Blush gooseberry and chia seed jam

Blush gooseberries are a fruit that's new to me - I'd never seen them to buy but quite excitingly that's what grows on the gooseberry bush in our garden so I was keen to do something with them. And of course jam it was.

Previously I've made Gooseberry and apple jam which was and is a huge favourite of mine, but as I said in my Periscope video this morning, life with Harry doesn't lend itself to getting the maslin and jam jars down from the loft, sterilising everything and only then starting to make the jam. This recipe took less than half an hour from start to finish, used a normal saucepan, one jam jar, a potato masher and a tablespoon which is much more conducive to happening whilst Harry naps.

Speed and ease of making aside - one of the reasons this is such a straightforward recipe is the teeny tiny chia seeds. These understated black pinpricks work in jam by absorbing and holding up to ten times their own weight in water. As you cook the fruit and honey down, the little black seeds develop an almost gelatinous coating which is why they make such a perfect addition to a quick set, relatively healthy jam. This removes the need for large quantities of sugar - by using honey I've in fact kept this recipe entirely free from refined sugar.

However, becuase this isn't a traditional jam - as I said in the Periscope video it won't keep for months and months on end in the cupboard or loft. It'll last about a week, maximum two in the fridge - so if I were you (or me in fact) I'd make it when you have your eye on a batch of scones, some homemade bread or scotch pancakes which would all benefit from a large dollop of this glorious confection.

This is such an easy recipe - so easy in fact that you can do it while sleep deprived!

Blush gooseberry & chia seed jam

400g of fruit - I used Blush gooseberries, green gooseberries and a handful of foraged blackberries
3 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons chia seeds

Prep your fruit - in the case of gooseberries, wash, top and tail them
Pop the fruit in a large pan with the honey and cook over a medium heat for 5 minutes until the berries start to soften and come to the boil
Mash the living daylights out of the fruit with a potato masher
Turn the heat down to low, add the chia seeds and continue to cook for 20 or so minutes, stirring every couple of minutes

Here you have it - Blush gooseberry and chia seed jam. Perfectly sweet, beautifully set and so easy a sleep deprived mother running purely on coffee can do it whilst making her first Periscope. True story.

I'm entering this into Ren Behan's Simple and In Season this month. 

Meal Planning Monday: So near and yet so far

In my first trimester I couldn't imagine being more tired. I could sleep anywhere: tubes, trains, buses, Brownie pack holiday... the list could go on. It's slightly ironic that at week 32 a combination of stress and utter exhaustion combined with 3am insomnia are wiping me out now - let's not even consider what bump has in store for me when they arrive. One of the things I've always been conscious of is the balance of living my life as I want to with having chronic conditions, and now I'm balancing both of those things alongisde a pregnancy.

Last week was an insanely easy week in the kitchen, that if you don't know me, might prompt you to question my validity as a foodie. The next couple of weeks won't be, can't be much different as I'm concentrating on completing everything I need to do at work, trying to help M finish the nursery alongside absolute exhaustion, and an unhealthy dose of stress.  I'm fighting the urge/ need to retire to bed for a few days and channelling my inner Dory.

So where are we this week? A good question indeed - to which the answer 'all over the place' is quite literally true: Birmingham, North London, Croydon, Poole, NCT, Guides, Brownies and Archery - are just the tip of the iceberg! Next weekend we have M's parents visiting (if you hear sobbing, it's me trying to make the spare bedroom accessible as it's being used as our dumping ground since we started the nursery) and my favourite part of the week ahead is that I'm going to The making of Harry Potter!

Breakfasts: I've really got a taste for Weetabix of late, which is odd as I'm rarely a cereal person.

Lunches: I've still got that salad bug - with feta or halloumi depending on if I'm wfh or out and about.

Dinners: I'm roasting a chicken this afternoon which will make next week easier.

Monday: Leftover roast chicken with baked potatoes and veggies

Tuesday: Chicken and mushroom risotto

Wednesday: Leftover risotto

Thursday: Pizza

Friday: Chicken kiev, homemade chips and veggies

I have baked today - Peanut butter and jam bars which will top up lunch boxes for us both.

I'm hoping for a bit more energy as the week goes on, but otherwise will just be trundling along.

Picking your own... and some accidental jam making

It's well documented on the blog that I love preserving - however,  M and his family were all astounded to hear that I'd never been to a PYO. It seems a necessary rite of passage for most people but one I've missed out on. Or had. Until last week. Still slightly dopey from a general anasthetic, and on a lot of painkillers (don't let anyone tell you getting your wisdom teeth out doesn't hurt like a hurty thing) we trundled happily around Parkside Pick Your Own for a couple of hours, investigating strawberries, raspberries and green beans.

M was thrilled that the strawberries were being grown at waist height - his memories of PYO were not happy ones - we easily filled our punnets and moved on to the raspberries. A cunning move seemed to be to go to the end of the canes/ plant rows and work backwards as most people started on those closest to you. If that makes sense.

The only thing I was sad about was the lack of tomatoes, but I suspect the early cold weather this summer has put them back a bit, as there were plenty of other fruit and veg around. Lots of people were there in family groups, everyone joining in.

I suppose my only negative about the day would be that PYO is no longer the cheap day out: we had a minimum spend of £3 per person which we easily surpassed, and our fruit was more expensive than the supermarket. That said, as far as food miles go - each strawberry travelled a grand total of 5 miles and many were sampled within 3 hours, which combined with the fun of the activity itself and the time spent together more than compensated for the lack of a BOGOF.

However, what is one to do with a glut of strawberries from some overenthusiastic PYOing? Well, it'd be rude not to make jam. Even if you are banned from preserving (space and moving). I mean it's the thrifty way to use them up. Honest.

Quick and easy strawberry jam - honest. I mean, even if - hypothetically of course - your laptop died halfway through making this jam and you decided to go to PC world to see the offerings then you could get this done before your partner got back and could meet him outside with only a little bit of jam on your top. And only slightly sticky fingers. Ahem. Hypothetically of course

If you've never made jam before - here is not your starting point. Use the recipe by all means, but go back to my first Strawberry jam post as that covers everything in detail

2lb strawberries, hulled and quartered
Juice of 1 large lemon
2lb granulated sugar

Put the strawberries and lemon juice in a large pan or maslin and bring to a gentle simmer for about 10 minutes
Mush the strawberries up with your potato masher
Add the sugar and bring to a rolling boil - mine reached setting point after about 15 minutes, but as always, that's gong to vary depending on how wet your fruit is etc
Once you've tested on your freezered saucer and you're happy that the jam is duly wrinkly, pour into sterilised jam jars, label* and seal
There you have it - accidental jam

I found this made 5 225ml jars with a bit over for testing purposes

*Note: Always label your jam shortly after making so that 12 months on you aren't looking at a pretty jar in your cupboard with no flipping clue as to what's in it. I think it's plum. Or gooseberry.

Preserving prettiness: Rhubarb and ginger jam

Rhubarb and ginger is one of my favourite flavour combinations. I keep meaning to bake a cake based on it, but as yet have forgotten. Most often I stew rhubarb with a tiny bit of sugar and some ground ginger to top porridge or yoghurt.

The other weekend Tesco were selling off their rhubarb for under half price. I nabbed two of the 400g packets with the original plan to stew it. On noticing that I had a tub of stewed from M's mum already in the freezer I thought a new plan was in order. So it was time to break out the maslin pan, jam spoon and jars and get preserving.

This is based on a WI recipe

800g rhubarb cut into 1 inch pieces
800g granulated sugar
50g crystallised ginger (the one covered in brown sugar if you can get it) finely chopped
Juice of 1 lemon

Cut the rhubarb up and put in a large mixing bowl. Top with the sugar and cover with a tea towel. Leave overnight.

The next day stir in the sugar - most of it will have dissolved, if you feel like it's not started dissolving, leave longer (I left mine for 2 days without incident)
Pour into your pan, scraping down the sides of the bowl to get everything out

Chop your ginger really finely (this is my favourite of any photo I've taken. Ever)

Add the ginger and the lemon juice to the pan
Bring gently to the boil, stirring all the while. Skim off any scum that comes to the surface (or be lazy like me and just stir in a knob of butter at the end)

Boil for 30 minutes or until the sugar starts to flake on the edges of the pan

Do the saucer test to make sure that the jam has set
Use a funnel to pour the jam into sterilised jars, seal and when cool label

It's as simple as that. I may have taste tested the scrapings in the pan as this is destined to be Christmas presents. Yes, I said it again.

I feel pretty, oh so pretty... Preserving

Over the last couple of weeks when we've been going along in the car, I've not paid M a great deal of attention (sorry). My eyes have been trained on trees and hedgerows looking for a glimpse of the bounty late summer and early autumn brings the keen and nifty cook.

The blackberries are nearly there, those that have benefitted from the (occasional) sunshine already turning glossy and purple, those in more shady spots just hitting a glorious rose. I dragged M out this afternoon and between us we managed to pick 2lb or so of beautifully ripe blackberries - I have earmarked half of this for apple and blackberry jelly (one of M's mum's recipes) but the other half is destined for more alcohol. 

I haven't seen either elderberries or sloes yet but they are normally Autumn's later gifts.

As you know whilst my patience with dough and children is legendary, my patience for my need to preserve less so. It was with (a swiftly stifled) squeal of delight on Friday evening that I noticed that Sainsburys had marked down three punnets of blackcurrants and two of blackberries. I gazed around me, sizing up the other shoppers, trying to decide if there might be any competition, and then swooped in, scooping up the punnets into my trolley and heading off in search of the Basics rum. Apparently Sainsburys don't do Basics rum, so I got the next one up the ladder.

I followed the recipe I used a couple of years back where you start by making and straining a berry juice, and then add spices and alcohol, leaving it to mature briefly before boiling up with sugar and bottling. Previously I did this with redcurrants and you can see in the photos in the original post the pretty pink colour of the end result. Unsurprisingly doing this with blackberries and blackcurrants produces a stunningly dark and glossy liquer. The vodka and this rum are all destined to be gifts 

I wanted to write this post despite the recipes not being new ones, and the photos all being on Instagram already to remind you just how easy preserving is and how fabulous the results can be. You don't need a sugar thermometer, jam sugar, a maslin pan, or even a jam spoon - I start with my Ikea 365 pan, a long handled wooden spoon and a saucer in the freezer. That's it. I don't even buy jam jars, I save all ours, and ask Guide parents to donate any they have. Sterilised with boiling water and in a low oven, you're good to go. Also, my jellies (and alcohol is all strained through an old pillowcase in a seive. Yes, the picture below is an old pillowcase. 

If you're west of me, you may still be able to get some strawberries at your local PYO so why not have a go at strawberry jam (see the idiots guide on that post)

Otherwise, go, forage (or buy heavily reduced) blackberries and have a go at vodka, rum or jam. I'll put my recipe for blackberry and apple jelly up as soon as I've done it. 

For all my preserving exploits - click here and you'll be able to scroll through and pick the ones that appeal to you. 

Marmalade 2011. Part two. Spiced Seville Orange and whiskey

I haven't changed the recipe I used last year at all for marmalade so this is more of a picture post today. But I thought I would add some pointers that helped me today.

When I cooked up the Sevilles I did add some spices, star anise, cloves and cinammon - just to see what difference it made. Somewhere in my head I had the idea for lightly spiced marmalade.

• Read the recipe through properly before you start - I was using 3lb of Seville's today and got some of my proportions of ingredients wrong.
• Don't worry if it takes longer to set that you remember/ anticipate
• Keep stirring
• Don't wear your pjs to make it - or at least not without a pinny
• Don't break your wrist 3 and a half months previously and have to finely slice 3lb of orange zest with a cast on. Even if said cast is purple.
• 3lb yielded 10 jars - make sure you sterilse enough

More Marmalade: Sevilles not required

Last weekend I knew I wanted to stay in, stay warm and potter. Hopefully you've already read the slow roast shoulder of pork that was one part of the outcome of this. If not, please do - it really was a simple, slow cooked wonder.

I found myself in that post Christmas position of having a fruit bowl with clementines, lemons, limes and oranges in. Also, randomly a grapefruit, which I don't eat, because  the fruit and juice make you metabolise medications more quickly which can a real risk with some conditions. I guess it turned up in a veg box and I hoped that inspiration would turn up for it, hence it was starting to look slightly sad in the fruit bowl. My original plan for this week just gone being that I was going to be working away all week I didn't want them to go to waste.

Post Christmas my jam cupboard was looking somewhat bare, preserves had been sent out as Secret Santa presents, gifts to my assistant Guiders and pretty much anyone else I could foist some off on! I was originally holding out for the Seville's but Mark's mum had mentioned to me a five fruit marmalade and I thought I'd give it a bash.

I didn't use a recipe as such. but used my original post on Marmalade as a guideline, ending up with gloriously rosy marmalade punctuated by the green and yellow shreds of the different fruits. It's lovely on toast, and my Great British Bake Off book has a lovely recipe for a Sticky Orange Marmalade cake that I think it would work beautifully in. I'll link back when I make that.

Fruitbowl marmalade

2lb of mixed citrus fruit - I used oranges, satsumas, limes, and a grapefruit
4lb of sugar
4 pints of water
3 lemons, juiced

You will also need:

Sterilised jam jars
Either lids or waxed discs and cellophane toppers
Heavy based pan and long handled wooden spoon
Muslin and string.
Sharp knife (I used a paring knife which was perfect for the job)

Wash your fruit.
Now cook the fruit (except the lemons) whole in 4 pints of water for 2 hours on a low heat. This softens everything and gives you your liquid for later (you need at least 2 pints left at the end of the cooking time, so top it up as necessary).
Take your oranges off the heat, and out of the pan using a slotted spoon or similar, and pop them on a chopping board. Quarter them as this will cool them down faster.

Take out the pips and pop these in a saucer or dish - you'll need them later

Scrape out the flesh from each quarter and pop that in the pan you're going to cook the jam in
Then really really finely (unless you like chunky marmalade of course) shred the skin. Because you've cooked the oranges this is much much easier than it would be otherwise, but it's still fiddly and takes a while. I have to admit my fruit is a bit randomly shredded as one arm is still in plaster.

You need to do this to all the oranges. Yes, all of them. Time to start up http://broadwayworld.com/radio.cfm

Ok, so the oranges and the flesh is all in the preserving pan. Add 2 pints of the water from the water you used to cook the oranges in (you can top it up if you've not got enough) and bring to a boil. You do need some extra pectin and for this I just added the lemon juice, I left out the pips as I completely forgot about them.

Add the sugar - just granulated is fine.

Put an old saucer or little plate in the fridge now
Put the pan on the heat and bring to the boil whilst stirring. You want a rolling boil - biggish bubbles that pop on the surface.

Continue to cook whilst it bubbles, stirring all the while until it 'flakes' This took about 40 minutes in total, although I tested after half an hour despite knowing it was still too light in colour, but not wanting to wreck it I thought I should check.  Depending on the fruit you use, it will be faster or slower - If I remember rightly the Seville Orange and Whiskey marmalade only took about 20 minutes.

Once it's done this, take a teaspoonful or so and put it on your saucer that's been in the fridge. You want after a minute or so, the top to wrinkle as you run your finger over it but the underneath to be jam like in consistency.

While all of this is going on, sterilse your jars by washing them in hot soapy water and then drying in a low oven. Fill them with the marmalade and when slightly cooler, add lids or waxed circles and damp cellophane.

Mine is unlabelled as yet (I'm embarrased about my handwriting because of my broken wrist) but be sure to label it with the date, year and what it is.

I find that I always have a tiny bit left over that I pop in a ramekin and eat on toast over the coming days (keep it in the fridge).  If I know if it's sharp or sweet or how it tastes I'm going to be able to give it to the right recipient - or keep it for myself.

There you have it, one Saturday afternoon happily spent preserving in the warm. Result, jars of Fruit bowl marmalade in my jam cupboard.

Make of our hands one hand: Let's make Christmas

I was so very excited when Vanessa Kimbell announced Let's Make Christmas, I had allsorts of ideas for my contributions, and had planned to spend some time making things over the last week. Then I got a cold, which was uncomfortable, and annoying, but ultimately not the end of the world. Then I had a fit and broke my wrist, which was also uncomfortable and annoying and felt like the end of the world. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to participate as I had planned to utlise Fourth Friern Barnet Guide power (TM) at the sleepover we had planned this weekend as I was planning to contribute things to make with your children. And not having children, Guides are the next best thing.

So Plan A was, to put not to fine a point on it, stuffed. Some tears and a small tantrum were had, before Mark and his mum came to the rescue. I'm not submitting the planned liebkuchen, but we put our heads together and thought, well what can you do with a borked wrist and a stinking cold if you are planning to Make Christmas? And then we realised - raid  your cupboard of jam. Having spent a large part of this year practicing preserving I thought instead of struggle to make something and be dissapointed in it. I would do exactly what I will do if I'm still splinted/ casted up come Christmas, and that is use the things I've been putting by. But prettify them for Christmas.


So my first submission (yes, there's more than one!) for Let's make Christmas is a terrific trio:


My first jam, jelly & marmalade.


Seville Orange & whiskey marmalade


Strawberry jam


Crabapple jelly - the recipe for which I haven't blogged, so will add it here when I'm back home <watch this space> as I'm currently being looked after by Mark.

2 3/4 lb Crab Apples
3 Cloves
1 lb sugar per pint of extract

Cut the crab apples into quarters. Don't bother to try and peel them, they are far too small and will be straining anyway so will lose the skin, pips etc.
Put the fruit in a pan, with cloves and 1 1/2 pints of water.
Bring to the boil and simmer gently for about an hour until soft and pulpy. Stir from time to time to make sure it doesn't catch on the bottom of your pan.
Spoon the pulp into your incredibly effective, purpose built pillowcase filtration device or jelly bag if you use one. Personally the swearing and bulldog clips involved in getting a pillowcase to stay on an upturned chair on my kitchen table and not fall in to the mixing bowl just adds to the experience for me. No, really.
Strain for at least 12 hours, DO NOT STIR. What you want is a gloriously clear jelly and giving in to the temptation to push the pulp through will make your jelly cloudy.
Measure your extract, and for each pint weigh out 1 lb of sugar (when you get to half pints, find someone friendly who can do maths if you are anything like me).
Stir and heat gently until the sugar is disolved.
Turn up the heat and boil rapidly until setting point is reached. This took about 10 minutes, but will depend on how wet your fruit is.

I only got 3 jars of jelly from these quantities, like quinces, crab apples clearly don't like giving up their wares. That said, this is lovely, slightly tart jelly that goes really well with a ploughmans or pork dishes.

Great British Bake Off - Technical Challenge: Iced Buns

For the record, these are NOT Iced Fingers. They don't have cream and jam in. These are iced buns. So there Great British bake off. I know this as I was never allowed the ones with cream and jam, as 'they weren't for children' so this was a natural place to start my investigation into the Great British Bake Off technical challenges. I will be ignoring the macarons. Macarons terrify me. If you start talking macarons I WILL hide behind the sofa.

