The streets are lined with gold.....

Not the glitzy shiny yellow version (although the bling would certainly not be out of place) but the darker, mellow glow….of citrus. Orange and lemon trees are everywhere! At first I noticed one or two, hanging over the top of garden walls, and of course, like many things that at first seem out of place, once you see one, you start to see them everywhere.

Every house in Islamabad and Peshawar (the two cities where I spend most of my time) has a hedge of citrus trees peaking over the front wall – except the one I live in, of course. We have a rather pathetic looking cumquat tree which had one rather pathetic looking cumquat that stayed green!

Schools too! Boundary fences of glossy dark green leaves and golden orbs. Unfortunately they did some severe trimming, in the name of security, and now the trees look like a strange character out of a Dr Seuss story – tall skinny one legged creatures with green pompom heads and orange bauble features. You can imagine the fun the children had! There were a lot of squashed oranges on the grassy verge and the road the day the trimming took place.
But really, how sensible. All we were given at school was warm milk. Here, the children get to pick fresh oranges everyday during their morning tea and lunch time – and blood oranges at that in many cases – for free!!

I think I actually laughed with delight when I realised that the main motor way, running through the centre of Islamabad, had, not the usual palm trees that you see down the middle of so many roads, but beautiful citrus trees. I was even more impressed when, within 200 metres I saw at least 3 people, cloth spread on the ground to display their wares, selling oranges! I wonder if it is intentional that the city council provides food and the means of a meagre income for its’ homeless.  

For me, the trees look beautiful and are another subtle reminder of home.

Why do so many town councils use palm trees to decorate their streets? In so many places, for six months of the year they are miserably cold wishing they were back home in the tropics! They may need pruning and I guess the fruit and vegetable shops might consider them commercial competition but an orange dropping on your parked car does a lot less damage than a rogue palm frond in my experience!

A few weeks ago I was very excited when having to make a visit to discuss house rental to find that the landlady had at least 12 cumquat trees in her garden laden with fruit.

ME: ‘What do you do with all the cumquats?’
HER: ‘the what’
ME: ‘the tiny oranges in the garden’
HER: : ‘nothing. What do you do with them?’
ME: ‘make my mother’s cumquat marmalade’
HER: ‘????'
ME: ‘orange jam’
HER: ‘do you want them, I never use them’
ME: ‘yes please, I will send someone’
 
That is how I ended up with 9kg of cumquats being dumped on my desk one afternoon. SO I soaked them for several days whilst frantically trying to find jam jars (I had to go into long explanations for these as well). In the end we went through the cupboards and fridge and decanted bits of things into plastic boxes!

Now we have about 20 jars of cumquat marmalade. With pips because I was too lazy to take them all out (I thought skimming the top as it boiled would suffice). It is slowly being eaten, very slowly! So I have had to invent way of using it up.

Here is our favourite so far
Make some sweet short crust pastry, roll out and line either a large tart tin or small individual tins (I used a muffin tray). Cook in the oven until lightly golden and crispy.
Take your jar of marmalade. Strain it picking out as many pips as possible and saving the ‘syrup’. I forgot to mention that I did not really measure the water so the marmalade was on the runny side.
Put all the solid bits in the pastry case, pile them up and pour over a bit of the syrup.
Melt some 70% dark chocolate, about 200gms with the same amount of cream. Once melted and well mixed allow it to cool. Pour over the cumquats in the tart shell, filling right to the top. Put in the fridge to set and voilà - Terry’s Chocolate Orange in a tart!

Put the syrup that you have saved in a jar and use it as sauce on crepes or ice cream. If you have any leftover chocolate mixture (very unlikely!) it is really good with crystalised ginger or just by the spoon full! 

 I am going to try Delia Smith’s Marmalade Bread Pudding next – yum!