I have come to the conclusion that the sensible way to shop for clothes and food, is to start with the occasion and buy accordingly. This ensures (as much as is possible) that food doesn’t go to waste and that I don’t end up with cocktail dresses that never leave my wardrobe.

And yet, some of the best recipes I’ve ever made have arisen from pure opportunism. I see something irresistible when I’m out and about and I buy it, thereby putting pressure on myself to find a way to use it. There is often a knock-on effect, with one thing inspiring another.

Thus was the case with these kumquats.

I had been eyeing up these dinky citrus beauties for a while at my local organic shop but resisted buying any as I had never tried cooking with them before, nor did I have a suitable occasion on the horizon to try them out. One day I weakened and bought a big paper bag-full of them which I proudly arranged in a bowl upon returning home. My daughter was intrigued and tried eating a couple, but they were a little tart for her tastes. When I eventually decided to try cooking them, I found that I had waited too long and the ones on the bottom were on their way to being mouldy …

Undeterred, I bought another lot. This time I resolved to make marmalade. I had been having a mild orange marmalade hankering for a while and I had happened upon some marmalade-flavoured hot cross buns. I was picturing the perfect breakfast of homemade kumquat marmalade on toasted, buttered marmalade-y hot cross buns.

I took a rather freestyle approach to making the kumquat marmalade (which is not unusual for me – most of my cooking has a rather slap-dash feel to it) but found that the one place I couldn’t take a shortcut was preparing the kumquats. They really did need to have the inner membrane removed as it’s quite thick and there’s very little citrusy flesh. The peel does then need to be sliced finely. I drew the line, however, at collecting the pips and membrane, wrapping them in muslin and using them to provide the pectin, and instead used jam sugar.

I also didn’t have a thermometer to hand at the time but just let it all bubble gently away for 25-30 minutes and it turned out perfectly.

The result was this luminescent, sweet, marmalade-like jam.

As it turned out, this preserve wasn’t the perfect addition to the marmalade-flavoured hot crossed buns, nor my breakfast yogurt, but really shone when I mixed it into vanilla ice cream before freezing. I’d make it again just to have another scoop of homemade kumquat marmalade ice-cream.

Quirky kumquat marmalade

Adapted from David Leibovitz’s Small Batch Kumquat Marmalade

Ingredients

• 3 generous handfuls of kumquats
• 1 1/2 cups jam sugar (sugar with pectin)

Method

First, prepare the kumquats: Wash them well and throw away any that have gone squishy. Cut the tops off and divide into quarters. Now comes the fiddly bit. Using a small sharp knife, cut away the white membrane and remove the pips. Finally, cut each quarter kumquat peel (and any remaining flesh) into 3 strips.

Pop the prepared kumquat strips into a saucepan with 2 cups of cold water and 1 1/2 cups jam sugar and bring to the boil.

Leave to bubble merrily away for 25-30 mins, then pour into jam jars. Once cool, keep in the fridge.