Fruit Confit Recipes

STRAWBERRY CONFIT

Steps:

• Before starting this Strawberry Confit recipe, organise all the necessary ingredients.
• Place the stemmed strawberries and brown sugar into a saucepan.
• Using a lemon squeezer, add the lemon juice...
• ... and grate the seeds of half a vanilla pod.
• Add the vanilla to the saucepan (seeds only).
• Place the pan over medium heat and let the strawberries candy slowly.
• Combine gently with an Exoglass® spatula, making sure not to crush the ingredients.
• Continue until the strawberries are cooked but still whole. The strawberries will release their moisture but will hold together.
• After a few minutes, the confit should start forming. The consistency should be syrupy at this stage.
• Check one strawberry using a spatula. It should feel soft with a firm centre.
• Continue cooking until the strawberries have released all their moisture. Cooking time can vary according to the variety and how ripe the strawberries are. With good-quality, freshly picked strawberries, this should take about 10 minutes.
• Check again until the consistency is very soft.
• When pressing on the strawberry, it should feel soft without disintegrating.
• Take the pan away from the heat and pass the strawberries through a fine sieve.
• Strain without crushing the strawberries. Set aside.
• Use a little strawberry juice to blend with the corn starch.
• Combine well until completely dissolved.
• Pour the mix into the remaining syrup.
• Return the pan to the heat and combine constantly with a whisk. Unlike flour, corn starch will bind the preparation without giving it a opaque finish.
• Bring to a boil then turn the heat off. Add the strawberries...
• ... and combine gently.
• This strawberry confit with whole candied strawberries makes a delicious addition to cakes.
• Transfer the preparation into a large recipient and spread to a thin layer.
• Cover the surface of the preparation with cling film...
• ... and reserve in the fridge.

CONFIT OF CITRUS FRUITS

Steps:

• Cut lime, orange, lemon and grapefruit into thin slices. Then cut each slice of the lime, orange and lemon into 4 quarters. Cut the grapefruit slices into eighths.
• Make a syrup by boiling sugar, water and lime zest for 15 minutes. Strain. Cool, then steep citrus fruits overnight in the syrup.

LEMON CONFIT

Steps:

• Using a mandoline or a very sharp serrated knife, slice the citrus super thinly-about 1/32 inch (1 mm) thick. Ideally the slices should be an intact cross section of even thinness. Place the slices in a container, pour in enough water to cover, and add a pinch of salt. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
• Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
• In a flameproof casserole dish or oven-safe saucepan over medium-high heat, combine 1 1/4 cups water, the sugar, and vanilla bean, if using. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat to a simmer, and let it bubble away for 5 minutes. Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit just inside the pan.
• Drain the water from the lemons. Place the lemon slices, 1 at a time, in the sugar syrup and press the parchment paper on top. Cover with the lid and then transfer to the oven until the white pith between the rind and flesh starts to turn translucent, 40 to 60 minutes.☞TESTER TIP: If some of your citrus slices start to turn golden and caramelize, they can be removed, kept separately, and chopped up and used in place of citrus peel.
• Cool the lemon slices in the syrup and use immediately or cover and stash them in the fridge for up to 1 week.☞TESTER TIP: Don't toss that slightly sweetened citrus syrup! Any extra syrup can be salvaged and stirred into cocktails, iced tea or seltzer, buttercream, yogurt, or whipped cream.

FRUIT CONFIT

Steps:

• using a vegetable peeler peel off grapefruit rind in strips.
• using a sharp knife cut grapefruit into sections over a bowl to catch the juice.
• add grapefruit sections, rind, juice, and all ingredients to a saucepan.
• bring to boil, reduce heat to simmer, partially cover and cook 30-40 minutes.
• spoon into small jars, cover tightly and refrigerate.
• this keeps for a month or more.

MANGO PASSION FRUIT CONFIT

Steps:

• Mix the sugar, pectin and the Agar Agar together
• Heat the purees to 45° C/113° F, then add the sugar and the pectin
• Bring to a full boil
• Remove from the heat and add the gelatin mass
• Cool and store in the refrigerator until use

CONFIT OF WINTER FRUITS

Steps:

• Combine all ingredients except grapefruit in heavy large nonreactive pot. Using vegetable peeler, remove peel from grapefruit in strips. Cut peel into matchstick-size strips. Using small sharp knife, cut all white pith from grapefruit. Working over bowl to catch juices, cut between membranes to release segments of grapefruit and squeeze juices into bowl; discard seeds. Add peel strips, grapefruit segments, and collected grapefruit juice to pot. Bring confit to boil over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to medium-low, partially cover pot, and simmer confit until fruit is tender, stirring occasionally, about 40 minutes. Cool completely.
• Spoon confit into small (1- to 2-cup) jars. Cover tightly and chill overnight. (Can be made 1 month ahead. Keep chilled.)

GARLIC CONFIT

Steps:

• This is the boring and time consuming part of making garlic confit so get yourself set up and listen to your favorite podcast while you peel the cloves.
• Break apart each head of garlic and separate into cloves.
• Next, peel each individual clove.
• Use a paring knife to slice off the root end of each clove.
• Now use your fingers and the paring knife to gently coax the peel off of each clove.
• Set the peeled garlic cloves aside in a separate bowl.
• Keep a damp dish towel on hand to wipe off your fingers as they get sticky from the cloves and make the peeling process more difficult.
• If you find a tiny part of a clove that's bruised just slice it off and discard.
• Pro tip: to speed up the garlic peeling process place all the cloves in a jar and shake vigorously for a minute. This is usually sufficient to remove most of the peels.
• Place all of the cloves in a small pot and generously cover completely with extra-virgin olive oil.
• Put the pan on the stove over the smallest flame possible.
• Sub-simmer the cloves for about 45 minutes until they are soft, fragrant and turning just golden. Note: It may only take a half an hour, or it may take an hour.
• A simmer is when a liquid is just barely bubbling and getting ready to move into a boil. A sub-simmer is what I call a bit less than a simmer, in other words teeny tiny bubbles that are just about ready to simmer.
• This is hard to achieve because the flame must be small and extremely low. I find if I place the pot on the burner - and just to the side of the burner so the pot is barely touching the flame - I can achieve a sub-simmer.
• As soon as the garlic confit is done transfer it to a glass jar and keep refrigerated, covered. You can store garlic confit refrigerated for about two weeks. Alternatively freeze garlic confit and it will last for several months.