Tue 21 - Uneventful Day, Good Marmalade Though

A really poor food day, so I'll keep it short.  started with a smoothie, banana and another of those Jordan's nut bar things.

Good news!  Marmalade came out great.  Consistency was just right, as was the sweetness.

Top Tip 1 - Most recipes I've used result in exceptionally sweet marmalade.  To counteract this, start off by using two thirds of the recommended sugar, then taste before sweetening it further.  When tasting, try it with a bit of the skin, as this is what adds the bitterness, so you should get a good feeling of how the finished article will taste.  If it's sweet enough, then stop, you're done.

Top Tip 2 - Make sure you use a solid, heavy based pan.  If not, there's a good chance that the sugar will stick to the bottom of the pan, over-caramelise and maybe even burn.  Not good for the end product.

Top Tip 3 - Don't be afraid to use jam or preserving sugar (though it's not necessary when making lemon marmalade as there's an abundance of natural pectin to help it set).  It makes no difference to the taste, and really, do you want to spend a couple of hours of your life chopping and cooking only to find that something's gone wrong and you've been left with orange syrup?  It's happened to me a few times, and believe, it's mighty disappointing.

The three jars above contain, from left to right, blood orange marmalade from Monday, lemon marmalade from Monday, and orange marmalade from the previous Sunday.  As you can see, the marmalade on the left made with non-Sainsburys, non-non-orange-blood-orange oranges, has come out a lot darker, as originally intended.  They all taste fab, you'll have to take my word for it!

Just some deli snacks, salad and home roasted pepper for dinner.  I use MacFarlanes Deli on Abbeville Road sometimes, which is where this most of this stuff was from.  It was decent enough, but my issues with delis are turnover and storage.  I don't believe that the turnover in most delis is high enough, and the storage facilities not specialised enough, to guarantee you the same quality as if you visited a shop that was exclusively dedicated to say, just cheese or cured meat.  But still, it's a decent shop, relatively inexpensive, and I'm glad it's there.