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.

Simple Summer Essentials: Peach melba - musical theatre style

 

 

 

The Simple Summer Essentials series is coming to an end - along with this (all too brief) spell of hot weather. The last recipes I have for you are all sweet - today's peach melba, a patriotic pavlova and a way to use up overripe soft fruits to make a fool.

Peach Melba was originally a pudding created by Auguste Escoffier to honour the soprano Nellie Melba. Vanilla ice cream, peaches and raspberry sauce combined with an ice sculpture of a swan (as a nod to the opera she was singing in) to make an outstanding dessert, recreated time and time over. by the time I became familiar with peach melba it had been diluted into one of those little pots of yoghurt, that along with Angel delight were standard pudding fare in the 1980's. Not quite what escoffier had in mind I'm sure!

Growing up, peach melba seemed impossibly glamourous and fancy. The type of thing one would have at a posh restaurant. Little did I know, that the combination of peach and raspberry I loved so fiercely in my little pots of yoghurt was an easily recreated dessert, one that could easily be done and done diet style as well.

So today's post is Peach Melba - musical theatre style (that is to say less overblown than opera) Consider this the Rent to La Boheme, or Miss Saigon to Madam Butterfly of the pudding world.

Serves 2

100g 0% fat Greek yoghurt (I use Total)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
100g raspberries pureed
2 peaches
1 tsp dark, soft brown sugar

Split your peaches in half, and remove the stone. Sprinkle the cut side with the soft, dark brown sugar and put under a hot grill until the sugar starts to bubble.
Meanwhile, mix the vanilla extract into the yoghurt and leave to stand. You could sweeten if you wanted, either with a sweetener or sugar. I don't find I need it and avoid artificial sweeteners as a rule, but you should make sure it tastes lovely for you.
This is an ideal way to use up ripe raspberries - either mush them up in a bowl, or (if you're being fancy) push them through a seive.
Then either, stir the puree into the yoghurt and top the grilled peaches with this (as I've done in the pictures). Or top the grilled peaches with plain yoghurt and drizzle with the raspberry puree

It's such a simple pudding, but grilling the peaches makes it slightly different as the peaches take on a fantastic caramelly flavour from the sugar and grill. This method of cooking them would also work on a barbeque if you're planning on one last hurrah with yours this weekend.