Orange Marmalade

Curiosity drove me to try my hands on making Orange Marmalade. I remember this recipe piqued my interest when I first bought Amy Beh's [At Home with Amy Beh 2] way way back, and as usual, I completely forgot about it until few days ago when I was flipping through that recipe book again.

With oranges on hand, I quickly got my act together. The steps were easy to follow, just that it was time-consuming because it can't be rushed. Gentle heat was used throughout to ensure a good golden finish. Since I was just trying the recipe out, initial plan was to halve the recipe, thus using only 2 oranges to see how it turns out. But when I put the oranges into the pot with the required amount of water, the oranges were not covered totally by the water to enable it to simmer till skin-soft stage. So that prompted me to add one more orange, and it was just nice with some room to roam for the oranges in my pot. Recipe below is three quarter of the original recipe which I used to get this 400ml jar of orange preserve.



ORANGE MARMALADE
Source: Amy Beh [At Home with Amy Beh 2, page 227]
Yield: 400ml
Ingredients:
3 large oranges (weighing 500g total) - washed and scrubbed clean
900 ml water
Juice of 1 lemon (approximately 3 tbsp)
375g granulated sugar
3/4 tbsp brandy/Cointreau (optional) *I omitted this*

Method:
1/ Put oranges and water in a large saucepan and bring to a boil then simmer uncovered over gentle heat for an hour or until orange skin turns soft.
*Do NOT use high heat as oranges will burst*
*To test if oranges are ready, use a satay stick to prick through the skin after boiling, if it can be pierced easily, the orange skin is soft enough*
2/ Remove oranges with a perforated ladle and leave them aside to cool slightly.
3/ Slice off four sides of the oranges *refer diagram* then cut the orange rind into very fine thin strips.
4/ Chop up the remaining orange flesh and return the chopped orange and sliced rind to the sauce pan together with the lemon juice to bring to a boil over moderate heat for 30 minutes until liquid is reduced by half.
5/ Add sugar, stir over gentle heat without boling to dissolve sugar completely.
6/ Bring content to a boil uncovered over medium high heat, stirring frequently for about 30 minutes till marmalade jells.
7/ Stir in liquor (if using) then fill orange marmalade into warm sterilised jars to store.

Note:
* Keep orange marmalade for at least a week before consumption for the flavours to meld together.