February is National Grapefruit Month, but February is officially still a week away and I can't wait that long. I'm way too excited about this new method for making Grapefruit Marmalade. This method isn't exactly "new", but it was new to me, and who knows...it might be new to you too.
I was reading an article about Nigella Lawson making marmalades and after doing a bit more searching came across her recipe for Pink Grapefruit Marmalade on a website called "Sally and her Tea Cakes", (based on the recipe in Nigella's book "How To Be a Domestic Goddess".)
I've heard of people using the "boil the whole darn thing" method for making other marmalades, such as Seville oranges, but grapefruits are usually so much bigger, like this one...
...and the idea of boiling something the size of a small bowling ball for an hour or two somehow seemed silly. I threw caution to the wind and I plopped my sizeable citrus into a stock pot deep enough to let it swim....
...then cranked up the heat and watched the magic happen.
After boiling the whole grapefruit for an hour it looked like this:
Isn't this slightly waterlogged (and therefore thoroughly cooked) organic Harbor Island Grapefruit sorta' pretty?
I cut into it and plucked the seeds out with the tip of long chef's knife. The seeds are easy to find because they're big, which means they're also kind of obvious.
Be careful, the grapefruit is still hot!
Chop the cooked grapefruit into chunks with that chef's knife you just used to pick out the seeds. Then add it to a heavy-bottomed pan along with sugar, and lemon juice. Yes, chop up the whole thing...rind, pith and all.
Cook these 3 ingredients together and in about 15 minutes you'll end up with something that looks a lot like this:
Now all you need is something to put your freshly-made Pink Grapefruit Marmalade on, like hot buttered toast or plain Greek yogurt. I find time and time again that a spoon is about all I need to enjoy it!