I melted 73% Bittersweet Chocolate discs in a double boiler. Holding the strawberry by its leafy green stem, I carefully dipped each strawberry to coat all sides and placed each on a parchment lined tray, allowing the coating to harden at room temperature.

And so, for Valentine’s Day, some lovely chocolate covered strawberries to share with the ones I love……….

Each morning, I like start my day with a cup of chai latte. I started drinking chai a few years ago, first just from packaged tea bags and then from a lovely loose blend I picked up at the Tea Leaf, Inc. in Philadelphia’s Reading Terminal. When I ran out of the loose blend, I decided to start making my own. I searched the internet for recipes, cobbled a few together, and tried making my own blend. The first result was disastrous. My friend Sharon Lacey spends time with Geshe Dakpa Topgyal at the Charleston Tibetan Society and gave me his chai recipe. I played around with it and came up with a tasty blend, but there was still something missing. Another friend, Christopher Liberatos, was in India years ago studying architecture, and knew he’d written down a chai recipe somewhere. He turned it up after digging through his travel journals and revealed the missing ingredient that would give my blend the zing it was missing: pepper!

Chai

1/2 cup Darjeeling Tea (loose)

1/3 cup chopped candied ginger

1 tablespoon cardamom seeds crushed in mortar

2 1/2 teaspoons peppercorns, crushed in mortar

2 teaspoons cloves, crushed in mortar

4 cinnamon sticks broken and crushed in mortar

Mix ingredients well in dry bowl. Store in airtight tin or tea caddy.

To make a cuppa:

Place a heaping teaspoon of blend in tea ball or T-sac tea filter and place in mug or cup. Add boiling water and steep for 3 - 4 minutes. Remove tea ball / sac. Add frothed steamed milk and sweetener if desired.

Citron as part of the Christmas dinner table centerpiece

For the past four Christmases I have been lucky enough to find citron, a.k.a. Buddha’s hand, at my local Whole Foods grocery store. I love the way it looks in fruit arrangements and the added bonus of using it in one of my favorite bread recipes, Pane de Marinaio / Sailor’s Bread, fromThe Italian Baker by Carol Field. Alan Davidson writes in Fruit: A Connoisseur’s Guide and Cookbook that it came to represent wealth and in India the god of wealth, Kuvera is always represented as holding a citron in one hand and a mongoose spewing jewels in the other!

Candied Citron

(4) cups cubed citron

(3) cups sugar

(3) cups water

additional sugar for rolling candied citron

Cut the citron into small cubes.

Add (1) tablespoon salt and citron to (4) cups of water and let brine for 3 days.
Drain and rinse thoroughly. Place in pot with fresh water to cover. Bring to boil and drain, 3 times, until citron softens but is not mushy (this is to remove any bitter taste). Drain well, lay out on cookie sheet to dry.

In sauce pan, combine (4) cups citron, (3) cups sugar and (3) cups water. Heat and stir until sugar dissolves.

Continue to cook until peel is translucent. Drain any liquid and roll candied citron in granulated sugar. Allow to dry. This will keep in the refrigerator for 4 weeks.

I made this marmalade to give as holiday gifts and actually make it year-round whenever I see nice limes at the grocery store. What I like about this recipe is that it takes three days to complete; the process is broken down and each stage doesn’t take too long, giving me time to do other things in the kitchen, great especially during the busy holiday season.

This recipe comes from Gourmet Preserves, Chez Madelaine, by Madelaine Bullwinkel.

Old Fashioned Lime Marmalade:

1 pound fresh limes

Water

Sugar

DAY 1

Peel the zest from the limes, being careful to only the green outer peel, and cut into thin strips.

Next, cut off and discard the inner white peel. Thinly slice the fruit, removing all seeds.

Measure the volume of zest and fruit. Cover with an equal volume of water and let this mixture stand overnight.

DAY 2

Bring the lime mixture to a boil in a heavy, nonreactive 4-quart pan. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook steadily for 15 minutes. Let this cool to room temperature and stand overnight.

DAY 3

Measure the fruit mixture. Warm an equal amount of sugar in a 250 degree oven for 10 minutes. Bring liquid to a boil. Add the sugar 1/2 cup at a time, allowing liquid to return to the boil before adding more sugar.

Boil until marmalade reaches the jell point, which will be 8 degrees above the boiling point, measured on your thermometer. This will happen in about 10 minutes. The marmalade will take on a translucent amber green color.

Let the marmalade sit in the pot for 5 minutes. Stir down the fruit pieces and pour the mixture in to hot,

sterilized jelly jars to within 1/2 inch of the lips. Cover loosely with plastic wrap until the tops set.

Melt paraffin in a clean tin can, (bent at the top with a spout) over hot water. Wipe clean the inner rims of the jars.Pour 1/8 inch-thick layer of wax, rotating and tilting the jars to seal the edges and evenly coat the surface.

Let the jars cool to room temperature overnight before attaching lids, labeling and storing in a cool, dark, dry spot.

Hot Buttered Rum
Makes (4) 8 ounce mugs

(1) stick unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup light brown sugar
(1) teaspoon ground ginger
(1) teaspoon ground cinnamon
(4) cinnamon sticks
(1) cup dark Rum (I prefer Mt. Gay from Barbados)
(3) cups boiling water

Mix brown sugar and ground spices with softened butter until well combined, in heat proof pitcher. Add boiling water, stir to melt butter. Divide rum between (4) mugs, add hot butter and water from pitcher.

Serve with cinnamon stick for continued stirring as you sip your drink.