Rhubarb and ginger chutney

Our rhubarb plants are huge this year - it's amazing. Took them a few years to get going but now they have settled in and I'm impressed with them! Enough to make chutney (although this was combined with some from our veg bag). I wanted something savoury and rhubarb-y. Perhaps I should try some kind of sweet pickle as well? Anyway, here is rhubarb chutney - from this recipe, which sounded like exactly what I wanted to try.

 2 lb / 907 g rhubarb, trimmed and cut into chunks

1 lb / 454 g onions, roughly chopped

4 oz / 113 g chopped dates (or raisins or sultanas)

2/5 pint / 227 ml white wine vinegar

2/5 pint / 227 ml water

1 lb / 454 g turbinado sugar

1 tbsp salt

1 tbsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp cayenne

1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and grated

Combine all ingredients in a big pan and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thick and jammy (wooden spoon should leave a trail). Put into sterile jars and store 6-8 weeks before using.

Onion marmalade

We had part of a bottle of red wine left after a visitor left (our last visitor from the UK before lockdown!). Clearly we weren’t going to drink it, we never do, but we also had quite a lot of onions so I decided it should become onion marmalade. I am pretty sure I have made this onion marmalade before, many moons ago. It’s easy and tasty, goes great with cheese, and keeps for a while in the fridge. I think this is the recipe I used before - and it was also the one I used this time.

2 kg red onions or regular onions 

4 garlic cloves 

140 g butter 

4 tbsp olive oil 

140 g golden caster sugar 

1 tbsp fresh thyme leaf 

pinch of chilli flakes (did not use) 

75 cl bottle red wine 

350 ml sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar 

200 ml port (used extra wine / wine vinegar instead)

Halve and thinly slice the onions, then thinly slice the garlic. Melt the butter with the oil in a large, heavy-based saucepan over a high heat. Tip in the onions and garlic and give them a good stir so they are glossed with butter. Sprinkle over the sugar, thyme leaves, chilli flakes if using and some salt and pepper. Give everything another really good stir and reduce the heat slightly. Cook uncovered for 40-50 min, stirring occasionally. The onions are ready when all their juices have evaporated, they’re really soft and sticky and smell of sugar caramelising. They should be so soft that they break when pressed against the side of the pan with a wooden spoon. Slow cooking is the secret of really soft and sticky onions, so don't rush this part. 

Pour in the wine, vinegar and port and simmer everything, still uncovered, over a high heat for 25-30 min, stirring every so often until the onions are a deep mahogany colour and the liquid has reduced by about two-thirds. It’s done when drawing a spoon across the bottom of the pan clears a path that fills rapidly with syrupy juice. Leave the onions to cool in the pan, then scoop into sterilised jars and seal. Can be eaten straight away, but keeps in the fridge for up to 3 months.

Apple Butter

From 'Home Preservation of Fruit and Vegetables' - another use of the windfall apple pile, another dairy-based misnomer. But it is nice. Spread on bread, it makes me think of hot cross buns.

2.75 kg (6 lb) apples
1.15 l (2 pints) water
1.15 l (2 pints) dry cider
sugar
5 ml (1 tsp) ground cloves
5 ml (1 tsp) ground cinnamon

Wash and core the apples, discarding any bad bits. Peel them incompletely - I decided it best to leave about 1/8 of the peel per apple. Simmer the fruit in the water and cider until pulpy. Liquidize to make smooth pulp. Measure 350 g (12 oz) sugar for each 450 g (1 lb) pulp.

Return the pulp to the clean pan and simmer until the excess water has evaporated and the pulp is thick. Add the sugar and spices and boil, stirring frequently, until all the excess liquid has evaporated. It should be creamy. Pour into hot jars, seal at once, and store in the fridge when cool.

Pickled apples

Curious about apple pickling, since I had a suitable large jar from S's lupins, and obviously lots of apples. I liked the sound of the spices in this recipe.

700 g apples (approx. 4 med-large apples)
500 ml white wine or cider vinegar
120 g caster sugar
1 tsp salt
10 cm Carolina allspice bark or cinnamon stick (used cinnamon
1 tsp fennel seeds
3 whole cloves
½ tsp Szechuan peppercorns or black peppercorns (used black pepper)
1 star anise
Few sprigs of lemon thyme (used dried bayleaves)

Dissolve the sugar and salt in the vinegar in a pan over a medium heat. Add the spices, simmer for 15 min, then turn off the heat. Core, peel and thinly slice two apples as the pickling liquid cools. Place the slices in a large lidded jar and just cover the apples with spicy vinegar. Repeat with the rest of the apples. Eat within 10 days or so, or longer if the apples retain a good texture.

Apple cheese

Our apple tree is sick and full of wood worm. But surprisingly productive nonetheless. So far we've only had windfalls, attacked by woodlice and fruitflies so they need processing asap, but edible nonetheless. The apples are russetty, quite sour, good cookers.

S suggested making something like membrillo with them. I consulted my IFR 'Home Preservation of Fruit and Vegetables' book and decided I was pretty sure that 'fruit cheese' is the British equivalent. They said you could make it with apples, but recommended spicing them. We decided against the spicing, but went for it anyway.

The recipe is simple, similar to the membrillo / quince cheese I made before.

apples
sugar

Peel and core the apples and cut into chunks. Put the chunks in a large saucepan, cover with water and boil until the apples are soft. Drain the apples and puree them. Weigh the puree. Add the same weight of sugar to the apple puree in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan. Simmer for 45-60 min, stirring regularly to prevent sticking, until it is good and thick.

Line a straight-sided baking tin or mould with lightly oiled baking paper. Pour the apple mixture into the mould and put in a warm oven (50C) for approx. 60 min to dry out. Remove from the oven and let cool - it will firm up a bit as it cools. When cool, you can lift it out of the tray and slice.

Excellent with cheese - especially brie or parmesan type cheeses.

Elderberry and apple chutney

This recipe is from a little book called 'Favourite Country Preserves' that Miriam gave me a few years ago, and I'd never actually made anything from until now, although I'd browsed it with curiosity several times - it is full of interesting things, lavender chutney is most intriguing, or parsley honey.

With both apples and elderberries dripping from our garden, I remembered about this recipe and decided to give it a go. It didn't go great - it takes a looong time to remove elderberries from their stalks, and it look an interminably long time for the chutney to thicken (perhaps because I doubled the recipe below?), and it caught and burnt a wee bit. And this was on a Monday night when I just wanted to go to sleep and the whole house stunk of vinegar - I'd not made chutney for a while and forgotten quite how bad the vinegariness can get. Oh well, I think it tastes OK - moment of truth in a month or so.

1 lb elderberries, washed and stalks removed
1 lb cooking apples
4 oz raisins
8 oz onions, finely chopped
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp mixed spice
pinch of pepper
1/2 pint malt vinegar (used apple cider vinegar)
12 oz soft brown sugar

 Peel, core and chop the apples and put in a large pan with the elderberries, raisins and onions. Stir in the salt, spices and pepper and a little of the vinegar. Cook very gently for one hour until the fruit is soft, stirring from time to time to prevent the mixture sticking and burning. Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar and the remaining vinegar. When the sugar has dissolved, return to the heat and bring to the boil. Boil steadily for about 30-40 min until thick and all the vinegar has absorbed. Spoon into warm, sterilized jars and seal immediately.

Drying and rehydrating maitake

I got my hands on some Maitake back in October, thanks to D. S was out of town at the time, so I wanted to save some for him. I decided the solution was to dry some in the dehydrator. It dried quite quickly - probably a couple of hours at ~130F. I then transferred it to a resealable plastic bag and kept it in the cupboard. Yesterday I was making pizza and fancied some mushroom on it, remembered the maitake and that we hadn't tried rehydrating any of it yet, so brought it out. I just put it in a small bowl, poured enough boiling water over it to cover generously, and after about 10 min it was rehydrated and honestly almost the same as before dehydrating. When it was tender, I drained the mushroom (saving the liquid to use as mushroom stock in future recipes), then it was ready for whatever. If using the dried maitake for something wet (stew, risotto, whatever), you wouldn't even need to do the rehydration step: just throw it straight in. I put it on my pizza along with walnuts, olives, broccoli, capers, rich tomato sauce (with secret ingredient pomegranate molasses), a couple of fresh tomatoes, and some blue cheese on S's bits - always a bit of a random fridge clear-out when we make pizza. The pizza was a great success (good crust, from this recipe) and so was the mushroom!

I had tried drying chanterelles and hedgehog mushrooms previously, which also worked well, but had then powdered them as I'd read that they do not rehydrate well, so I had not tried the rehydration step before.

For preservation of chicken of the woods (from the wonderful, huge haul of it I found with D+A in the woods, post-swim, after our day at Drumlin) I have frozen some in a resealable bag, yet to see how it comes out.

Apple and fresh cranberry chutney

I remembered fresh cranberries are in season, bought a bag, and commenced experiments. Raw they are very sharp - they need some kind of sweetness or dilution. I baked: cranberry and apple crumble, cranberry and pumpkin muffins. Wanted to go somewhere savoury with the rest of the bag. Considered some ideas from the Cranberry Slam at Egleston Farmers' Market. The most interesting was somewhat complicated, with several steps including fermentation. I decided to borrow some of the flavours but just make a chutney - that way my savoury cranberry stuff would keep for a while, into times when fresh cranberries are nowhere to be found. I based it on this recipe, tweaking the spices and flavour additions.

(made 2 small jars - sensible to scale up if you have a full bag of cranberries!)

450 g apples (~ 2 large ones), peeled and chopped into chunks
135 g onions (~2 small ones), peeled and chopped or sliced
1 small clove garlic, peeled and finely chopped
~2 cm piece root ginger, peeled and finely chopped
zest of 1 little orange
1/4 tsp caraway seed
1/4 tsp cumin seed
1/4 tsp coriander seed
1/4 tsp mustard seed
1/4 tsp chilli flakes
75 ml cider vinegar
150 g sugar
150 g fresh cranberries
 
 Put all ingredients except the cranberries in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer for ~50 min, until everything is reduced, thickened and broken down. Add the cranberries and cook for ~10 min more - try not to let them all burst. Spoon into sterilised jars, seal while hot and then let cool before labelling. Tastes best if allowed to mature for ~1 month before opening.


This looks very pretty and festive, with seeds, strands of orange zest and ruby cranberries pressed up against the glass. Haven't tasted the mature version yet but am hoping it is not too sweet.

Edit: well, it is a bit sweet (although very pink-red and pretty). The explosions of whole cranberries are really delicious, same with the spice seeds, but the background is mainly like applesauce and just a bit too sweet. Cooking apples instead of eating apples would probably be a good idea, if possible. But anyway, this did go very well with nut loaf for Christmas.

Sticky crabapple jelly

These were very tiny, somewhat unusual crabapples (I'm pretty sure they were crabapples) that I collected with M from outside BU.

1 large yoghurt pot full of tiny red crabapples, washed and stalks removed
water
sugar (175g)

Wash the crabapples, put in a pan and cover with water. Simmer for ~30 min, until they are softened and collapsing. Put into a jelly bag, string up and let drip into a clean pan overnight. If you want it to be clear you should not squeeze the bag. When ready, measure the juice (I had 250ml) and add seven parts sugar for ten parts juice (ie approx 175 ml or 175g). Bring to the boil and simmer until setting point is reached, then transfer to sterilised jar(s) and allow to cool before labelling.


I wasn't paying enough attention and accidentally went beyond setting point, tried to rescue it by adding boiling water, think it is OK but very dark in colour and rather sticky! Better not to work with such small quantities really I guess. The stuff has a very sharp, interesting sweet-sourness to it.

Edit: M stopped by with more apples yesterday and we opened the jar to try it. He was loving it and I have to agree it's quite good. Reminiscent of pomegranate molasses, he said, I think it's true.

Roasted apple and fennel seed chutney

I keep thinking this year's harvest is over - I thought the quinces would be the last thing for sure. But then something else crops up. This time it's apples - a LUrC tree five minutes from my house! How could I resist? I spent a fun few hours with M on a busy street corner - our strategy was for one person to try and knock apples out of the tree with a pole while the other (usually M - he is good at catching, I am decidedly not) tried to catch them, all the while trying to avoid hitting people, bashing parked cars, or sending apples to become untimely apple-roadkill-sauce under passing wheels. We grabbed a surprising amount before I had to leave and it was getting dark; at which point M was still up the tree in gathering gloom, unable to resist reaching for the final few.

The other reason I was happy about that harvest was that I'd joined a skillshare group wherein some people wanted me to show them how to make jam. It was starting to seem like it wasn't going to happen, but this last-of-the-season bonus made it possible. So, on Sunday, three ladies came over and I took them through my jam making process using this recipe.

I wasn't really meaning to make any more preserves. But then started constructing an apple and fennel seed chutney in my mind. And, while thinking of it, came across this recipe, which featured an interesting new chutney-making technique (roasting in the oven rather than simmering on the hob - also here), and sounded exactly like what I wanted (and completely delicious).

(made 4 small jars)

90g dried sour cherries, soaked overnight in apple juice (used white grape juice, soaked ~3 hours)
1 kg Cox's apples, peeled, cored and roughly chopped (used Packard's Corner apples)
2 fennel bulbs, finely sliced across (a mandoline is very good for this) (used green tomatoes instead)
1 red onion, cut in half and sliced lengthways, from the root end to the top (used white onion as had no red)
100g fresh ginger, finely grated
1 red chilli, finely sliced into rings (used dried)
2 tsp fennel seeds (used 2 1/2 tsp)
2 tsp coriander seeds
3 star anise (used 2 1/2 tsp anise seeds instead as liked the taste more than star anise in this context)
250 g demerara sugar
400 ml cider vinegar

Put everything in a roasting dish, cover with foil and place in an oven preheated to 160C/320F. Cook for an hour and a half, stirring once or twice, then remove the foil and continue to cook for about an hour, until thick and browned and a good chutney consistency (cook for longer if necessary). Remove from the oven and spoon into sterilised jars while still hot. Seal immediately.


The roasting worked well although not sure if it is any different or better than doing it on the hob, and does make sterilising the jars a bit more faffy since the oven is occupied. It's a delicious chutney. The ginger is pretty strong, the fennel / anise is present, but the sour cherries are perhaps a little lost. Will taste again when it is mature - for now I am definitely happy with it. Would probably be even better with fennel - just used green toms as that's what I had, but they don't really add anything to the taste.

Membrillo

After I made quinces in syrup a few weeks ago I had membrillo on my mind - was curious to see how it worked, but with only a couple of quinces that day it didn't seem like the best idea. Then, what luck - M and L furnished me with masses of beautiful, locally harvested quince! L and I made pickled quinces, quinces in syrup and a huge, beautiful, bendy brick of fragrant, pinkish-amber jelly-paste... membrillo!

We referred to this recipe (on the same site as the quinces in syrup one), but the basic recipe seems to be the same everywhere, and pretty straightforward (although somewhat time consuming).

quinces - any quantity, at least 6 to make it worth it though I'd say; we ended up with 4 lb 7 oz after prepping and initial boiling / draining
sugar - same weight as the boiled+drained quinces
lemon juice - I added the juice of one lemon to the 4 lb 7 oz of quince

Peel and core the quinces, cut out any bad bits and chop the good stuff into chunks. Put in a big pan, cover with water and boil for about 30 min, until the quinces are very soft. Drain away all the excess water, then weigh the quinces (at this point we had 4 lb 7 oz).

Use a wand blender to liquidise the quince pieces - try and make it as smooth as you can.

Put the pan back on the heat, add the sugar (same weight as the boiled+drained quinces) and lemon juice, bring to the boil and simmer until is has become a pinkish-amber colour and thickened.

Heat the oven to a low temperature - ~120F / 50C. Line a roasting tin or other rectangular, oven-proof, high-sided container with baking paper, lightly greasing the inside of the paper so the quince paste won't stick. Transfer the reduced quince paste to the greased, lined tin and put in the oven for ~60 min to dry out.

Remove from the oven and let cool. It will firm up as it cools, and then you should be able to lift it out of the tin by grabbing the paper at the edges, and it should come easily away from the paper and have a jellyish, sliceable consistency.

Green tomato, pepper and chilli jam

I took in all the green tomatoes from my roof after seeing a forecast of -1C for Friday. I had quite a lot - they had come back in September but not many of that second round had ripened much. I also had a lot of green peppers (from D) and some green chillies, so I decided to make another version of this, but with everything green - also reminiscent of this, but somehow more savoury due to the garlic, ginger, chillies, peppers.

(makes ~5 smallish jars)

800 g green tomatoes
18 green peppers
18 green chillies
12 garlic cloves
two thumb sized ginger chunks
1.4 kg sugar
400ml cider vinegar

Finely chop the green tomatoes, peppers, chillies (wearing lab gloves), garlic and ginger.

Put sugar and vinegar in a pan and stir til sugar dissolved. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer til reduced  / thick and sticky (~60 min). When reduced, cook on high until setting point is reached. Let cool for 10 min before putting into sterile jars.


