candied kumquats

You know, it's easy to overthink. To look at eight or eighty different recipes for a thing and say "But I don't know which one to make! What's right? What's best?"

Sometimes, the best path is to get zen about it. I had some kumquats. I wanted to candy them. (They were delicious as they were, tart and sharp and electrifying, but I had other plans.) I looked at a whole bunch of recipes, all of which had different proportions of sugar and water, and different cooking times, and weird things like soaking or piercing holes or chopping some while leaving others whole, and maybe adding clementine juice? There were many, many options.

I took a few different steps from a few different recipes, and the result is utterly, magically delicious. But honestly, I think I could have skipped most of the steps and just gone with the basics: combine water and sugar, put in the kumquats, cook them for a while, and call it a day. Don't get too wrapped around the axle. Zen your food. There is a really, really good chance it'll turn out okay.

Candied Kumquats

• 2 cups whole kumquats
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup sugar

If you have time, soak the kumquats for a few hours in cold water. (According to some recipes, this cuts down on the bitterness.) If not, don't sweat it.

Slice the kumquats vertically and pick out any obvious seeds with a toothpick. Heat the water in a saucepan, dissolve the sugar in it, and drop in your halved 'quats. If the water doesn't cover the kumquats, add a little more water.

Simmer an hour or so (not too vigorous a boil, please). Let the kumquats cool in the syrup.

And if you really want to, leave the kumquats in the syrup overnight and then pour the syrup back into the pan and reduce by half. If you really want to.

(Also, if you want to follow my lead exactly, you could moan about your insufficient camera and worry about leaving your fridge door open for ten minutes in the interest of getting one gorgeous macro shot.)

 
  
(And then you could say: hey, that's something else to be zen about.)

Comments

[Stephen Maack]

Sounds delicious. How do you tell if kumquats are ripe?

[Jael McHenry]

Stephen -- Great question, I wish I knew the answer! I only buy them at the store here, and they're just as puckery and sour no matter what they look like or how big they are.