Recently, my parents came by for a visit and brought me something very special in a crumpled brown paper bag. When I opened the bag, it was filled with a bunch of highly fragrant little orange-like fruits. My folks had been in the East Bay checking out my sister's new home. Her house is located in an established neighborhood with some nice citrus trees in the backyard. One of those trees was a kumquat tree. Kumquats may not be the most common variety of citrus fruit out there, but boy do these little babies sure pack a wallop of flavor! The fragrance was so amazing that I had to try and capture that essence in a bottle. I think this recipe does a pretty good job of that. This versatile syrup can be used in so many ways. Use it to sweeten your tea, or drizzle some over a pound cake. You can even make a damn good cocktail with this stuff! I bet you could make an awesome whiskey sour or maybe a nice gin-based drink! It is also used as a folk remedy for coughs. Anywhere you need a little citrus kick, this kumquat syrup will do nicely. Let's get to it. Click "Read More" for the details. :)
I made my own piercing tool by pressing a sewing needle into an old wine bottle cork. I capped the pointy end with another cork as shown in the picture above.
Piercing the fruit all over for maximum flavor
Time to let 'em simmer...
Add a bit to some sparkling water for a refreshing drink!
Kumquat Syrup
5 cups water
5 cups sugar
5 cups fresh kumquats
Yield: 2.5 cups
For this easy recipe I used a 1:1 ratio for my ingredients. It can be easily scaled up or down, depending upon how many kumquats you have on hand. For example, if you only have 1 cup of fruit, then its gonna be 1 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar.
Begin by rinsing the kumquats and piercing them all around using the point of a small knife or fork. Be sure to use unsprayed organic fruit. Alternatively, you can make your own piercing tool like I did. I simply pressed a sewing needle into an old wine cork! After piercing all of the fruit, set it aside.
Add the water and sugar to a heavy bottomed pot. Stir to combine and place over medium-high heat until all of the sugar has dissolved and the liquid begins to lightly boil. Once it has reached this stage, add all of the pierced kumquats to the pot and reduce the heat to a low simmer. Cook the mixture uncovered stirring occasionally for about 2 hours until the fruit is translucent and the liquid has developed into a syrup. Remove the pan from the heat and allow it to cool completely.
Once the mixture has cooled, strain the whole thing through a sieve making sure that none of the seeds get into the syrup. The seeds are bitter and are best left out of the syrup. Be sure to save the kumquats! They are now like candy and can be used in desserts, as a garnish, or simply eaten as they are.
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