Inspired by Utterly Scrummy and the post show masterclasses, I thought I'd have a go at some of the technical challenges from the Great British Bake Off. No I'm not practicing for next year before you ask, and yes there is more than a passing resemblance between me and Jo, and yes we're both from Essex, I'm just blonder.

Making the buns was straightforward, as regular readers know, I like breadmaking - I find the kneading and proving a soothing, restful process (I never said I was normal) and despite these being a fairly vigourous knead, I spent a happy afternoon pottering in the kitchen.

I love that the icing is water icing (I think the adults amongst you call it glace icing, but I call it water icing with the Brownies and so that's what we're calling it here) as it just reinforces, what a lovely, family bake these are. Kids could easily help with kneading, shaping the dough and icing the buns. It's only when you start to want to pipe the cream and jam that this becomes properly technical.

As I may have mentioned on twitter I was blown away by the evenness of my bake, and how lovely the buns looked when they came out of the oven. It was quite a pull to leave them to cool.

I used home made jam from earlier in the summer, and because I like things jammy, refrained from piping this on, instead spreading the cut inside of the bun with the warmed, fruity jam.

Because 12 buns is simply too many to have in my house at any one time, I've given 8 of these away as a Random Bake of Kindness, to my upstairs neighbours. I've saved 4 for Mark and I though.  

Ingredients

Dough

500g/1lb 2oz strong white flour
50g/1¾oz caster sugar
40g/1½oz unsalted butter, softened
2 free-range eggs
2 x 7g/¼oz sachets instant yeast

2tsp salt

150ml/5fl oz warm milk

140ml/4½fl oz water

Icing

200g/7oz icing sugar
5 tsp cold water

Filling

200ml/7fl oz whipping cream
100g/4oz strawberry jam
icing sugar for dusting

Method

Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7.

To make the dough, place all the ingredients into a large bowl, holding back a quarter of the water. Stir the mixture with your hands, then slowly add the remaining water to form a dough and knead in the bowl for four minutes.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead well for 10 minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic.

Return the dough to the bowl, cover with a damp tea towel and leave to rise in a warm place for one hour.
Divide the dough into 12 pieces, each about 70g/2½oz, then roll into balls and shape into fingers about 13cm/5in long.
 Place the dough fingers onto a greased baking tray, leaving space for them to double in size, then set aside in a warm place for 40 minutes. They should just touch each other when they’ve risen.

Bake in the oven for 10 minutes then set them aside to cool.

 

 

 

For the icing, sift the icing sugar in a wide bowl and gradually stir in the cold water to form a thick paste. I needed far less than 5tbsp of water to get the thickness needed to coat the top of the buns. Well, actually a lot more than 200g icing sugar as I blithely trusted Paul Hollywood and added all the water.

Dip the top of the cooled fingers into the icing, smoothing it with your finger, then leave to set on a wire rack

Lightly whip the cream and spoon it into a piping bag fitted with a small nozzle.

Sliced the iced fingers horizontally, leaving one long edge intact.

Warm 1tsp of jam per bun and spread one side of the iced buns with the warmed jam

Pipe in a generous line of whipped cream into the middle of each finger, Dust the iced fingers with icing sugar and serve (or give away)

 

 

Preserves round up: home made and well preserved

I was chatting on twitter a while back about the preserving I've been doing (I'm waiting on my badge that says I'm preserves queen) and realised that since first attempting marmalade I've done a fair bit. Susan of A Little bit of heaven on a plate tweeted back to tell me about her post on preserving. So I thought I'd take the opportunity to link up with another blogger, and do a round up of everything I've been up to.

If you bear in mind that roughly this time last year I was too anxious of boiling sugar to do anything other than preserve some redcurrants in rum (and leave that shrub in the dark to steep, for ooh too many months to mention) I think the learning curve I've been on this year is fabulous. Most recently this hit home when I knocked up a sugar syrup for my Christmas cake fruit and barely even blinked. One of the best things about blogging is that you can see yourself growing and developing and being someone that spends most of my waking hours doing that with and for others, be they adults at work or Guides or Brownies in my free time, it's lovely to have that reflection about yourself.

I thought it might be useful as even with the search function and some fairly detailed tagging on my part I can't get everything to come up in an accessible fashion (another reason to go to WP perhaps?) to link to all my preserving posts - and I'll add to this post and link to it in the sidebar, so you can always find it as I do more.

So here's my round up of my preserves so far:

Green tomato chutney

Seville orange and whiskey marmalade

Strawberry jam

Gooseberry jam

Apple and mint jelly

Plum jam

Spiced redcurrant rum

Preserves part 4 million and twelve: mint and apple jelly

More preserves... yes there are more things I can be given free (or nearly free) and turn into jams, jellies and cordials. I just tweeted Jules of Butcher, baker to say how satisfying I'm finding it being able to turn free (or nearly free) food into something that will last me long after the fresh ingredients would have found their way into the compost bin.

