Marmalade and Polenta cake

I think I've mentioned before that I don't like marmalade. I love making it, I find the process soothing and satisfying. But eating it. Not so much. However, just to be contrary, I like it in things. Last year I endeavoured to use it up in a Sticky Marmalade cake, gave a fair amount away as thank you presents, but was still left with several jars.

I deliberately haven't made anymore this year, but had a sad jar of the Spiced Seville languishing in the back of the fridge. I was trying to ignore it when I saw Turquoise Lemons' No Waste Food challenge. This month's theme was preseves. Perfect!

Paddington Polenta cake is a combination of an orange polenta cake recipe I had printed out at some point in the  distant past and the sticky marmalade cake above, and nearly used up all of that leftover marmalade. Not quite all, but there's always room for more cake.

Historically anything containing Marmalade in our house has been prefixed by Paddington for obvious reasons. I don't forsee that changing anytime soon

200g softened butter
250g caster sugar
2 satsumas, zested and juiced - and then hoik the middles out with a teaspoon
30ml olive oil
4 large eggs
100g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
100g polenta
100g marmalade

For the drizzle

3 Tbsps marmalade with water to loosen

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees
Grease and line a big tin, I used my Christmas cake tin which is about 24cm and deep.

Cream the butter and sugar together until really light and fluffy
Add the satsuma zest and olive oil and beat until well combined
Add the eggs one at a time (with a spoonful of flour each time if you don't want it to curdle)
Mix the flour and baking powder together and add to the mixture. Fold in
Continue to fold in, adding the polenta and the marmalade

Bake in the oven for 60 - 70 minutes. If it looks like it's browning too quickly pop some baking parchment/ tin foil over the top
Take it out the oven and let it cool in the tin until it's still warm, but cool enough to handle

Warm the extra marmalade and water through in a pan on the hob
Poke lots of holes about 3/4 of the way down the cake using a skewer
Pour the loosened marmalade over the cake slowly so that it sinks into the holes

Allow to cool and serve. Either as a pudding with ice cream or creme fraiche, or with a pot of Earl grey tea. The orange in the marmalade should complement the bergamot in the tea.

This is my entry to Turquoise Lemons' No waste food challenge - under the February theme of preserves

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.

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!

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.

Lady Marmalade

OK, I know that Moulin Rouge isn't a stage musical, but this is my blog and I'm allowed to bend the rules should I wish (or need to).

This regular blogging lark is beginning to get easier, although I should announce a likely hiatus after this weekend as I'm moving house. Yes dear reader(s) I have finally managed to sort myself out and find a flat of my own to live in. Hurrah. Boxes are being packed in Hertfordshire and Essex, and all my beloved cookery gubbins will be being returned from storage on Monday. I may weep I'm so happy. Small matters such as not actually having a bed as yet, and being terrified of how I actually work out what wardrobes I need so the boyfriend (patient beyond the call of duty) can build them and of course Ikea reducing me to a gibbering wreck are being ignored as we push on, hopeful of cupcakes, salads, Mabel bread, and Ingredient challenges. I reckon with a little bit of luck I'll be settled properly by Easter and should I manage to purloin the Hamyln cookery book of my Mother's will bake a Simnel cake in honour of the occaision.

So, marmalade. Indeed. Not something I've attempted before. Although I have done chutney, and a kind of redcurrant liqueur. Did I ever blog that? I must check. No preserves have been attempted until this weekend, owing to a great deal of fear. Fear of burning myself on the sugar, of getting it wrong and wasting all those ingredients, and of not knowing when it's done. Having had a go, I can safely say there were no burns (although I suspect the preserving pan and jam spoons - thank you Lakeland - helped), it didn't go wrong, and it was really easy to see when it was done. So, in my usual style I'm going to try and do this as an idiots guide to making marmalade, because that's what I needed and what Mark's mum was brilliant at. I always talk at work about making learning accessible, and sometimes when you're doing something new you need that same approach.

Seville Orange and Whiskey marmalade

2lb Seville oranges
4lb sugar
Quarter of a pint of whiskey
4 pints of water
3-4 lemons, juiced

Sterilised jam jars
Either lids or waxed discs and cellophane toppers
We used a proper preserving pan, and spoon and whilst I don't think these are necessary, I would certainly want a long handled wooden spoon and a very sturdy pan.
Muslin and string.
Sharp knife (I used a paring knife which was perfect for the job)

Now you may well be aware that the season for Seville Oranges is long gone. But as I had just managed to damage myself at the end of January, Mark's mum very kindly froze the oranges (whole) so that we could do this when I was better. She took them out of the freezer to defrost on Friday, and then we began the marmalade on Saturday morning.

