Grapefruit Marmalade

If strawberries, blackberries and blueberries define summer, then winter is all about tangerines, oranges, grapefruits, lemons and limes. These mildly sweet, slightly sour and succulent fruits fill the cold months with a citric tang and liven up the holiday platter, right from pound cakes to appetizers to sauces, and everything in between, with their acidic zest. One of the most noted winter favorites is the grapefruit. This bitter-sour fruit, infamous for its acerbic tang, however, can be pureed into a delicacy and can be relished as a yummy marmalade. Unlike the ‘broiled grapefruit’ or ‘grapefruit and avocado salad’, which are indeed the most joyless of starters on a menu card, the red-pink grapefruit marmalade has a pleasant sweetness about it, making it one of the hot favorites with the foodies. You can slather it on a toast, add it to your salad dressing, or even use it to glaze your meat. If you are already drooling over the thought of relishing yummy grapefruit marmalade, then this write-up should help you pile your racks with bright grapefruit marmalade to last you all through the year.  

• Grapefruit marmalade tastes absolutely delicious and is a yummy alternative to boring orange marmalade. To make this ruby red delight, you will need two large thick-skinned grapefruits, one large lemon, two cups of water and four cups of granulated sugar.
• Before you get on with the pots and pans, make sure that your jars are rinsed, sterilized and dried. Dunk the jars in warm soapy water for a while and then rinse them off with cold and clean water. Pour some boiling water on each of the jars, taking one at a time and drain them dry. Place the jars on a cookie tray and push it inside the oven (200-degree F). Soak the lids in a saucepan full of boiling water and let them simmer for a while.
• Peel the citrus fruits and keep them aside. Using a sharp knife, nimbly slice away the inner white part of the peel to remove all traces of citric-bitterness from the fruit. Take the rind, cut it into thin slivers, and keep it aside. Now take the fruits and chop them coarsely and keep them aside, retaining the juice as well.
• Take a heavy kettle and place it on a high flame. Add the slivered rind, chopped fruit, fruit juice and water and simmer it uncovered for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and drain the contents of the kettle in a large heatproof bowl and allow the mixture to stand uncovered for the night.
• Next morning, pour the mixture back in the kettle, add sugar and put it over a medium flame. Stick in a candy thermometer and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring continuously until the sugar is completely dissolved. Boil the mixture, stirring it occasionally, until thermometer registers 218 degrees F to 220 degrees F.
• Remove the kettle from the flame and gently skim off the foam. Pour the content into sterilized jars. Wipe the rims and seal the jars and place them in boiling water for 10 minutes. Remove the jars from the hot water and allow it to cool down. It's best to leave it undisturbed for 12 hours
• Label the bottles and store the marmalade jars in a cool and dark place. In case you don’t wish to store the marmalade for a long time, you can skip the sterilizing and processing and just refrigerate the marmalade. In that way, the marmalade should last for a really long time.