And the seasons, they go round and round: candied kumquats

Trying to leave seasonally can sometimes be difficult. If you really like a particular ingredient, a vegetable, a fruit, etc, when it's gone, it's gone. I never quite get enough asparagus, for example, and since I won't cook the stuff from South America, when "Jersey grass" is finished, it's over until next year. And so it goes with many things.
It's getting there with citrus. As Kim the citrus bomb once put it "I'm not sure if I'm happy or sad when the phone stops ringing off the walls." I know that the peak of the season has been reached when there are no more blood oranges (Kim always sends the last box to me: sort of like saving the last dance. Well, sort of). And when the kumquats come in, it's about time to say "sayonara." I've got another box from the Citrus Bomb, the Citrus stud, and the Artichoke Queen, and there are kumquats in it.

I have written before about the embarrassment the word can cause people. Don't let that get in the way of enjoying these guys. I have a new way to make a candied kumquat, that comes out of one of my indispensable dessert cookbooks, Claudia Fleming's "The Last Course."

Sometimes, I candy kumquats whole. That's great for some applications. But this one , I think, may become the paradigm. They are STUNNING. Like little orange jewels. And is this easy. You should make these immediately, store them in your fridge, and keep them on hand for when you have a simple dessert, like vanilla ice cream, or a cupcake, etc.

Make a simple syrup of 2.5 cups of sugar and 1.5 cups of water. Just blend them together and bring it to a slow simmer. While that's happening, get a VERY sharp knife, and slice up kumquats (slice them vertically), until you have two cups of them. Toss those into the syrup, and turn down the heat. Let them simmer for about 8-10 minutes. Take them off the heat. Look at the intensification of the color. Taste the syrup. Now, pour that off and save it for drinks. Or mix it with the strawberry syrup from the roasted strawberries you made from my other recipe.

If you can keep yourself from picking off the slices of kumquat, one by one (NOT easy for me), these will keep forever. And you will be able to have a little starbright of citrus long after the season is over.

Enjoy em. And thanks Reedey gang. I love you much