Orange Bounty

Margaret Sevenjhazi

Calamansi first came into my house through my mum’s friend Tita Rose. They both migrated to Australia around the same time, in 1986. Still close friends, Tita Rose brings over a payload of calamansi from her tree every few months, and Mum alters her clothing in return. In my experience, calamansi never appears one at a time, in neat porcelain bowls, but always in huge flushes like these — a big red plastic David Jones bag, a green canvas Woollies bag, atop oversized aluminium trays of pancit and palabok at family gatherings where calamansi juice inevitably ends up squirted into a distant cousin’s eye, or a make-shift net made from your t-shirt as you harvested from a friend’s backyard tree.

If you’re ever unsure of what to do with excess calamansi, and don’t have the space to freeze them, I recommend whole salt-dried calamansi. All you need is salt, calamansi and patience. I referenced a recipe by Amy Cheong from the blog Desirable Recipes to inform this recipe below. The finished salted calamansi makes a soothing sore throat or cold-busting recipe, like a Filipino antibiotic, and can form the base of ice teas. You could even use a few to flavour stews and soups when you can’t get hold of fresh calamansi. Steeped alone, it tastes like a natural version of Hydralyte — add honey or fresh calamansi to taste. As a bonus: all the salt surrounding the calamansi absorbs the juice, so I will also keep the calamansi salt to garnish dishes.

Whole salt dried calamansi and
homemade calamansi salt

Ingredients
1 part calamansi
2 parts non-iodised salt


Method

  1. Wash and drain your calamansi. Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to the boil and turn off the heat.

  2. Add the calamansi and let it sit, submerged in the water. When the citrus
    starts to turn a light yellow colour after a few minutes, drain it (don’t let it sit for too long!).

  3. Add 1/3 of your salt into a glass bowl or plastic container (wider containers are preferred to avoid crowding so the citrus can dry evenly).

  4. Add your drained calamansi to the salt and top with the remaining salt, ensuring all citrus is covered. Put it in a sunny spot and let it sun dry for 7 days.

  5. After 7 days, begin your calamansi exfoliation. With clean, dry hands rub the calamansi with salt, turning over the fruits that were towards the bottom. Cover them with salt again. Place your container back in that sunny spot. Repeat this process every 7 days.

  6. When the calamansi starts to dry and suck itself in, you no longer need to add the salt on top. It should be ready after 3 months. Citrus should be completely dried, quite hard and wrinkly and look devoid of juice.

Storage
Store dried calamansi in a jar with a handful of the salt they were in. A plastic lid is preferable as metal lids may rust with prolonged exposure to the salt.

The leftover salt
Store the calamansi infused salt in a container or jar with a plastic lid. The familiar calamansi twang is welcome wherever you crave it. Use as you would a finishing salt.

Serving suggestions

Sore throat tea
The main use for this salt dried calamansi is for a herbal tea that is great for sore throats, harnessing the antibacterial properties of the citrus and salt. Tear 3 calamansi into a cup and cover with hot water. Steep for 10–20 mins and add honey and ginger to taste. Keep re-steeping with hot water till the water is clear and flavour is spent. Then you can just eat the spent calamansi.

Iced tea
Make the dried calamansi tea above and your tea of choice. Add honey, ice cubes and mint or makrut lime leaves to taste. Fresh calamansi juice would be great too.

Waste was never welcome at family gatherings, tables full of food. More food than the humans around it could consume. Takeaway containers were built into the meals. Bounty. Doggy bags. David Jones and Woolies bags. Or
t-shirts. To fill with calamansi, or to repair in exchange for them.

mage files supplied by author.

Margaret Sevenjhazi is a cook, food writer and fervent fermenter who runs Bottomfeeder, a consortium of zero-waste recipes. Her Filipino mother is from Taytay, Rizal and her father grew up on a self-sustaining family farm in rural Hungary. Naturally thriftiness and resourcefulness were drilled into her from an early age.