This tastes great - similar to sweet chilli sauce. And is resoundingly, pleasingly, emerald. It's a soft set, but I think that's OK. Perhaps some lemon juice would help with the set?

In a wonderful postscript, S took some of this for his friend / colleague W, who is a legend and who had been chatting with S about taking in his green tomatoes while I was taking in mine - it seemed a nice thought and it's fun to share successful preserve experiments. I thought nothing more of it, but a couple of days later W gave S a wee jar of liquid gold from his Brookline bees - so excited and thankful! It's gorgeous honey - very pale and delicate - quite different from A's JP honey despite both coming from city bees - perhaps the time of year, perhaps the flowers in the different hoods? I love them just the same.

Piccalilli

I saw cauliflowers coming into season, and for some reason thought of piccalilli. I'm not even sure if I like piccalilli! But I was thinking about making some more savoury preserves for Winter - I have a lot of jam, and the aubergine chutney I made a few weeks ago reminded me how good savoury preserves can be (and how much faster I tend to eat them). And in my head piccalilli has to involve cauliflower and be really yellow and crunchy... and that's about all I knew (aside from a sketch in the James Herriot country vet books I loved as a kid where he had to eat piccalilli to be polite to a farmer's wife although he loathed it... anyway, I digress).

The version in my preserving book looked OK, but this Jamie Oliver version really grabbed my attention - the ingredient list sounded intriguing and delicious - mango, broccoli and apple as well as the cauliflower. So I followed it (more or less) - gave me the chance to preserve some Somerville-harvested apples I had hanging around the kitchen as well as broccoli, chillies and carrots from the CSA and green tomatoes and green beans from my roof garden. Surprisingly, mango is something I often have in store, owing to my frozen mango habit.

(made 3 large jars and 2 medium ones)

½ large cauliflower, cut into small florets
1 head broccoli, cut into small florets
2 bulbs fennel, cut into small chunks (subbed ~4 medium carrots, peeled and cut into small (~1cm dice), and some chopped green tomato)
4 red chillies, seeds still in, finely sliced (subbed dried)
2 green chillies, seeds still in, finely sliced
200 g fine green beans, chopped into short lengths (used roof beans - Kentucky Wonder and French Filet of varying ages - for these plus runners)
150 g runner beans, cut into short lengths (see above)
300 g shallots, cut into eighths (subbed 1 large and 2 small white onions for this and the red onion)
1 red onion, roughly chopped (see above)
2 handfuls fine sea salt
2 tbsp mustard oil (subbed canola oil)
2 heaped tbsp mustard seeds (used 1 tbsp yellow mustard seed and 1 tbsp brown mustard seed)
2 tbsp ground cumin
1 tsp fennel seed, ground (I added this to make up for the absence of fennel)
2 tbsp turmeric
1 nutmeg, grated
2 tbsp English mustard powder (subbed ground yellow mustard seeds)
4 tbsp flour
500 ml white wine vinegar (subbed cider vinegar)
100 ml water
2 apples, grated
2 mangoes, peeled, stoned and roughly chopped (used equivalent quantity chopped frozen mango)
6 tbsp sugar
3 cloves garlic, crushed (/finely chopped)
2 tbsp dried oregano
4 bay leaves

Put all the vegetables in a bowl, add the salt and enough water to cover. Leave in a cool place for about 1 hour. Meanwhile, prep the remaining ingredients and start cooking them.

Heat a saucepan big enough to hold all the vegetables. Add the mustard oil to the pan, then fry the mustard seeds, cumin, turmeric and nutmeg for a moment. Lower the heat, add the mustard powder, flour and a splash of vinegar. Stir well to make a thick paste. Gradually add the remaining vinegar and the water, stirring all the time to make a smooth paste. Add the apples, mangoes, sugar, garlic, oregano and bay leaves. Cook for 2-3 minutes.

Drain the salted vegetables and add them to the pan, stirring well to coat with the spicy paste. Cook for 10-15 minutes until the vegetables have just softened and started to release some juice. Spoon into sterilised jars and close the lids tightly. Give it at least a month to mature in a cool dark cupboard before eating.


Ha, I took a photo because having that hour of soaking veg in brine meant I was probably the most organised I've ever been before I started cooking...  I haven't tried the piccalilli yet (got to wait a month!) but it looks suitably, violently yellow - I especially enjoy how yellow the cauliflower becomes...

