The other day I was in Stanley’s and saw a nice punnet of kumquat’s staring at me. Do you look at some foods and think back to your first taste, which may or may not have been pleasant? That’s how I felt with kumquat’s. I wanted to love the cute miniature citrus fruit , but a distant memory of just eating one raw off someones little tree, as child always held me back. Well I’m a big girl now, 43 years of age, to be exact and it was time to acquaint myself with Kumquats again. Surely if I cooked them down to a confit , almost candy like, they will go down well? And yes they did. Talk about a burst of sunshine and citrus finished with a hint of bourbon and cinnamon. The kumquats picked me up and tickled my tongue, as I ate it on hot buttered bread and black coffee. Preserved kumquat’s are better than orange marmalade in my opinion.The flavor more pronounced, as it’s really all concentrated in the peel.
Certain Someone is not a big jam , preserve type. He loves his charcuterie, black coffee , good bread and butter on lazy weekend mornings. So while I made a small batch, I wanted more applications for my confit. I had small sheets of commercial puff pastry in my freezer and nuts in the cupboard.
I took my kitchen shears and cut up a small amount of the candid kumquats to smaller pieces, as the confit was made from kumquat halves. I spread them over the defrosted puff pastry, added a mixture of pistachios and raw sugar which had been blended to a coarse crumb, and a sprinkle of cinnamon. I then carefully rolled them up on either end, to meet in the middle. The rolls were sliced and dipped in more of the pistachio sugar crumb and baked on a parchment lined baking sheet at 375 degrees until golden. Careful not to burn the bottoms as the sugars from the confit and sugar crumb will caramelize. Remove from oven and let cook. You will have a nice tea or coffee time snack.
- 1 lb of kumquats, washed, halved, and seeded.
- 2 cups of sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon of Bourbon
- * apple core
- Halve and seed the kumquats.
- Place in a heavy bottomed pot with apple core.
- Add sugar.
- Slowly bring up the temp and stir and mash the fruit into the sugar until it starts to liquify slight. You don't want to burn the sugar or cook to fast.
- Stir in cinnamon.
- Cook on med heat until all the ingredients start to liquify and boil.
- Reduce heat until the boil is more like a simmer. Stir periodically and cook for several minutes until the fruit becomes more transparent and candied. This may take about 10 minutes more or less.
- The longer the cook time, the more candied the fruit. You want to make sure its spreadable and not to thick.
- Turn off the heat.
- Remove apple core.
- Stir in the Bourbon . The confit will sizzle a bit with the addition of the liquor.
- Place in clean jars.
- Let cool and cover
- Keep in the refrigerator for several weeks.