February is the time of the year to make marmalade as the new season of citrus fruit is in the shops. As well as using the traditional Seville oranges, marmalade can be made with limes, grapefruit or lemons, or any combination of the above.

I was inspired to make this recipe because I still have a bag of limes in the freezer, left over from a cheap box full I got at a car boot sale last spring. You can easily freeze all citrus fruit and use them to make marmalade later in the year if you wish.

image source wikimedia commons

1. The latin name for the Lime is Citrus aurantifolia, the name refers to several species and hybrids.

I used up some of my bargain car boot sale limes on making lime chutney, but have been searching for a spicier Indian style lime pickle recipe. The problem I've been coming up with is that most of the recipes involve leaving the pickle in full sunlight for several days, fine if you live on the Indian sub-continent, but a bit more difficult during your typical English summer.

In the end I had to go with one just to try it out, this is an interesting recipe as far a pickling goes in that it doesn't contain vinegar or oil, the preserving is presumably done with a combination of the acidic lime juice, salt and sugar. I'm still looking for a recipe for an oil based lime pickle as I still have a few limes left (now safely stored in the freezer)

We're occasional Sunday morning visitors to a local car boot sale, we can't go that often because we end up buying too much stuff.
One of the stalls which is worth visiting sells vast quantities of cheap fruit and veg, there's never much choice and it has to be eaten quickly, but it's a good place to pick up a bargain. This weeks haul was 15 bananas for a pound and a crate of limes for £1.50 (45 - I counted them).

This lime chutney was an obvious choice, although I think we probably eat more of the Indian style lime pickle (oil based) than this vinegar based preserve, this will add an extra dimension to cheese and pickle sandwiches of the future.

When making marmalade last week I froze some unused lemon peel with the thought of using it for something constructive. After some thought, and research, I decided to have a go at candied peel, not something I'd usually even use.

Hopefully having some in the house will be useful when it comes to baking, and for mincemeat at Christmas if it lasts that long. I wanted to have a wider range of peel than just two lemons, so the bag in the freezer grew to contain the following: