I have no idea why I decided to make Lime Marmalade today. The idea popped into my mind yesterday though I don’t know why. I think the idea first took seed last Friday (New Year’s Day) as we were sitting at our regular breakfast place, waiting for our food to arrive. On the table were those little packets of jelly, one of the flavors being Orange Marmalade. I’ve seen it there many, many times but that day for some reason it caught my eye and stuck with me. The funny thing is, I don’t even really care for marmalade all that much. I don’t dislike it, it’s just not my first, second, or even third choice when choosing a preserve to slather on toast or bread. Raspberry jam is always my first choice (well actually Spicy Raspberry Jam is even better), along with strawberry, and apricot, though my wife makes a killer spiced grape jelly. Again, though, I am not overly particular, and can’t remember coming across a preserve that I couldn’t stand.

For whatever reason I latched on to marmalade this week, I knew I didn’t want to make orange. It was either grapefruit or lime. I love the flavor of both, but ultimately decided I was in the mood for something lime flavored. I have made numerous jellies and jams before, but can’t remember ever making marmalade so I headed to my bookshelves and the internet to study up on making marmalade and to develop a recipe.

I have found 2 schools of thought when it comes to making marmalade. Some recipes call for a 3 day process where you boil the citrus in water for 10 15 minutes then let it sit overnight, repeat, and then on the third day you finish the marmalade. The other school of thought is to do it all at once, but with a long cooking time to ensure that the peel is tender and that all the pectin is extracted. I chose to do the one day method, though in the near future I want to try the other method and compare the two.

I was very happy with the way my first batch of marmalade turned out. Sweet, tart, with just a bit of a bitter edge this marmalade makes a great spread for toast, english muffins, scones (especially berry studded ones) and a whole host of other “breads.” And I expect it will make a great ingredient in a whole host of other dishes and applications.

One thing about this marmalade; it has a slightly soft set to it. It definitely is not as thick or as tight as many jellies and jams you might be used to eating. That’s the risk of not using store bought pectin. If you want a firmer set you can try adding some liquid pectin, towards the end of cooking, but I rather like the slightly looser set of this preserve.

Lime Marmalade

2 pounds limes, washed under warm water to remove any wax if not using organic limes
4 cups water
3 pounds sugar

Zest all the limes. The easiest way to do this is to invest $7-$10 in a citrus zester. They come in handy quite often so are well worth the few dollars. If you don’t have a zester the thinly peel the limes with a peeler trying to avoid as much of the white pith as possible. After peeling the limes cut them into very fine strips. If you had a zester, you would have been done 15 minutes ago!

Cut the limes in half and squeeze all the juice into a nonreacative pot along with the lime zest. Finely chop the remains of the limes, including all the membranes and pith. You can also roughly chop them and put them in a food processor to finish the job, just don’t turn it into a puree. Place the finely chopped lime into a cheesecloth or muslin jelly bag.

Tie it closed and toss into the pot along with the juice, zest and the water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 1 1/2-2 hours. During the last half hour remove the lid. Remove the pulp filled cloth and carefully squeeze out all the liquid that remains the in pulp. Add the sugar to the liquid in the pot, increase heat, bring to a boil and cook until a thermometer reaches 220. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Remove all scum that has floated to the top and pour into jars. Cover, and if not processing, place into the refrigerator once they have slightly cooled. If you want to process the marmalade then place in a bath of boiling water that comes at least 1 inch above the tops of the jars and process for 10 minutes. Remove from bath and allow to cool. Check seals on jars and if one didn’t seal properly, move to the refrigerator.

I was born and raised in the North, but I spent a good portion of my cooking career down South, in New Orleans and Atlanta. While I prefer the North, especially for the 4 distinct seasons it offers, I came away from my time south of the Mason-Dixon Line with a great appreciation of southern culture and of southern foods. Just like in all regions of the US, southern food is a wonderful mix of native foodstuffs, foods brought to this country by colonists, Native American dishes, and a whole lot of ingenuity. What makes a lot of southern cooking so different, and wonderful is the heavy influence of African accented foods, both directly, in the form of foods eaten by slaves in the early years of our country and indirectly through the filter of the Caribbean. While these influences permeate a considerable bit of southern food it can really be seen the cuisines of New Orleans and in the coastal cuisines of the Carolinas and Georgia.

One of my favorite dishes, found throughout the south, but especially along the coastal areas, is Hoppin’ John, a variation on rice and beans, a dish found throughout the South and Caribbean. In this version, rice is paired with black eyed peas (also known as cowpeas) and bacon or ham. While eaten year round, it is often served on New Year’s Day and is considered a lucky food. As the peas are symbolic of coins, eating the dish is supposed to ensure a posperous year ahead.

Hoppin’ John, like so many great regional dishes, can be a very controversial dish with each family claiming that theirs is the proper way to make it. Some recipes cook the rice and the beans separately and then only combine them at service time, some recipes don’t include tomato, some say that ham is traditional, while others might claim that only bacon or fatback is traditional. I won’t make such claims. I openly admit that my version takes from a number of recipes, incorporating what I like and discarding what I didn’t. Is it “traditional?” Maybe yes and maybe no. It all depends on who you ask. Either way, it is quite tasty.