Last time Mark went home his Mum sent him back with a pillowcase, bag of crapapples, a large bunch of mint and the instructions for 3 different types of preserves. I've already blogged the plum jam, and so this is my first experience of a jelly. It's very similar to a jam except that you strain the fruit after you've cooked it down, so that when you boil it up with the sugar, it's a clear liquid. What you end up with is beautiful, an amazing amber colour in the case of the crabapples and an almost clear set with tiny flecks of mint for the apple and mint. Just gorgeous, as the sunlight catches them they actually twinkle.

I made this with Bramley apples, that had been epically reduced in Sainsburys - I am such a fan of the reductions in their fruit and veg departments for preserving - the other week it was strawberries for 19p and this was 9p for 4 huge Bramley apples (the last 2 I've just stewed up with some spices and a little sugar, then frozen to have on porridge as it gets colder).

Apple and Mint Jelly

Ingredients

2.5 lbs cooking apples
1 pint distilled white vinegar
Sugar
3-4 taablespoons chopped mint


Equipment

Preserving pan
Pillowcase
Chair
Bowl
Measuring jug
Wooden spoon
Saucer
Jam jars

Method

Wash and chop the apples (don't bother to peel or core) then put in your preserving pan with 1 pint of water and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 45 minutes - until they're soft
Add the vinegar and boil rapidly for another 5 minutes (beware, it smells really really strong)
Spoon the pulp into the pillowcase - which you've suspended intricately on an upturned chair over a bowl and allow the pulp to strain for at least 12 hours. You mustn't squeeze the pillowcase no matter how much you want to or feel like no liquid is coming out as that'll make your jelly cloudy.  I was incredibly restrained and managed not to.

After the 12 hours, put your saucer in the fridge
Now measure the strained liquid into a measuring jug and for every pint of liquid add 1lb of sugar to your preserving pan. I ended up with 1lb and 12oz of sugar in mine.
Heat the liquid and sugar gently, stirring all the while until the sugar has dissolved
Now boil it rapidly for about 10 minutes until the setting point is reached - test using your saucer
Stir in the chopped mint, jar up promptly and there you have it - apple and mint jelly. Ideal with your next roast pork (personally, I'm planning a roast shoulder of pork just so I can try it)

Jam, jam, jam, jam, jam, jam, jam, jam: Plum jam

Or, what to do when all the stirring in the world doesn't seem to be enough. Preserving for idiots (namely me) continues...

So this return to the preserving theme (which, I admit has met somewhat of a hiatus of late, owing to a lack of glutting fruit - on that note, where are the blackberries?) Mark's Mum - she of WI and preserving fame gave me about 4lb of Victoria Plums that she had been given recently. Jam was clearly the way forward, as pots and a recipe arrived at the same time.

So, following a bad day I decided the best way to restore normality was to make preserves. I never said I was thinking rationally.

Before I get to the recipe, it's important to bear in mind the conditions the fruit has come from, this has been a very wet (is that the understatement of the century?) summer and so the fruit we were cooking down took ages to reach setting point - 50 minutes. I may have panicked once or twice during this period - called Mark's Mum 3 times and handed the whole process over to Mark declaring (with a small stamp) that, "I can't make jam anymore!"

If you've not made jam before I would read one of the first of Penelope's Preserves series either, Seville Orange Marmalade, or Strawberry jam, just to get a feel for preserving. Similarly, read this recipe through a few times, get your equipment - big pan, spoon, colander, jars, lids, saucer out and to hand. I wash my jars before I start and put them in the oven on a low heat to sterilise while I'm cooking the jam.

So, today Penelope's Pantry's Plum Preserve

3lb plums (put in a colander and rinse, then chop and stone)
3lb granulated sugar - still no need for jam sugar
Knob of butter
3/4 pint water

Put a saucer in the fridge
Put the plums into a big pan, add the water and cook until soft and pulpy. This took about half an hour.
Remove from the heat and add the sugar, stir until it's dissolved
Put back on the heat, bring to a rolling boil and cook until setting point is reached. This took me about 45 minutes of a rolling boil. Seriously, the summer has been so wet that to reach setting point was a bit of an epic task of endurance (thanks Mark)
Add your butter to disperse any scum
Remove jars from the oven, and put on something heat proof, then fill with jam
Seal with lids, or waxed circles and cellophane
When cool label up and put in your jam cupboard. Not that I have one of those. Nope.

Next up, crabapple jelly, then Bramley apple and mint jelly, then a break from preserves I promise!

