Ingredients:

3 medium grapefruits (8-9 oz) peeled, chopped (peel only) or 5 medium oranges (12-13 oz), peeled, chopped (peel only)
1 ½ cups (11 oz – 300 g) sugar
2 cups (1 lb – 450 g) sugar

Great for chicken dishes, salads, desserts, and excellent for Duck A la Orange (be creative!).

1. Soak peels in plenty of water in a deep saucepan (anodized aluminum or stainless steel) or bowl over night. (about 8 hrs). An otoshibuta (smaller lid) can be used to keep peels submerged, but is not necessary.
2. Drain old water, add new water and boil the peels in a deep medium sauce pan over medium heat for 10-15 minutes. Drain, repeat 2 more times. Last 2 times will be for 7-9 minutes.
3. Drain again, add sugar (no water this time). Cook over low-medium for oranges and slightly less than medium for grapefruit). Liquid will emerge from the sugar. Stir until all sugar is melted.
4. Simmer 50-60 minutes stirring occasionally.
5. During the last 20-25 minutes, stir more often, especially the last ten minutes and scrape the sugar off the sides back into the pan. Continue cooking.
6. Stop the heat while the peels are very moist and stir a few times until they have cooled off to prevent them from sticking.
7. Wait until dried out a couple hours covering with a paper towel. Will store well for months when refrigerated.

Yumi Says: When I buy grapefruits or oranges, I don’t waste anything. I even use the outside skins to make candied citrus peels, versatile delights that are a part of seven recipes in this book. Inspired by Yamada-sensei, my koto teacher in Japan, these pungent citrus peels take one on a taste adventure that pleasantly stimulates the mind and imagination. They can be used with main entrees (poultry and fish), side dishes, salads and desserts. This may be a time consuming process but well worth the effort. Friends and family will enjoy receiving a jar as a gift, with a brief explanation of all the ways in which they can be enjoyed (some people even eat them all by themselves).

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My friend Susan Rush was an angel and made up a couple of different citrus recipes for tasting.
Following is one great and easy lemon curd recipe:

Good enough to eat by the spoonful, this curd can be used as a cake or tart filling or served with scones, muffins, or fresh fruit. 

Ingredients

• 3 to 4 Meyer lemons (about 1 pound)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 large very fresh eggs
• 1 stick unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces

Preparation

Finely grate enough zest from lemons to measure 2 teaspoons and squeeze enough juice to measure 1/2 cup. Whisk together zest, juice, sugar, and eggs in a metal bowl and add butter. Set bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and cook, whisking, until thickened and smooth and an instant-read thermometer registers 160°F, about 5 minutes. Force curd through a fine sieve set into another bowl. Serve warm or cover surface of curd with wax paper and cool completely.

Cooks’ notes: • Lemon curd keeps, covered and chilled, 1 week.
• If substituting regular lemons, increase sugar to 3/4 cup.

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SPECIAL EQUIPMENT:
2 5-liter (or five-quart) jars with a sealable lids.
5 750 ml bottles with stoppers

INGREDIENTS
6 yellow grapefruits (please try to find organic fruit, since the peel macerates for a long time in liquid you will want to drink)
6 pink grapefruits
2 limes (or lemons)
6 bottles light, crisp white wine
1 750 ml bottle good vodka
5 cups sugar
2 vanilla beans, split lengthwise
2 8″ chamomile branches with flowers, or 2 bags of chamomile tea
honey

