Fortunella, or Kumquats are named after botanist Robert Fortune, who brought it over to the West from China. The most popular variety available in the US is the Nagami, grown in California, Florida, and Texas. Today was the day that I would become familiar with this fabulously fragrant fruit.
I had seen it before and read about it a couple of times, but had never eaten it, so I decided to take some home. They were so appealing in their little container, oval-shaped mini-tangerine look-alikes. Thinking about what to do with them, I remembered a recipe in Fine Cooking magazine I had seen a while back. It was for a Kumquat Riesling sauce, and looked excitingly easy to accomplish. The only change I make is the removal of the Riesling for water.
I scrape the seeds from a wrinkly vanilla bean carefully and place them in a saucepan along with a few globs of golden honey and some sugar. Next, I chop a small knob of ginger finely, and grab an earth-brown stick of cinnamon. Throwing everything together, I thin out the oozy thick syrup with some water and let it boil for a sec on high-heat. Once the sugar and honey have surrendered and harmoniously draped the other ingredients, the de-seeded & thinly sliced kumquats go in. The kumquat is quite sour in flavor but mellows softly when cooked in a sauce, producing an enchanting and intoxicating citrus scent. The sauce is then simmered for about 40 minutes on low-heat, or until the kumquats have become translucent.
The following recipe will be splendid dribbled over ice cream, baked pastry, or pancakes. Having had a marvelously decadent holiday season, I decided to pour some over low-fat Greek yogurt. Delicious!
Adapted from Fine Cooking Magazine
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups water
2/3 cups honey
½ cup sugar
1 knob of ginger chopped ¼-inch-thick
1 cinnamon stick
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped out
2 cups kumquats, sliced 1/8-inch-thick and seeded
Preparation:
Combine water, honey, sugar, ginger, cinnamon stick, vanilla bean and seeds.
Bring to boil on high heat.
Add kumquats and reduce to medium-low.
Simmer for 40 minutes or until kumquats are translucent.
Serve at room temperature or cold.
4 comments:
Lovely! Ive had kumquats before, but havent cooked with them. Always thought about trying a marmelade or something. This is a great idea. One, question, was there any bitterness in the sauce?
I came across your site from the foodieblogroll and I'd love to guide Foodista readers to your site. I hope you could add this kumquat widget at the end of this post so we could add you in our list of food bloggers who blogged about recipes for kumquat,Thanks!
Kumquats are a pungent fruit, definitely. When the sauce is cooked in this manner, the longer you simmer it on very low heat the less bitterness will come through.
However, there is an actual method for removing bitterness from oranges that will probably work for kumquats as well. For every cup of peel, add one cup of water and bring to a boil, reduce heat,cook for 10 min. and drain.
Hope this helps!
This is such an easy and unbelievable decadent sauce which I jar and keep around during winter months to give me a touch of sunshine. I decided to adapt this recipe a bit to be more savory so I could serve with seared duck. I substituted the cinnamon stick for Korintje cinnamon (to be a bit more mellow), took out the vanilla bean and had some fun with some other spices like smoked paprika and cayenne for a little kick. This was perfectly paired with seared duck breast and a little sautéed spinach.
I really love this blog and love that she adapts different recipes she finds. I really enjoy cooking, though not trained so I never really know how my spice and ingredient mixtures will actually turn out. Cooking should be fun and should include the entire household. Thanks for these amazing recipes!
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