Salad Days: Beetroot, green bean and feta salad

The eagle (owl) eyed amongst you will notice that there is, no photo of this meal. That is because this is quite possible the least photogenic thing I have ever made. Literally. I always thought that casseroles with their brown colours and squishy ingredients were unattractive, but that was before I made this salad. To read the ingredients you would think (as did I) that it had the potential to be stunning, that the verdant greens of the leaves and beans would contrast stunningly with the white goat's cheese and ruby beetroot, all annointed by the faint pink blush of the dressing.

However what I ended up was a tasty mush of goats cheese squished over the beans and leaves, with the beetroot that bloody red that's almost black. The Chanel Rouge Noir of vegetables. I would absolutely recommend you make and try this salad as it is gorgeously tasty, but photograph the ingredients beforehand - do some tasteful arranging on a wooden chopping board, or worktop.

This recipe is a Riverford veg one. I came to it following the second delivery this season of beetroot. I cooked the first batch and left it in the oven to cool, wrapped in foil. At which point I promptly forgot about it for the best part of the rest of the week. Yes, my name is Penelope and I have scatty, slatternish tendencies. What a waste! I was so cross with myself as I love beetroot - there's something about the earthiness of the flavour that seems such a contrast to it's sweetness - which is why I've often used it in cakes, in a similar way to the courgette brownies I made here - which, oddly was also a Riverford recipe.

On a side note, what's quite nice about going back to that post is that my photography skills are actually beginning to improve - at least slightly!

So today Penelope's Pantry brings you... the world's least attractive salad:

Summer salad with beetroot, goat’s cheese + Frenchbeans

Roast or boil the beetroot - to do that, wash and trim them (keep the leaves for the salad) then place in a dish in a preheated oven (200 degreesish) for about 45 minutes. Riverford suggest adding water to the dish and covering with foil - but in the Pantry we fly by the seat of our pants and just wallop them in and take them out when they're softened. This will take about 45-60 mins, depending on size Oh and if you don't want to go out looking like you've committed murder, then wear clean marigolds, or latex gloves. Scrubbing with salt and lemon juice works if you ignore this advice. Said as one who knows!

Ingredients

300g mixed summer salad leaves

150g French beans, trimmed

200g cooked beetroot, cut into 2cm cubes

4 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp good-quality red wine vinegar or sherry vinegar

Salt + pepper

100g soft goat’s cheese, crumbled

Salad leaves - I used the beetroot tops and some bagged salad that had come in my Riverford box last week.

Method

1. Wash the salad leaves and dry well. Cook the beans in boiling salted water for 3–4 mins, until just tender, then drain, refresh in cold water and drain again.

2. Put them in a large bowl with the salad leaves and beetroot.

3. Whisk the olive oil, vinegar and some seasoning together to make a dressing.

4. Toss with the salad then sprinkle with goat’s cheese.

Step 4 is where I came unstuck. My goat's cheese didn't exactly sprinkle per se. More squished. Maybe you have a more gentle touch than me. Here's hoping yours doesn't turn out mushy as it's lovely, really fantastic contrasting tastes and textuertures.

I used the beetroot while still warm, partly due to time pressures, partly because that was what I fancied. As the other ingredients were fridge cold or room temperature this again made for a nice contrast.

The Riverford recipe suggests that this serves 4 as an accompaniment to lamb - but I had it as a standalone dish, but this meant it did 2 portions instead of the 4.

Other suggestions are to swap out the beetroot when it's not in season for butternut squash and I'll definitely be trying that, although I'll have to ask a beauty blogger for some help with nail polish names to match that!

Next up - some jams and excitingly my first jellies; plum, and crabapple and mint.  

Ripe! Gooseberries ripe! No wait that's not right... More jam basically

It's been said, more than once that I have a tendency towards obsessiveness, some things have to be 'just so' others are seen, done, experienced over and over until I either get it out of my system, or move on. I'm like that with many things, *cough*Musicals*cough* as well as food. At the moment, as a result of my new found confidence I'm all about the jam. Throw me a packet of sugar and some fruit, and I'll make it work. Which was exactly the position I found myself in on Tuesday night. Exempt from Guides owing to the med changes leaving me decidedly queasy, clearly the natural thing to do is to cook. Oh and tweet whilst doing so. I am woman, watch me multitask.

I had in my fridge a punnet of the Riverford gooseberries, a fruit which I am not too fond of as I just find them too tart. I also had some once lovely, now slightly soft Granny Smith apples lurking at the bottom of the fruit bowl. Having tweeted for suggestions, and discarded all of them - sorry folks - but I think my heart was already set on jam. I googled for some recipes. Ignored those, and just went on proportions. Yes folks I'm living life on the edge here in North London. I invented a jam recipe. Of my own. By myself. Surely I deserve a badge? Guiding folks, did there used to be a jam maker badge? Please say there did!

