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Kitchen magic with kumquats

Recipe: Roasted, the tiny citrus fruit becomes a flavor giant

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Kathy Morrison PUBLISHED JAN 23, 2022

Bagel with cream cheese and kumquat pieces — Try roasted kumquats on a toasted bagel
with cream cheese. (Photos: Kathy Morrison)

As much as I love kumquats, the fruit on my tiny tree often is just ornamental, because there's only so much (I believed) that I can do with it. Sure, marmalade, but you really need a lot of them to make all that sugar mess worthwhile. And though I enjoy eating the sour-tart little fruits whole, not everyone does.

But the kumquats are ripening again, so I went looking for recipes. And certainly soon I will make the kumquat salsa recipe I found over at Simply Recipes, but I really had to try making roasted kumquats. The method I found uses just 1 cupful of fruit, plus olive oil and salt. That's it!

One cup of ripe kumquats.

So this recipe is more of a technique, and the result more of a condiment or garnish that a dish. But those little roasted fruit pieces pack a punch of flavor. The sourness disappears, and you're left with a tart-sweet concentration of fruit that plays well with a variety of foods.

Example: I was roasting the kumquats during the first part of the 49er-Green Bay playoff game, so on a whim tossed some of the cooked fruit on top of the grilled sausage that was my dinner. The kumquats added a

delicious punch to the whole-grain mustard and pickled onions that also dressed the not-spicy sausage.

Then, for breakfast, I sprinkled several pieces across my cream-cheese-covered bagel. Wow, that combination is going into the regular repertoire.

A note on prepping the kumquats: The seeds are edible, after all, so don't worry about popping all of them out when you slice or chop the fruit. And don't chop them too small -- halves or quarters are small enough, but not so much that they'll burn in the oven. Chop the fruit up some more after cooking if you want to sprinkle small bits.

Roasted kumquats

Makes about 1 cup

Ingredients:

Chopped kumquats — Halve or quarter the fruit.

1 cup washed kumquats (measured while whole)

2 teaspoons good-quality olive oil

1/8 teaspoon salt

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Slice the kumquats in half and let any loose seeds fall out. If the fruit is small, you can cook them that size, or quarter them lengthwise. If the fruit is large, chop it roughly but not too much. (See note above.)

Toss the prepped fruit with the olive oil and salt. Spread it on a baking sheet or shallow rimmed pan.

Roast for 20-25 minutes, stirring the fruit at about the 10-minute point. Continue roasting, and after 10 minutes check the fruit to make sure it's not at risk of burning. Remove from the oven if the fruit looks evenly roasted. Or, continue cooking for up to 5 more minutes.

Green spatula with roasted kumquats — Roasted and ready to be used.

Cool fruit slightly, then use immediately, or store in a covered container until ready to use. Refrigerate if you plan to use it the next day.

Easily doubled or tripled.

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RECIPE

A recipe for preparing delicious meals from the bounty of the garden.

Keywords:

farm to fork recipes Sacramento kumquats recipe produce management citrus fruit gardening roasted fruit farmers markets backyard produce condiments winter fruit

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Flowers in My Back Yard Series

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Garden checklist for week of Aug. 16

During this break in the heat, feed your garden. Make sure to water before and after applying fertilizer.

* In the garden, direct seed beets, carrots, leaf lettuce and turnips.

* Plant potatoes.

* Harvest tomatoes, beans, squash, pepper and eggplants to prompt plants to keep producing. Give your plants a deep watering twice a week, more if planted in containers. Also, give them a boost with phosphate-rich fertilizer to help fruiting.

* Watch out for caterpillars and hornworms in the vegetable garden. They can strip a plant bare in one day. Pick them off plants by hand in early morning or late afternoon.

* Feed citrus trees their last round of fertilizer for the year. This will give a boost to the fruit that’s still small.

* Mulch can be your garden’s best friend – it conserves moisture while blocking out weeds. But don't let mulch mound around stalks, stems or trunks. That can promote rot.

* Camellia leaves looking a little yellow? Give them some chelated iron. That goes for azaleas and gardenias, too.

* Pick up after your fruit trees. Clean up debris and dropped fruit; this cuts down on insects and prevents the spread of brown rot. Then feed fruit trees with slow-release fertilizer for better production for next year.

* To prolong bloom into fall, feed begonias, fuchsias and container plants. Always water before fertilizing.

* Fertilize fall-blooming perennials, too. Chrysanthemums can be fed until the buds start to open.

* Prepare for a fall full of flowers by paying a little extra attention to your garden. Cut off spent blooms from roses, annuals and perennials, then give them a boost of fertilizer. Make sure to water plants before feeding. Roses will rebloom about six to eight weeks after deadheading.

* Indoors, start seedlings for fall vegetable planting, including bunching onion, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, radicchio and lettuce.

* Sow seeds of perennials in pots for fall planting including yarrow, coneflower and salvia.

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