My wife had never had the dish before so I decided that New Year’s Day would be the perfect time to introduce her to this simple, yet satisfying meal. Served with greens, which are also thought to bring money, if eaten on New Year’s Day, and cornbread, you have a hearty soul satisfying meal

Hoppin’ John
serves 4-6

2 slices bacon, thick cut, diced
1 medium onion, peeled and diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 each bell pepper, diced
4 cups water
1 pound black eyed peas, frozen (if you can’t get frozen the buy dried-soak 1/2 pound overnight then cook until tender but not mushy, about 2 2 1/2 hours, then proceed with the recipe)
2 1/2 – 3 cups Ham, diced
1 each bay leaf
1 can (15oz) diced tomato
1 cup rice
1/2 tsp. black pepper, ground
3/4 tsp. dried thyme
1/4 – 1/2 tsp. cayenne (depending on your tastes)
1/4 tsp. oregano

I a pot combine the bacon and onion. Cook over medium heat until the onion is translucent. Add the garlic and cook 2 minutes longer. Add the ham, bay leaf, black eyed peas and 3 cups of the water. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the rice, tomatoes, remaining cup of water and spices. Season lightly with salt, remember the ham and bacon will bring a considerable amount of salt to the dish. Cook, covered, until the rice is tender, about 15-20 minutes longer. Check the seasoning and add more salt if necessary.

Back in 1993 I moved to Atlanta, a good 12 hour drive from Indiana and my family. Luckily, I wasn’t there long before I made many friends, many of them in the same position I was in with the holidays coming up and no family to spend it with. It was then that I decided that I would throw an annual Thanksgiving potluck get together. The premise was simple. I would cook a turkey, the dressing, and the gravy, and everyone else was to bring their favorite dish from their Thanksgivings at home.

The first year I did this we had a modest amount of people drop by. I think it was in the 12-15 person range but it quickly grew and by the time I left Atlanta I as hosting 30-40 people who would drop in throughout the day, with the main meal seating anywhere from 15 to 25 of my friends. Not only were friends with family far away attending, but friends with family right in Atlanta opted to skip the family drama and spend the holiday with us.

This was the start of my Bloody Mary holiday tradition. As the size of the group grew so did my cooking chores. I was still only doing the turkey, dressing and gravy, but now with so many people I was cooking 2 birds and numerous pans of dressing. Since all I had was a standard home oven I had to start pretty early in the morning to get everything cooked in time. I needed a way to help me pass the time and since I was, and am, a big fan of Bloody Marys, I figured they’d be the perfect diversion. I was right, they were the perfect diversion to the long hours of watching over the turkey as my friends slept in, fighting their hangovers from the pre-holiday festivities of the night before. And since I was usually suffering right along beside them, the drinks made a great “hair of the dog” cure to my self imposed ills.

Now, some of you might question the intelligence of consuming large quantities of alcohol while working around large pans of hot food and very sharp knives. While I don’t necessarily recommend this to everyone (I am a professional I will remind you) I can say I made it through all those holiday meals without any major scars. Nowadays though, I limit myself to just a few early morning Bloody Marys while preparing our Thanksgiving feast, and maybe just a few more if someone else is doing the cooking.

So I offer up my version of the Perfect Bloody Mary. I say “my version” because, for Bloody Mary aficionados, a Bloody Mary is a very personalized thing. Luckily this is my blog so I get to give you my favorite version. Feel free to offer up yours in the comments section.

Pete’s Perfect Bloody Mary

3 oz. Vodka (either plain or pepper infused-or create your own infused vodka)
6 oz. Tomato Juice
1/2 tsp. Horseradish
1/2 tsp. Worcestershire Sauce
1 tsp. Dill Pickle liquid
2-6 dashes Hot Sauce (depending on the heat level you like, I usually go for 4-6)
2 wedges Lemon, cut into 1/8ths
Black Pepper
Celery Salt
1 each Celery rib, 1 1/2 – 2 inches taller than the glass

Fill a large glass with ice. Pour in the vodka. Add the horseradish, Worcestershire, pickle liquid, hot sauce, juice from one of the lemon wedges, and a couple of shakes of black pepper. Top with tomato juice. Pour entire contents between a cocktail shaker and glass a few times to mix, leaving drink the in the cocktail shaker. Use the remaining lemon to moisten the rim of glass. Pour some celery salt into a dish just large enough to accommodate the rim of the glass then crust the rim with the celery salt. garnish glass with lemon wedge and add the celery stick. Pour contents back into the glass and enjoy.

A few words about garnishes. Just about anything goes when garnishing a Bloody Mary; celery, pickle spears, olives, pickled Brussels sprouts, pickled mushrooms, poached shrimp (nice in a Cajun Bloody Mary or in one using Clamato juice), lemons, limes, etc. In Wisconsin they even like to garnish them with beef sticks. Just avoid the temptation to turn your cocktail into a salad bar. 1 or 2 garnishes is sufficient. I hate getting a Bloody Mary that is so heavily garnished I have to eat my way through to be able to get a drink!