Seville Orange and Lemon Marmalade with a twist · Sunday January 26, 2025 by colin newell
I’ll admit it — with an English and Irish family heritage, I am a bit of a marmalade junkie. I’ve been enjoying it since I was a kid – and thankfully have had access to some locally made farm marmalade – albeit with imported Seville oranges.
For some reason or another, I had forgotten about the last batch that I made (a whopping 4 or 5 years ago…) and it was a combo of Seville Orange, Meyer Lemon and Quince. It was epic. Just the right consistency with just the right amount of peel or rind.
About a year ago I had discovered that there was 3 or 4 bottles kicking around. And knowing how diligent I am when preserving (bottling/canning) it, I cracked open a jar one Saturday morning to enjoy with hot, black coffee. What a treat! I was so taken by how delicious this was, that I gave away some of the remaining bottles. That was a smart move as before too long, I was completely out of this previously preserved confiture. Another Saturday morning rolls around and I head for the cellar to see what might be hiding behind forgotten or feared bottles of canned salmon, mystery chutneys and unmarked bottles of what could possibly be distilled dark matter.
Bingo. A bottle of marmalade from one of my wife’s girlfriends “Angie” — while not the Angie from the Rolling Stones song, this Angie whips up a wicked Marm. So thrilled by it I was that I reported it to her — and she said, “That batch is from 6 years ago – why did your wait so long?!” How can I explain… “Hidden behind bottled toxic waste…” Anyway, I was kicked into action!
Anyway. The recipe for my latest concoction!
12 to 14 Seville Oranges (in season from January through February.)
2 to 4 Lemons of any ilk, stripe or varietal.
Have piles of white sugar handy (enough to light up the eyes of your family dentist…)
Juice the Oranges and Lemons with one of the manual juicers shown at right and/or left.
Put aside the spent/juiced rinds of the lemon and orange in a pot.
Put the pulp and seeds into a small pot for a special treatment afterward.
When you have all the juice set aside (in a measuring pot, carafe or what-have-you) put it in the fridge covered.
Take all of the seeds and pulp that you have and put them into a sauce pan with enough water to cover the mixture.
Bring the mix to a very light boil and then reduce to simmer for 30 to 45 minutes. This seed/pulp mix gets this treatment to generate lots of extra pectin (which is key for setting the marmalade. )
Run the pulp/seed/water mixture (which should be in almost sauce form) through a very fine strainer or cheese cloth. The liquid from this exercise goes into your pot/carafe/jug of juice. The seed/pulp remnants go into the compost!
Take your lemon and orange rinds and remove as much pulp as you can that might be left over. Ideally, you want the skins or rind only.
For robust or rustic marmalade, you can use ALL of the rind/skin of all of the fruit but I would advise against that if you are making this marmalade for the first time. Use 1/2 to 3/4 of the skins that you have available.
I tend to cut up the skin/rind into strips that are no more than 1/2” long and as thin as you might think worthy or appetizing. I use a very sharp knife for this — so be very careful! This is where the work gets super risky. Process as much rind as you think worthy of going into your marmalade. I used the rind of every piece of fruit and it the result is: One very thick and rustic marmalade! You have been warned. OK. You have your sliced rind/skin at the ready.
Put all your juice/extract mixture into a suitable pot or dutch oven. Slowly heat while adding 1/2 cup sugar per orange and an additional cup for the lemons. Add your sliced/diced rind. You should have gotten 4 to 6 cups of juice from your lemon/orange juicing combo. If you seem short of fresh juice, you can add 1/4 cup or 200ml (give or take) of bottled organic juice of almost any kind. I used Pomegranate. It’s not too flavour forward but it adds a bit of colour.
Safety note – from this point forward, we are dealing with increasingly hot material. The desire is to bring the liquid/rind mixture to a minimum of 222 to 225 degrees (F) or 104.5 © – at this temperature, these materials if spilled on a human or other living thing can maim or kill. Be very careful.
Common sense here folks: If you have small children, pets or inexperienced kitchen people, keep this in mind – this is a high-hazard activity.
Items required at this point include an accurate analog or digital thermometer — ideally a purpose built candy thermometer.
Additionally, you want the marmalade mixture to pass something called a wrinkle test.