First off wash your oranges. Fruit is routinely waxed for transport, storage and to preserve it and no one wants Seville Orange marmalade with whiskey and wax do they?

Now we cooked the oranges (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 you might need to top it up) We did this in a saucepan with a lid on.

Now, take your oranges off the heat, wash hands, don pinny (absolutely necessary) and off you go.
Take the oranges out of the pan, and pop them on a chopping board or similar. Quarter them so that they cool down. They are really really hot at this point. I have asbestos fingers and I squeaked a bit.

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. My chopping got finer as I went along.

You need to do this to all the oranges. Yes, all of them. Put the radio on, or if you're me, find http://broadwayworld.com/radio.cfm and sing away happily all the while annoying your boyfriend who just wants to watch the cricket.

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 we added the lemon juice, and (and I promise this is the only fiddly bit) put the pips in a muslin square which we tied up with string and then dangled in the cooking marmalade much like a bouquet garni.


Now, add the sugar - we just used granulated sugar, but you can buy jam sugar that has extra pectin added. However, talking to Mark's mum we agreed on this fundamental point. If you're making something like marmalade from scratch, it's probably because you love cooking and you're not one for unecessary chemicals in your food - so why use something that has those in?
 
Put an old saucer or little plate in the fridge now

Right, you 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, but it really doesn't need to go mental.

You continue to cook whilst it bubbles, stirring like a mad person (not beating) until it 'flakes' This took us about 15 minutes, but we're working with fruit here, it's going to be slightly different for everyone. Now not being experienced with preserves the best way I can describe this is - the jam has got darker, a lot darker - ours was probably closer to the colour of toffee than anything to do with oranges, and it leaves little flakes on the side of the pan and the back of the spoon. It's also like a loose cake batter in consistency when in the pan.

Once it's done this, take a teaspoonful or so and put it on your saucer that's been in the fridge. Oh yes, if you make this on the right hand burner of your hob then whenever you need to take it off just slide it over to the left. That way you don't need to lift it. You want after a minute or so, the top to wrinkle but the underneath to be jam like in consistency. Ours wasn't ready so we put it back on for another 5 minutes.

Leave your burner on, but with your pan off the heat add the whiskey, and put it straight back on the heat. I think my precise words at this point were "WOAH!" as it bubbled insanely like something out of a chemistry experiment. Give it a minute and then take it off the heat again.

You have made marmalade. Applause, tea, biscuits, all shall rain down on you. I demanded Mark come see, as did his Dad. Everyone was very impressed. It felt a bit like riding my bike without my stabilisers for the first time although that ended up with me crashed in the strawberry plants so maybe that's not the best analogy.

Jars, need to be sterilised whilst you're doing all of this. Having done this with Mark's mum, I can't imagine doing it by myself as this is one of those points where it felt like you needed an extra pair of hands. But, that's not going to stop me trying. Says she gamely. We washed them in hot soapy water, rinsed them and put them in the oven on low whilst we made the jam.

Put the now (really quite hot) jars on the side, pop a jam funnel in the top of one and fill it up. Fuller than you think. Almost to the first line of the thread for the lid. If that makes sense. Repeat until they're all done (mine made 7 jars of varying sizes)

Once this is all done you can pop your lids on. If you're using wax discs, these need to cover the top of the jam and be pressed down so they're resting completely on it. Then dampen your cellophane, turn it over and put that over the top of the jar with an elastic band to hold it - the water helps to stretch it out so as it dries it's taut.

Pretty jar toppers and labels now follow. Demand people admire and eat your marmalade. I did. Oh and before I forget, I had about a tablespoon that we couldn't fit in a jar, we just put this in a cup and used it over the next couple of days on toast. Yum.

I know this is a long method, and there's less rambling than usual. But I have to say I really enjoyed the whole process of making marmalade, and can imagine that on a cold wintery morning, it's a lovely snug way to stay toasty and be busy in the kitchen.

Huge thanks to Mark's mum for her never ending patience, apparently we're doing strawberry jam next. Watch this space (well wait for June time first as we're picking the strawberries too. Is it sad that I've never been to a PYO farm? Actually don't answer that).