Calamansi/Calamondin oranges

[Darienne]

Imagine my surprise when I agreed to help a friend harvest her oranges and make marmalade and it turned out to be the fruit of two calamondin (she calls it)/calamansi oranges. We took photos and I'll post one upon receiving them from her. Until two days ago I had never even heard of them.

So we followed a recipe for Seville marmalade and made the most wonderful marmalade this morning.

When I left, I left with a bag of freshly-picked calamansi and a bag of frozen from last year's crop. Yumm

What on earth will I do with the frozen fruit?

And can I candy the fresh fruit, like kumquats?

All answers gratefully received.

(I should add that we live in Ontario, in Zone 3/4 and that these are indoor grown)

Edited May 21, 2009 by Darienne (log)

[judec]

Filipinos use fresh kalamansi the same way you would use lime or lemons - squeezed over grilled meats and all sorts of fatty dishes. If you ever try making pancit palabok or bistek then this is the accompaniment of choice.

We also use it as the acidic component for seafood kilawin, the Filipino take on ceviche.

I'm not sure how kalamansi would turn out candied because its rind tends to be much tougher and the flavor more sour than kumquats. It should be worth a try.

[cmflick]

Boiron has recipes on their web site for using kalamansi to make mousse, sorbet, a filling for chocolates, pate de fruits, ice cream and probably other things that I have forgotten. I just learned recently that kalamansi and calamondin oranges are the same thing. I have had a calamondin orange tree as a house plant for years and get dozens and dozens of oranges every year. Unfortunately, all of the oranges went into the trash in the past. I thought that they were just ornamental! I haven't tried out any of the Boiron recipes yet, but I will.

[Darienne]

I'm not sure how kalamansi would turn out candied because its rind tends to be much tougher and the flavor more sour than kumquats. It should be worth a try.

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Thanks for writing.

As for the tough rind...I wouldn't say it was exactly tougher, but different. The rind is more like that of the mandarin, but thinner. ...and the more sour flavor...true too. Like biting straight into a lemon.

Not to mention that they are incredibly juicy little fellows. Still if it stands still long enough, I will candy it.

The candied kumquats from last winter ended up being put in Alton Brown's wonderful Seriously Vanilla Ice Cream and served as dessert at the minor Chinese feast in Moab. I can see these ending up in ice cream too. If they will candy properly. I'll ask the resident candying expert, Andie.

[Darienne]

Boiron has recipes on their web site for using kalamansi to make mousse, sorbet, a filling for chocolates, pate de fruits, ice cream and probably other things that I have forgotten.  I just learned recently that kalamansi and calamondin oranges are the same thing.  I have had a calamondin orange tree as a house plant for years and get dozens and dozens of oranges every year.  Unfortunately, all of the oranges went into the trash in the past.  I thought that they were just ornamental!  I haven't tried out any of the Boiron recipes yet, but I will.

←

Thanks. That's a big help. Now think of what you have to look forward to. The marmalade we made was just so good!!!

Chocolate fillings. Good. Curd. Mousse. All sound so good.

[Jaymes]

We talked a bit more about these miniature oranges in this thread:

Where can I find kalamansi oranges

Edited May 21, 2009 by Jaymes (log)

[Darienne]

Just to round up my part of this thread.

Because I could not find any recipes about candying Calamansi oranges, I decided that there were none because none really exist. The oranges were the juiciest little beasts, too juicy for candying. Well...I thought...

So, I set out to make marmalade out of both the just-picked oranges and the two years in the freezer ones. Threw at least half of the frozen ones out. They were not appealing at all. Two years in a freezer was not useful. I probably should have just tossed them all and made up the difference with navel oranges and lemon.

Used only sugar and the oranges. Oh, threw about a couple of TBSPs of just zested off a navel orange zest in also. Very, very delicious results.

(This is my very first ever made by myself jam/jelly of any kind. Yay team! )