamming!

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  4. bet the taste is awesome - I had the runny problem once too ... I don't think I let it get to a jelly stage...gonna try this recipe, it sounds wonderful and like it over your fish

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  5. OOOH! That looks fabulous! I love the smell of citrus and ginger together, I'm sure the taste is infinitely better! I just finished some of my canning tonight and should have my recipes up tomorrow. This makes me want to go get more citrus!

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  6. This looks yummy! I saw your photos on the flicker group and was *hoping* you would post your recipe somewhere.

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  7. Yes to citrus and ginger. Perfect for the tilapia. You make make a canner out of me yet.

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  8. Great post, love seeing the process. I love tilapia, great with cirtus.

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  9. Ooooh, this looks delicious... what a great idea to post the tilapia pictures too! :)

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  10. The tilapia looks divine. My mouth is watering! I enjoyed reading your post. Mine about my citrus adventure is here: http://ap269.wordpress.com

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  11. Ooh - I love the idea of adding ginger beer to it, too. I may have to steal that one ;-)

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  12. Sauces are a great idea to have around. They always come in handy with meat or fish, or stews! Nice work.

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  13. I agree, the ginger beer is a stroke of genius! I also might steal the idea of the frozen fruit purees - that is a total time saver.

    Wonderful post.

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  14. Ginger and orange go together perfectly - What a great idea for a sauce! I'm canning for the first time ever and hoping to learn a lot from you more experienced types, during the Can Jam. Hope you'll stop by and give me your honest opinion!

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  15. That sounds awesome! I love the combo of flavors!

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  16. Ginger beer, what a good idea! Sounds like a tropical delight in the winter, yum.

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  17. The food processor....why didn't I think of that?? It seems so obvious now...you smartie!

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  18. Mmmmmm.... I always end up with all this JAM lying around that I never use up. I don't ever have enough sauces though. I'm going to try yours FOR SURE!

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  19. I'm getting on the Ginger Beer bandwagon. I think it's about to go down. THANK YOU!

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