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. 

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.

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)

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.