Fun with the Pomelo

While perusing the produce section at Shaw's, Steve & I decided that we wanted to try a pomelo - a large, yellow citrus fruit that neither of us had ever tried (that we could recall). We threw one in our basket and brought it home with the intent to cut into it as our dessert while watching a movie.

About halfway through Adam Sandler's "Bedtime Stories", we decided it was time to bust out the large fruit. Steve cut the pomelo in half, put each half in a bowl and brought it over to the couch for our consumption. After eating the fruit, deciding it was quite good, and hearing Steve proclaim that he "must have pomelo all the time" - I looked at the two halves of rind sitting in our bowls. It was about a half of an inch thick and very pithy; I heard a voice in the back of my head that sounded a lot like my friend Marie saying "Wow, that would make a good batch of candied peel...".

I got to work - but not before Steve decided I needed to take a couple of pictures to give a perspective of exactly what the size of a pomelo is.

This of course made me wonder why boys always have to pretend they have female parts and make a produce bra every time time the opportunity arises. However - I let it go after laughing at my goofy husband and proceeded to make the candied peel.

I cut the rind up in different sizes and put it in a pot with 3 cups water and 3 cups sugar (aka 1 part water + 1 part sugar = simple syrup). Steve stirred it all together and we brought that up to a simmer. We let it continue to bubble while we watched the rest of the movie.

When the peel became translucent, I transferred it onto a cooling rack to let the excess syrup drip off and allow it to cool and congeal. We sampled a couple of the small pieces that we took out of the pan and it - like the fruit itself - is quite delicious. It might be my favorite candied peel I've tried so far.

In addition to all that wonderful peel, this endeavor also made a small batch of pomelo syrup (as one would expect when you're simmering rind in simple syrup for an hour). It was also tasty and has been saved for tomorrow morning's coconut waffles that we'll be having.

The batch of candied peel completely filled one of the medium size (4-cup) Pyrex containers (the peel has to be stored in an airtight container in the fridge). Not bad for just one piece of fruit. We didn't take the option to roll it in sugar because we used the last of the sugar in the house to make it - but it's super tasty with out it.