Tag: Ugly Produce

Burnt Citrus Syrup recipe …

Published on by FJB5 Comments

Burnt Citrus Syrup Recipe
(this is a delayed gratification recipe!)

It’s citrus time again.  When friends and neighbours chase you down the street almost begging you to take their home grown lemons, limes, oranges, or kumquats.  The trouble is of course, that EVERYBODY has citrus at the same time!

So here’s something you can do with all that citrus …

You will need

  • a selection of sweet and sour citrus – orange, mandarin, kumquat, grapefruit, blood orange, lime etc – this is a great way to use up ugly, misshapen or blemished citrus.  The more variety the better, but not too much sweet fruit.
  • a selection of herbs and spices, for example – coriander seeds, rosemary, cinnamon sticks, black peppercorns, cloves (not too many), star anise (ditto).  Pick three or four of your favourites.
  • one or two large wide mouthed jars (eg Fowlers or Mason preserving jars)
  • optional – 1 tsp of Citric Acid for each jar – to help preserve the fruit
  • 1-2 litres of sugar syrup – see below
  • a selection of attractive glass bottles for the final product

Step 1 -Burn your Citrus 

  • wash the fruit, chop it into chunks and pile it on to some baking paper in a large roasting pan.  Sprinkle over the herbs and spices.
  • Slow roast it in the oven at 130C (260F) for four to five hours. It will look a bit like a baking disaster but never fear, it’s all good.

Step 2 – Preserve your citrus

While the citrus is in the oven get your sugar syrup ready and sterilise your jars – this can be left until the last 30 minutes of cooking time.

  • Sterilise your preserving jars with boiling water. Be scrupulous.
  • Make enough sugar syrup to fill the jars and cover the burnt citrus. There are plenty of recipes for sugar syrup on the internet. I used two parts sugar to one part water dissolved over low heat. If you use a strong sugar syrup, you can always add a little boiling water to the jar if you run a bit short of sugar syrup.  Warm the syrup when you are ready to fill the jars.

Step 3 – Bottle and wait …

  • Split the citrus pieces, spices and herbs roughly evenly into the sterilised jars.  Fill the jars to around two thirds.
  • If using, add  ½ tsp each of Citric Acid for each jar to help preserve the fruit.
  • Fill the jars with warm sugar syrup and seal.
  • Wait for at least one month. This is the hardest part.
  • Remove the citrus pieces (I throw them on my compost heap) and pour the syrup (which will have turned orange) through a strainer into a jug.  Then into sterilised glass bottles.

Note: this makes a very sweet, unctuous syrup which can be diluted. Prolong the life of the syrup by storing it in the fridge.  If you are scrupulous with sterilising, the syrup will last for several years – I am still using my 2018 vintage!

Uses: pour on ice-cream, make mocktails, or dilute with soda or tonic water.

Ugly Apple Cake …

Published on by FJB8 Comments

OK so that’s obviously not the real name of this cake, but a post by David Lebovitz happened to arrive in my Inbox the same week as the first June Bellingen Growers Market, and seeing as it’s apple season, it all seemed a bit serendipitous.

The Bellingen Growers Market is held at the showgrounds on the second and fourth Saturday of each month, and it’s a small, eclectic mix of bric-a-brac, plants, books, second-hand clothes and of course most importantly home-made, home-grown and mostly organic  or spray-free seasonal food.  The fruit and veggies are not the perfect, polished specimens you find at the big supermarkets (you know, the kind that have been in storage for months – maybe even since last season!)  They are more often than not, distinctly ugly …


Of course, it’s what’s on the inside that counts, so I picked four knobbly, pock-marked red varieties, one of which was so crisp and tasty that didn’t even make it into the cake. Luckily I bought extra, but I need to go back to the next market as I don’t remember which variety it was.  Anyway the recipe is straightforward so just follow the link …

The only change I made to the recipe was to substitute Frangelico for the dark rum (to save buying yet another bottle of alcohol) and to drizzle some lemon icing over the top (because I just happened to have half a lemon to use up).

The result was unanimously declared to be delicious… eat fresh, eat local and eat ugly fruit!

Burnt Citrus syrup …

Published on by FJB5 Comments

OMG – I’ve died and gone to heaven …
I’ve just tried my first batch of home-made Burnt Citrus Syrup and it tastes fabulous.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. About a month ago, I lunched at Popla, a new Bellingen restaurant, where I tried their home-made Chinotto Mocktail.  It was spicy, sour, sweet, smoky, citrus and delicious.  It set me thinking about an Italian soft drink I had tried when I was young.  So I tracked down a bottle of Chinotto and tried it – it was truly HORRIBLE!  When I looked at the ingredients, I discovered that it was entirely made of chemicals – not even a trace of the Chinotto orange after which it is named.

Surely with my abundance of ugly, misshapen citrus, I could do better?

Ugly Mandarin
Ugly Produce

After a few minutes searching on the internet, I had enough information to give it a go. You need sweet and sour citrus – I used orange, mandarin and cumquat with a few bought, locally grown pink grapefruit. For the spices I used coriander seeds, rosemary, cinnamon sticks, black peppercorns, cloves (sparingly) and star anise (also sparingly).  I chopped the citrus into chunks, popped them on some baking paper in a large roasting pan and sprinkled over the herbs and spices.

Then I slow roasted them in the oven at 130C (260F) for four to five hours. Your kitchen will smell wonderful, but the result will look a bit like a baking disaster. Never fear, it’s all good.

I allowed the citrus to cool and then split it into three wide mouthed sterilised jars, filled them with sugar syrup and waited for one month. This is the hardest part.

Then it’s tasting time … try the syrup in sparkling wine, with gin, soda or tonic water. Pop a piece of the burnt citrus in the bottom of your glass and eat it at the end when it’s a bit sozzled.  Amazing and a little bit deadly.  Tasting is quite strenuous so excuse me, I need a little nap …  after which I will post the full recipe.