Daughter just back from Italy brought me some fresh Kumquats tried them as they are ugh, any one any ideas as to what to do with them?
Hi Rosietu, I think that one of the best use for kumquats if you find them too sour to eat them fresh is to store them away in some liqueur. Although they should be quite sweet and pleasant if they are ripe and coming from South Italy (as I imagine). I personally like a bit of sour taste (I use lemon juice on lettuce for example, instead of vinegar) and I eat them as they are. But here is a recipy, roughly translated from an Italian site>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> wash the kumquats, keep them in cold running water for two hours, drain them well, put them on a tea cloth so that it absorb as much water as possible. Make two or three holes on each fruit, place them in a jar in layers. Cover them with a little sugar as you go by. Add some cinnamon cloves and vanilla stick , Cointreau and Cognac, enough to cover them completely. Seal the jar and open it in three months . So if you go ahead with this, by end of April, all being well, you will eat them...
I once made a kumquat and lime pickle, no not pickle - not sure how you would describe it, fruit in sweet sour vinager, it was excellent with duck and game, but as I could not get any kumquats I lost recipee, however I did have a go at it some years later and it was OK. I blanched kumquats and lime segments, then disolved brown sugar in vinager with pickling spice and poured boiling over the blanched fruit. leave for a couple of months and serve with duck/game.
