The Passion of the Trifle

Fondue Voodoo loves any holiday were the dead come back to life, it's like black magic for the masses, and we support that. In honour of this venerated Easter holiday we created a trifle inspired by Momofuku Milk Bar's Grapefruit Pie which you can find in their cookbook here. This trifle combines angel food cake, grapefruit/passion fruit custard and a sweet grapefruit cream. 

Trifle jar for excellent storage 

What you need for the custard: 

• 1/4 cup seville marmalade (see our recipe here or use any marmalade you like)
• 1 passion fruit innards
• 1 cup of instant milk custard (follow the recipe on the box)
• 1 segmented grapefruit
• 1 tsp oil (such as sunflower or grape seed)

Cut the rind from the grapefruit and segment each piece from the membranes (slice down each side of the segment). Place the grapefruit segments in a saucepan with the oil and gently heat. Once the grapefruit is warm (about 2-4 min) gently press the segments with the back of a spoon to release the threads.  Set aside to cool.  While the grapefruit cools make the standard issue instant custard, add the passionfruit and marmalade to the warming milk and continue to cook as usual. Once the custard has thickened, gently fold into the custard together with the cooled grapefruit threads and place in fridge.

What you need for the sweet grapefruit cream:

• 3/4 can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 TBSP grapefruit juice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp citric acid
• Optional, 2-3 drops red food colouring

Combine all ingredients and fold over until completely mixed. Place in a container and put in the fridge to set.

Layer the trifle in a non reactive bowl cake, cream, cake, custard, cake...etc...and send to the fridge for a little nap.

Upon eating this heavenly dessert, your friends and family will think they died and went to heaven.

Seville Marmalade - Spreadable Love

Guest post from Jar Head:

In January-February seville oranges come into season. Time for Fondue Voodoo to become assistant kitchen servant and aid in the making of the yearly batch of marmalade. FV's main squeeze is a jar-head for home made marmalade, even though it kills him a little every time.

Ingredients are fairly simple, lots of seville
oranges and a couple lemons

To make marmalade get yourself about 1.5 kg of oranges + a lemon or 2, 5 cups of water and 4 to 5 cups of white sugar and let the magic begin.

Scrub your fruit. Slice in half and juice, saving all of the liquid, seeds and membranes - you will use these later to thicken the jam.

Now comes the difficult part, scrape out the as much of the white pith from each half rind, compost the scooped out white pith. Julienne all of the rinds for the marmalade.

Place the rinds in a large pot with the reserved juice, the saved seeds and membranes in a cheesecloth or muslin bag and 5 cups of water. Slowly bring to a boil and let simmer for about 20-30 min until the rinds are softened.

Remove the membrane bag and let cool in a bowl.  Once cool enough to handle, squeeze out all of the thick pectin that has developed and add to the pot.  Add your sugar and taste - the end product will be sweeter than it tastes now, so error on the side a just a bit tart.

Bring back to a boil and leave at a high boil until it reaches 220 degrees F on a candy thermometer.  This will take about 30 min. If you don't have a thermometer you can also test by placing a plate in the freezer - test the jam by dropping a small amount on the chilled plate and see if it wrinkles when pushed with your finger - if it does it is done.

When the jam is set, you can either place in fridge or can - this recipe makes about 4-5 500 ml jars which I like to can for later (go here for canning instructions).  I process my jam for about 10 min in a water bath.

In addition to being tasty on toast, I like to use this as a base for salad dressing and anything else where sweet but tangy oranges might feel at home.

Love on a spoon

Plum & Orange flower jam - the hills are alive with the sound of music

This past summer was a bumper crop for plums here in BC. With a mission of plum jam on my mind, I goose stepped myself down to Santa Barbra Market and loaded up with some of the most juicy and precious looking plums on hand. After trying orange flower water in cake, I knew that summer fruits were better with a blessing of this most holy of waters. I cooked the whole mess outside on the side burner of the bar-b-que and then put it all through a water bath out there too. If that bar-b-que was masculine before, well, it's now wearing tutus, at afternoon tea while belting out show tunes.  "the hills are alive, with the sounds of music"

What you'll need to get in touch with the princess within:
12 cups of cut up juicy plums
1 cup cherries
2 cups of sugar

3 - 4 tbsp of orange flower water
1/16 cup lemon juice

package of certo pectin

Method - slowly cook plums so as to avoid adding any additional water.

Once cooked down use an emersion blender to buzz the fruit and skins, some might consider a food mill instead, to remove the skins and mash the fruit - up to you. However I chose to keep the skins on account of the colour and pectin content.

Add the sugar, flower water and pectin and go back to the heat. Taste and adjust for sweetness and continue heating until the jam sets. 

Once jarred and ready, water bath those precious ruby fruity flowered gems as usual, and for the love of microbe fearing gods, process as per the instructions. 

12 c. fruit & sugar 

buzz up the fruit and skins 

add orange flower water

jam hot tubbin'

 Warning - this jam will induce your inner girl to come skipping out, twirling about and endeavour to turn everything fabulous and pink. Enjoy the flirtation with femininity with whipped cream and cake and a summery rosa with bubbles, cause pink it so hot right now.