Reader, are you in for a whacky couple of weeks.
Welcome to finals season. This is where I, The Amateur Gourmet, go a little nutty (as if I weren’t nutty enough already) with crazy schedules, weird cravings, and inexplicable forays into the kitchen. Many law students smoke as they suffer their way through finals; I bake.
Or in this case, I candy. Kumquats. Tonight I candied kumquats.
Lauren said: “What are you making?”
“Not making,” I said. “Candying. Kumquats. I’m candying kumquats.”
Here’s how that works:
You get a bunch of kumquats and you slice them (according to the recipe I pulled up at foodtv.com):
Weird how they look like tomatoes and yet they’re nothing like tomatoes.
Moving on: you boil some sugar and water:
Add the kumquats:
Simmer and drain ’em:
And that’s it. What do they taste like? Soggy, sugary kumquats. Like candied kumquats. I candied kumquats.
OB-1, I have learned from your ways… candied kumquats, not worth making.
I think you might try simmering the kumquats until the liquid becomes a thick syrup. (This might take a few hours). If you then remove the kumquats to a drying rack and leave them out drying for a day, they’ll be fine. Not soggy at all, and quite tasty.