To perform the wrinkle test, add 1/4 teaspoon of the “liquor” or “syrup” in the mix (after it passes 222 degrees) to a plate that has been in the deep freezer for a minimum of a 1/2 hour. Put the plate back in the freezer for 5 minutes or more. Remove the plate and run your finger into the small pool of liquor. If it wrinkles in front of your finger, it has reached the critical set point. If it hasn’t, keep boiling!
When your mix is at that magical “set” point, you want to bottle it. I use glass jars with lids and rings. The discussion of this technique is beyond the scope of this blog — but I could create another blog entry. The two photos above illustrates part of the process. Some other “makers” sometimes pour paraffin wax over the top of the jam/jelly/marmalade before putting on a lid. I use the boiling water immersion method because it is time honoured, safe and guarantees a long shelf life.
Once you get the hang of “basic” Orange marmalade, it opens up a galaxy of infinite variety in terms of additional ingredients, juices, spices, fruit peel and on and on and on – if anyone reading this knows something about adding liquor to marmalade batches, please chime in – I like the idea of the flavour of a single malt whiskey — but I have not idea as to when to add it or how much. Thank you!Colin Newell is a Victoria area resident and long time writer on the subject of coffee and food culture. He can often be found taking up space in a local cafe sipping the best brew the World has to offer.
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The XHDATA D-608WB - a radio for every application · Wednesday July 24, 2024 by colin newell
It is not everyday that a radio drops into my lap for the purposes of testing and day to day use.
So it was to my delight when the good folks at XHDATA contacted me with an offer: “Let us send you a radio. You put it through its paces. See what it can do. And put a review on your DXer.ca website.”
Hey! I can do that. So here goes.
The XHDATA D-608WB radio is described more as an emergency radio than a standard counter-top or totable radio.
Its dimensions make for an item that fits comfortably in the hand – at 15 cm long, 7.5cm wide and 4 cm deep it has a place in every emergency pack.
Why should everyone have this radio in their emergency kit?
The radio covers AM, FM, Shortwave and the weather band with impressive sensitivity. I had no trouble capturing all of my regional AM stations — and after sunset, all the clear channel stations were loud and clear – many from over 1000 miles away.
The FM sensitivity was comparable to all of my larger portable.
Sound quality is great for such a small package and is pleasant enough for hours of listening.
Shortwave sensitivity and selectivity was surprisingly good for a radio that appears to try to do everything.
All of my regional weather band stations (within 70 km away) came in crystal clear.
There are hundreds of memories available on the XHDATA D-608WB for your fav stations. The XHDATA D-608WB has auto-add of stations to memory during scanning! XHDATA did not appear leave out any desired features with this radio.
The radio is powered by a rechargeable battery. It can be charged via a USB cable (supplied), via solar cells built into the radio or from a hand-crank generator also integral to the radio! The radio comes with an Tri-level LED reading light (integrated underneath the solar panel array on the top of the radio! The radio comes with a very bright emergency light (or torch as some call it…)
The radio is also a selectable Bluetooth speaker — with great audio quality. So, you can pair it with your iPhone or Android device and any PC, Mac or Linux desktop/laptop! Not only that, when it is paired with your phone you can actually accept phone calls! I tested it. It worked flawlessly!
While watching YouTube on my iPhone (and paired with the XHDATA D-608WB radio, one can fast forward and skip between videos with buttons on the XHDATA D-608WB! What a great feature.
So. Bluetooth speaker – this opens access to unlimited podcast listening.
What’s more, the XHDATA D-608WB accepts the TF card – so fill your boots with MP3 audio and Podcasts! This radio just keeps getting better!
I recently travelled to Calgary, Alberta, Canada (a one hour flight from Victoria B.C. where I live…) and the XHDATA D-608WB radio came along with me. Airport security did not bat an eyelash at the radio — to them it appeared to be just that, a travel radio.
In conclusion, the XHDATA D-608WB is for all intents and purposes, the Swiss Army knife of radios – it does almost everything anyone would want out of a travel or emergency radio. I found no fault in the radio and give two solid thumbs up for this product — and look forward to sampling and testing other XHDATA products!
Stay tuned for a YouTube video on this product on my YouTube channel and a subsequent podcast!Colin Newell in a resident of Victoria B.C. Canada – on the West Coast – on Vancouver Island. His features on tech and pop culture have been featured on national media outlets across Canada and the U.S. since 1995!
