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.

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.

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.

--
All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt.

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.