one of my favorite fruits is called balang in persian, which is called buddha's hand or fingered citron in the western world. in iran we usually bought it in the northern parts of the country by the caspian sea where it's very humid and mild all year long.
first time after many many years i saw balang in the farmer's market at ferry building in sf last year. i got so excited that i almost bought all the balangs they had. ( i guess i bought ten of them!) again here comes the season this year and i saw it at wholefoods and bought four of them.:-)
what do i do with this weird shaped citrus? balang smells great and you can use it to garnish food. but it doesn't have any citrusy fruit inside; it's all skin which has a white meaty texture that makes a great jam. since it has a great citrusy smell and is a bit bitter, it's used for jam in iran like oranges.
i use 1.5 cup sugar for 1 cup fruit to make jam. first of all wash and chop the balangs in small chunks and leave it in a bowl of water for 24 hours. it takes the bitter taste out of it. it also makes your kitchen smell great as a side effect.:-)
then get rid of that bitter water and add sugar and water to balang and let it cook on low heat for 2 hours. stir every half hour and add more water is necessary. pour it it jars while it's hot and close the jar. that way you can keep the jam for a long time. out of each balang i almost got one jar of jam. since it's not very sweet, it is also a great dessert with yoghourt. nousheh jahn!
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