Niki Louca from My Greek Kitchen shares her favourite recipe for Bergamot Marmalade with The Greek Herald. You can follow her on Instagram @mygreekkitchen for more!
Ingredients:
- 1 kg bergamot
- 1.2 kg sugar
- 1 tbsp vanilla paste
- ½ – 1 cup water
- 12 pieces of bergamot glyko (spoon sweet)
Method:
Once you have made bergamot glyko, the preserve, you are left with the actual fruit and it is a shame to throw it out. Making jam using the bergamot fruit is very easy and the end result is a wonderful citrus jam/marmalade far superior than your traditional lemon or orange marmalades.
- You will need to peel, slice and remove all the seeds and membrane from the bergamot fruit. This is a tedious task but necessary.
- Place your cleaned fruit into a thick based pot, then add your sugar and set aside overnight for the sugar to dissolve. The next day you will notice that most of the sugar has dissolved and there will be some liquid as well (which is what we want).
- Add ½ cup of water to the pot, stir it well, and see if the mixture is still very thick. If it is, add some more water. I find I use the full cup of water for this quantity. Stir again and place on medium heat. If your mixture is too thick before you start to cook it, it will be extremely thick when you finish and will not spread nicely, so you do need it to have sufficient liquid as the syrup will cook down and thicken. Once it comes to a slow boil, reduce your heat to low/medium and simmer for about 20-25 minutes. If it boils over, take it off the heat for a minute then put it back on the heat.
- In the meantime, cut up your glyko (the actual preserve), into small pieces and add to the marmalade mixture. Continue to simmer for a further 15-20 minutes till the mixture thickens a little more. Once complete, pour into sterilised jars and seal tightly.
- Treat as any other jam – once opened refrigerate. Store unopened jars in a dark cupboard.
Niki Louca runs cooking classes in Melbourne. For more or to book classes visit My Greek Kitchen at www.mygreekkitchen.com.au or Instagram @mygreekkitchen. You can email Niki at: niki@mygreekkitchen.com.au.
