Tori Avey’s Passover Potluck is a unique annual online event. I’ve invited my friends, both Jewish and non-Jewish, to share recipes that are kosher for Passover. My goal is to foster mutual understanding between different cultures, to introduce you to my foodie friends, and to share yummy recipes and cooking ideas for Passover! To learn more about the Passover holiday, click here. For more Passover recipes, click here.
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There is nobody I would rather attend a beer and cheese tasting with than Garrett McCord, especially if that beer and cheese tasting is hosted by Mexican wrestlers. His amazing cookbook Melt – The Art of Macaroni and Cheese is one of my all-time favorites. I’m thrilled he is joining our #PassoverPotluck this year!
Garrett says:
I was brought up as a very lapse Lutheran and there weren’t a lot of religious-inspired meals. Yes, there was Lent when my parents gave up drinking coffee for 40 days, something they rarely ever drank did to begin with. Easter was nifty; because that meant eating chocolate for breakfast, egg salad sandwiches for days, and garlic-crusted legs of lamb. Christmas meant Thanksgiving: The Sequel as the two meals were virtually identical.
I only became exposed to other holiday feasts as I grew up; toothache-rich sweets served as Sikh weddings, candied etrog at a friend’s Sukkot, moon cakes at Chinese New Years, the epic Catholic Feast of Seven Fishes! It seemed to me that every other religion served way better food. At best, Lutherans are the Bloody Mary brunch bunch of Christianity. (Not exactly a complaint mind you, but waffles and vodka every Sunday hardly a holiday feast makes.)
I’ve taken to trying to cook and eat numerous other styles of foods, and once in a while try to cook them myself or even develop recipes. Tori was kind enough to provide advice on how to develop a proper sweet potato kugel for my cookbook and it’s quickly become a go-to recipe of mine for any occasion – high-holiday or otherwise.
In response, Tori recently invited me to put something together for Passover and I decided to give it the old give-it-a-goy try. Admittedly, working around the dietary restrictions proved a bit more difficult than I expected as many of my staple ingredients were nixed off the list. Still, I was up for the challenge.
Now, if there’s anything that Abrahamic texts teach us about food it’s that honey is pretty darn special, so this seemed like a fine place to start. I get mine from a beekeeper friend and every year it’s rich and golden from the nectar the bees collect from nearby clover fields. I decided to use it to poach some of the kumquats from my tree, which comes into season in February and March.
Brought together they make a decadent candy. The taste is citric, sweet, and overwhelmingly floral. I love to pair it with chicken, turkey, and light fish. It’s also perfect served on pavlovas, with freshly whipped cream, or dropped in a vodka martini. This is all assuming you don’t eat them with a spoon.
Garrett McCord blogs at Vanilla Garlic and the Produce Channel at About.com. He also authored the super-awesome cookbook, Melt: The Art of Macaroni & Cheese.
For more Passover recipe ideas, check out my Pinterest boards.
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Honey Preserved Kumquats
Ingredients
- 1 pound kumquats
- 1 cup honey
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 1/4 cups water
- 1/2 a vanilla bean, seeded
NOTES
Instructions
- Cut the stems off of the kumquats and slice in half discarding any easily accessible seeds. (The seeds are edible and any you don’t catch will soften during cooking.)Place the kumquats and the rest of the ingredients into a small saucepan and place over high heat. Bring to a boil. Turn down to low heat and simmer for 25 minutes.Remove from heat and allow to cool. Store in a sterile jar in the fridge for up to two months.
Nutrition
I made this yesterday and really delicious. Mine are darker than your beautiful colour in your photo. Quite tart but delicious with ice-cream.
It doesn’t say in the recipe, but I would assume that it should be made with skins and all since the skin is the sweetest part of a kumquat.
Correct.
Do I need to peel the kumquat’s?
can you substitute the vanilla bean with vanilla bean paste?
Can you water bath this recipe? If so, would it be immediately after boiling, without cooling first? What would the shelf life be if you can water bath?
Hello,
Have you finally tried this recipe with a water vath and boiling?
So glad I found your recipe as I wasn’t interested in marmalade. I found some kumquats at our local farmers market and am making the honey preserved kumquats as I type this. Thank you for the recipe and I’m sure they’ll be delicious.
we made this – absolutely wonderful served with a little ice-cream and shaved dark chocolate – a big hit even with foodie friends and kids – we have 4 cumquat trees – so nice to have another recipe other than marmalade.
I just received a gift of fresh kumquats from a friend, excited to preserve them this way! 🙂
I was immediately drawn by that photo of those lovely, glistening edible jewels!
We have a tree laden with loquats – very similar in looks and size to the kumquat, but more like a tart apricot with two large pits. I’m seriously considering trying this technique on them, though I predict they won’t be nearly as pretty since they’ll likely breakdown into indistinguishable chunks of sublime goodness. Thank you so much for the inspiration!
Delighted by your blog. About to attempt my first brisket ever, I was looking for something far removed from the typical bar-b-q experience and believe I’ve found it in your savory herb braised recipe, currently in progress. Thanks again.
Enjoy the brisket Pearl!
Garrett: I love your retelling of your family holidays. And I equally love the idea of honey-preserved kumquats!
I like his sense of humor. If I can find Kumquats, I want to try this recipe.
Yes.
Never had one before~ Sure wish I could take a piece in the photo and try one!
YUM!
Wow!! Sounds wonderful! I’d love to try these on grilled salmon. Or in a cocktail. Mmmm….
you carry on.carry on…