TECHNIQUE

1.  Trim the grapefruits by cutting a round slice off either end, going deep enough to reveal the fruity core beneath the thick pith. Set aside these endcaps. Cut each trimmed grapefruit in half and then cut the halves into 1/2″ slices. Cut the limes or lemons into thin rounds.
2. Thoroughly wash your two large jars in hot, soapy water and rise well. Scald with boiling water and drain.
3. Divide the sugar evenly between the two jars. Add a split vanilla bean to each.
4. Layer the grapefruit slices into the jars, alternating yellow and red slices and mashing them down as you go. Distribute the lime or lemon evenly as you put in the layers. Once the jars are almost full, poke a chamomile branch down the inside or lay the teabag on top. Now take a few of the reserved rounds cut from the grapefruit and lay them over the top of the fruit, peel side up, to make the final layer.
5. Pour the vodka in over the fruit, evenly dividing the bottle between the two jars.
6. Top up each bottle with white wine. You should have about a bottle left over, which you will need to keep for later use.
7. Seal the jars and invert them a time or two to make sure you have no air pockets. Don’t worry about the undissolved sugar on the bottom.
8. Place the jars in a cool, dark place. Invert the jars to agitate the contents once a day for the first week. At the end of the week, the level of liquid will have gone down a bit. Top up each jar from the reserved bottle of wine. Over the next month, check on the jars and agitate every few days. Once a week, top up with wine.
9. At the end of 40 days, unseal the jars and pour the contents through a colander to capture the liquid. Allow the soggy fruit to drip for an hour and then gently press to extract more liquid. Taste it and adjust the sweetness, if you like, with a few tablespoons of honey. Allow the captured liquid to settle overnight in the refrigerator, then pour it through a double-thickness of damp cheesecloth, trying to avoid disturbing the sediment. Bottle the wine and then stopper the bottles. Keep bottles in the fridge for as long as it lasts. Over time, more sediment will settle out. If it bothers you, and it doesn’t me, just pour gently so as to leave it in the bottle. 

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2 lbs blood oranges (about 10 small fruits)
1 lb Meyer lemons (about 3 large fruits)
1/2 lb sour Eureka lemons (about 2 small fruits)
3.5 cups white granulated sugar
3/4 cup sage honey, or any other pale, floral honey
3 cups water

1. Remember that marmalade uses the fruit peel, so please use un-sprayed, organic (or backyard) fruit if at all possible. Also note that store-bought citrus is often coated in wax to extend shelf-life, so if that’s what you’re using, first rinse the fruit with boiling water to remove all traces of wax, then scrub well in cold water.
2. PEELS: Using a vegetable peeler, remove the peel from all the citrus in wide strips, taking only the colored exterior zest and leaving behind the albedo, the bitter white pith. Slice the peel into 1/4″ threads (or wider, confetti-like pieces if you prefer a more textured marmalade.) Put the prepared peels in a preserving pan.
3. PULP: First remove all the albedo. The technique is to take a peeled fruit and slice a round off both ends, deep enough to reveal the pulp beneath the albedo. Then stand the fruit on one of its flat ends and slice downwards along the fruit’s outside edge to cut away the albedo. Work your way around the perimeter of the entire fruit until you’re left with the beautiful “heart” of the fruit. Cut the heart crosswise into round, 1/2″ slices and finally quarter each slice. Remove whatever seeds you find. Put chunked pulp in the preserving pan with the peel.
4. Add water to the preserving pan with peel and pulp, bring to a boil and add sugar and honey. Return to a moderate boil and stir constantly until the mixture had reduced by as much as half to reach the jell point.
5. When a jell set has been achieved, turn off heat and allow the hot marmalade to cool for 5 minutes before ladling into prepared jars. If you wish, process sealed jars in a hot-water bath for 10 minutes (for half-pint size) to pasteurize for long storage.

NOTES
***You can use any combination of citrus fruits in this recipe, but be sure to achieve a balance of sweet (navel oranges, tangerines, Meyer lemons, etc) and sour (Seville oranges, Eureka lemons, grapefruits, etc).
***Feel free to add flavorings. For example: add 1 split vanilla bean to the preserving pot midway through the reduction. Or: take a 4″ branch of rosemary, crush it to release its fragrance and swish it through the finished marmalade just before ladling into jars. Or: add 2 tablespoons of alcohol (Grand Marnier, citron-flavored vodka) towards the end of reduction.

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Makes about 2 cups.

1 juice orange
1 lime (Mexican, a.k.a. Key lime, if possible)
1 cup white onion, minced
¼ cup chopped cilantro
½ to 1 stemmed yellow/orange chile manzano (black seeds removed); or 1 serrano or 1 jalapeño (unseeded), minced
1 cup coarsely mashed blackberries
½ teaspoon agave syrup or white sugar
large pinch sea or kosher salt 

1. Squeeze the orange and lime juices into a bowl. Mix in the onion and chile.
2. Stir in the blackberries, sweetener and salt. Taste. Add additional minced chile if desired. 

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