So, this is roughly how my recipe went - and I halved the amount I have made both for marmalade and strawberry jam as a) I wasn't sure I had enough jars and b) I don't have a decent preserving pan, just a bog standard thing from Ikeas basic range. Which I have to say, did the job beautifully, although I didn't dare stop stirring the molten sugar and fruit for one second. Thank God I can touch type is all I can say.

Gooseberry and apple jam

500g fruit - roughly half and half apples and gooseberries. I peeled cored and finely diced the apples, and just topped and tailed the gooseberries.
225ml water
650g sugar (again, I'm just using regular sugar, not preserving sugar)

Put a saucer in the fridge
Wash out some jars in hot soapy water, rinse and dry and put in a low oven to sterilise

Top and tail the gooseberries and put them in a large pan with the water. I know I've talked about using Lakeland's preserving pan previously, but I just used the Ikea 365 stockpot for this, and it was fine, no spitting or catching.

Bring to a rolling boil and simmer for about 30 minutes.

Add the sugar and let it dissolve over a low heat, whilst stirring constantly. I found that the sugar dissolved quicker in this recipe than in the strawberry jam or marmalade - but again that could just be down to the nature of the fruit.

Boil rapidly for about 10 minutes until setting point is reached. Do the wrinkle test, using the cold saucer, if the jam hasn't set then put it back on the heat and boil for another 5 minutes. My batch needed the extra 5 minutes.

Pour into sterilised jars. When cool put the lids on, and label up. More jam! For your jam cupboard!

I talked to Mark's mum about this - Mark's mum being the authority on all things jam related, and she reckons that this would go well with cold meats or cheeses as well as a traditional jam.

Tea with jam and bread... with jam.... Preserving exploits part 2 - Strawberry jam

As part of convalescing after last week's resurgence of the Migraine from hell (TM) I spent a few days taking it easy, wearing my sunglasses around the house to rest my eyes, ignoring the Le Mans 24 hours race, and having regular naps. Thus meaning that come Saturday afternoon I could take the opportunity to make jam with Mark's Mum.
 
A lot of the process of jam making is similar to what we did with the Seville Marmalade earlier this year, so have a read of that post too, but I'll try to include the basics here. We're working in imperial measures, but it's important (essential maybe) to remember that fruit is going to react differently depending on where you got it from.  We were lucky enough to pick our own (well I wasn't well enough, so HUGE thanks to Mark's Mum and Dad for doing that for me) and it was following a dry spell, if you were picking today, the fruit would be completely different to work with because of all the rain we've had over the last 48 hours. It's those things that make a difference which mean that jam is done much of the time, by eye. You'll find no sugar thermometers here.
 
3lb strawberries, hulled
3lb caster sugar
juice of 2 lemons
 
This made about 7 half pound jars (250grams or thereabouts) of strawberry jam.

Put the hulled strawberries in a colander and rinse briefly. Put straight in a preserving pan and bring to the boil until pulpy. This is where you need to use your eyes, the strawberries need to have softened but not to an apple sauce type mush, you still want them to retain their shape as individual fruit.
Now we left them overnight, and returned to them the next day.
Put a saucer in the fridge
Add the lemon juice to your pan, bring the strawberries back to a rolling boil and add the sugar. As with the marmalade we used regular granulated sugar.
As you're stirring, run a knob of butter around the pan just above the level of the jam - this will stop the sugar crystallising on the pan and not where it should be doing it's job, in the jam.
Once the sugar has been added, stir continuously until it has dissolved, you can hear and feel when this is the case, but it took about 10 minutes I would say.
Now, boil fairly rapidly (be careful for spitting jam as it's hot and burns) for 15 minutes, still stirring all the while.
Remove your pan from the heat (move the pan, don't turn the heat off), and test to see if you're at setting point. This is really straightforward. Take the saucer out of the fridge, and drop a teaspoonful of jam on it. Leave it for a minute or so and then run your finger over the surface of the jam. If the surface wrinkles, you've reached setting point. If not, it's not a crisis, return the pan to the heat (this is why you leave it on) and boil for another 5 minutes before repeating this process. The jam will reach setting point just stay patient. It also flakes on the back of the spoon and on the sides of the pan, but I'm not good enough yet to notice this, so the timing and saucer is easier if you're just beginning.
Add a knob of butter to get rid of any scum.
Use a jam funnel, to fill sterilised jars, fuller than you think. Put lids on them. If you don't have lids, top with waxed discs, and then a cellophane wrapper that you've dipped in a saucer of water (this makes it dry taut)
If you have a little bit left that won't fill a whole jar, then pop it in a cup or spare jar, let it cool and top with some clingfilm. Use this for your breakfast over the next couple of days. Demand people you love try some.
Label up with what it is, and when you made it, but essentially there you have it - strawberry jam.

I can honestly say that preserving is up there with bread making for me as a relaxing and lovely way to spend an afternoon. And it's so rewarding, seeing all the pots of jam in your cupboard. Not that I have a jam cupboard. Nope. Not me.