All about Mandarins - Guest Post by Fiona Thomas

Winter in Bodrum brings seas of green leaved trees spotted with varying shades and sizes of orange dots.  The road sides are dotted with makeshift sales stands as people try and sell the bumper harvests from their land or gardens to passers-by.  

The market stalls are predominantly a bright cheerful orange, with wafts of citrus in the air.
From the nearby gardens along Camel Beach, Turquoise Ekim collected three different types  of mandalins:
 

• Rize mandalin : thin skin, very sweet and with big pips worth the taste.
  
• Kilin mandalin: dark orange skin, sweet and ooze the scent of orange – pips too.
  
• Yerli mandalin: the local mandalın with a thick skin is the least sweet of all and with pips.
  

This is a favorite marmalade recipe from Turquoise Secrets:
 
Makes about 4 x 500ml jars
Bodrum mandalins 1 kg
 Lemons 1 
Granulated sugar 2 kg
 Fresh ginger 50g

Peel the mandarins, remove excess pith and julienne as thinly as possible. Do  the same with lemon. Boil peel in water for 10 mins, rinse and repeat 3  times to remove bitterness.  Put peel and juice of all mandarins  together with peeled, finely diced ginger and sugar – make liquıd up to  2 litres by adding water to the juice.  Bring to the boil and then  simmer for one hour or until the marmalade sets when a teaspoon is poured onto a cool plate.  Enjoy the zesty zing!
There’s even a mandalin jam contest taking place on the Bodrum peninsula on 15 February, 2014.

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