The community computing newsletter series #2 · Friday March 29, 2024 by colin newell
Recently a neighbour contacted me about his Windows laptop…
“I have a subscription to some anti-virus software and I updated it on my laptop and now the internet doesn’t work… what do I do?”
Windows 7, Windows 10 and 11 have built in Malware and virus protection – adding more “protection” does not always work out the
way we want it to.
My Neighbour had a “paid subscription” to a popular product and paid for even more coverage than he already had — (or needed)
I did a site visit, uninstalled the conflicting software and all things returned to normal. I advised him to call the 1-800
number at the software vendor, with his purchase confirmation number, and have the charge reverse or eliminated -
which he did and was very successful.
If you are a Mac user, the story is very similar — no additional virus/malware software is needed.
Now, it is true that Mac OS does not really have “anti-malware” features built into it, the Mac OS,
at the core is a Unix/Linux based hybrid that is significantly more resistant to attack than the Windows OS.
Buying additional software for the Mac is simply not needed, in part, because of the naturally robust nature of the Mac OS.
Hackers and bad agents don’t typically spend as much
time creating exploits for the Mac OS. It’s just not worth the effort.
For most of us, we surf the web and read our e-mail: A simple rule applies here…
If a friend or family member sends you an e-mail with a PDF, PowerPoint
or any kind of .exe (executable) file attachment in it, exercise extreme caution with it.
Most of us run into trouble while surfing the web with our favourite browsers — the reason being, the web can be a rabbit hole leading us deeper and deeper into potentially dark territory.
Most of the time, modern and up to date web browsers will warn us of impending doom when the warnings of “insecure connections” and “invalid site certificates” alerts pop up.
If your browser suggests you turn back, think it through before proceeding.
Bonus tip – Everyone uses e-mail. Considering using a web-based e-mail client. This allows for an extra layer of protection from the bad people by keeping the crap and malware in the cloud OR at least warning you of the potential for a bad download.
Colin Newell is a Vancouver Island resident, retired from 36 years in info technology, software and hardware support at a local University – his writing and speaking on the subject of food and coffee culture in Canada has been seen and heard widely on radio and TV
Instant Pot Spicy Cauliflower and Cheddar cream soup · Monday October 23, 2023 by colin newell
Winter time is the right time for soups — and our Cauliflower, Cheddar Cheese, Cream and Chili soup is delicious, satisfying and dreamy!
And while it is not yet winter, we can happily call this a harvest recipe – Andrea quipped that practically everything on the dinner table came with our hands and out of our garden — apart from the Cauliflower — I have yet to create the wonderful ones that I find at my local farmers market.
Stuff you are going to need!
• 1 medium head Cauliflower
• 1 tbsp Garlic
• 1 Sweet onion, small
• 1 fresh Jalapeño – chopped – seeds IN or OUT
Canned Goods
• 4 cups Chicken broth or vegetable broth
Spices
• 1/4 tsp Black pepper • 1/2 tsp Salt • 1/2 tsp Chili flakesOils
• 2 tbsp Olive oil
Dairy
• 3/4 cup Milk or Table Cream! (Use the cream, trust me!)
• 1/2 cup Smoked Cheddar cheese
• 2 cups White cheddar cheese, sharp
• 1/2 cup Monterrey Jack cheese
Here’s how you do it!
In the insert of the Instant Pot, add olive oil and diced onions.
Using the Saute function, cook the onions for a couple of minutes until they begin to turn translucent.
Add minced garlic and stir for about thirty seconds, until it becomes fragrant.
Turn off the Saute function by pressing Cancel.
Add chopped cauliflower, broth, salt and pepper.
Select a cook time of five minutes at high pressure.
When the cook time is complete, perform a quick release of pressure.
After the pressure has released and the valve has dropped, carefully remove the lid and press Cancel to turn off the pressure cooker.
Use an immersion blender to puree the soup to your desired consistency.
Create a slurry by whisking together the cream.
Pour into the hot soup, stirring to combine. Allow this to thicken for a couple of minutes, stirring occasionally (if needed, you can use the Saute function to simmer the soup).
Add the shredded cheese combo, stirring until melted.
Serve, topped with additional shredded cheese and chives, if desired.And now for your entertainment, some Hawaiian slack key guitar that I recorded after several trips to the Islands!
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