On 7/17/2014 10:47 AM, sf wrote:
> On Thu, 17 Jul 2014 10:17:01 -0400, Travis McGee >
> wrote:
>
>> A Filipino neighbor gave us a dozen or so home-grown calamansi the other
>> day. These are a small citrus fruit, about the size of a kumquat. In
>> fact they are similar in a lot of ways to a kumquat, including sweet
>> fragrant skin, very sour juice, and a lot of seeds.
>>
>> I had had calamansi juice in the Philippines lots of times, as an
>> additive to iced tea and in canned juice drink, but I had never cooked
>> with them myself. So, I tried making a marinade by processing a few
>> together with garlic, olive oil, onion, and a few spices, with a bit of
>> honey as I was worried it might be too tart.
>>
>> I rubbed down a chunk of pork shoulder with this, and let it sit for 24
>> hours before roasting. It came out great; tender and smelling something
>> like oranges, with slight bitterness.
>
> Similar to Cuban mojo?
>>
>> I also have been using them to spritz vegatables; I did this to some
>> sauteed yellow squash with onions and garlic, and it too was very nice.
>>
>> The rest I've been squeezing into my iced tea, or just to make my own
>> calamansi drink with just water and sweetener. Both are good. I hope to
>> get more of these from my neighbor, and make other things with them,
>> such as ice cream and marmalade. I think they'd be very good preserved
>> whole in sugar syrup, again, like kumquats.
>
> The calamansi I've seen haven't been that small. What I saw was more
> the size of a mandarin orange. Glad you mentioned them, hopefully
> they are in the Asian market now - I've been thinking they'd make a
> great marmalade.
>

Yes, in fact, very similar to mojo. I added a bit of thyme and oregano
and black pepper, as well as some salt. I probably made it a little bit
sweeter than some would like, but it was still tasty. I think the key is
to include the skins; they add that bitter-orange fragrance and bitterness.

These were picked green, and were home-grown, so perhaps that's why they
might be smaller than what you've seen. I suppose that there might be
different varieties as well.