Brinjal chutney

At the end of my day at Drumlin, I became custodian of a large quantity of aubergines otherwise destined for the compost heap. I had no particular plan for them at first. A suggested preserving them in oil; I'd also seen them pickled in vinegar; but I wasn't really fancying either of those options. But then I started daydreaming about aubergine preserving, and what developed in my mind was more of a chutney: deep and dark and richly spiced. I used the spice combination from my favourite aubergine curry, and I based the chutney method on this recipe.

(made ~3 small-medium jars)

1 kg / 2 lb 4oz aubergines, chopped into ~1 in cubes
~2 tbsp salt
~4 tbsp veg oil
1 large onion, peeled and finely diced
4 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
~2 medium chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
50 g / 2 oz ginger, peeled and finely chopped
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp coriander seeds
2 tsp nigella seeds
2 tsp fennel seeds
2 tsp brown mustard seeds
1 tsp ground turmeric
2 tbsp tamarind paste mixed with 3 tbsp hot water
150g / 6 oz light brown sugar
300 ml / 1/2 pint cider vinegar

Layer chopped aubergines with salt in a colander, put a weight on top and leave to drain for approx 2 hours or overnight. Rinse and pat dry.

Heat oven to 400F. Toss the aubergine pieces with approx 2 tbsp oil and spread out on baking trays. Bake for ~30 min, until tender. Meanwhile, dry fry the whole spices. When fragrant, let cool a little and then transfer half of the mixture to a spice grinder and grind lightly - leave the rest as whole seeds.

Heat 1-2 tbsp of oil in preserving pan and add onion, garlic, chilli and ginger. Cover and cook until softened (~10 min). Add the ground spices (including turmeric), whole spices, tamarind, sugar, vinegar and aubergines. Bring to a simmer, stirring until the sugar has dissolved, then cook for about 40 min, until thick and the aubergines are tender.

Spoon into sterilised jars and seal. Let mature for at least a month before opening.


Oh wow, this is delicious. Exactly what I wanted. The few tbsp I couldn't fit in my three jars and became a test part-jar are already in my belly with no days' maturing time and the chutney is already delicious.

Cocoa plum jam

This is a variation on my basic plum jam - I couldn't get the idea of including cocoa out of my head. While I do love plain plum jam I still have some in my storecupboard so it seemed OK to make a variation this time. I got the plums from L, who harvested them with LUrC (along with peaches, pears and crabapples - her kitchen was overflowing with fruit when I went over to help prep it).

(makes ~5 small-medium jars)

3 lb plums, halved and stones removed
1 tbsp lemon juice (optional)
150-400 ml water
3 lb sugar
5 tbsp Dutch process cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/4 tsp almond essence*

Prepare the plums (I had just over 3 lb, unprepared weight; I prepared them and froze them for a couple of weeks until I had time to jam them - this works well for high-pectin fruit like plums). Put the plums in a large pan along with 150 ml water and lemon juice (I added the lemon juice because I wasn't sure if freezing might have affected the pectin in the plums. Turned out the set was just fine and I don't think I would have needed it). Bring to the boil and simmer, uncovered, until the fruit is tender and much reduced.

Mix the cocoa with the sugar. Add to the hot fruit, along with the vanilla and almond essences. Bring to a hard boil and boil until setting point is reached. Let cool for 10-15 min, then carefully transfer to sterilised jars and put lids on immediately. Wash and label the jars once they are completely cool and sealed.

*this is as a substitute for the flavour imparted by plum kernels


The jam set perfectly (fairly firm). I think it has a good balance of plum and cocoa flavours, but I need to try more later to be sure.

Edit: it's good, I like it a lot. I ate some last night with a pot of coconut yoghurt I'd been hoarding. I miss yoghurt sometimes. A says it reminds him of Asian hawthorn candy. Only negative is that the cocoa powder makes for a matt texture and you lose the jewel-like quality that jam normally has, but that is entirely aesthetic.

Fridge pickled cucumbers (faux-Grillo's Hot)

S is a big fan of our #1 local pickle-purveyor - Grillo's. He even has the t-shirt. I have been hatching a plan to try and recreate them for him. I picked some vine leaves from the garden I help at (which has a beautiful crop of grapes developing over the entrance archway). Beyond that, I knew I'd need cucumbers, dill, jalapeno and/or habanero chillis, garlic, vinegar and salt. We hung out in our friend D's yard last night, sitting around a fire and talking about skunks and mushrooms. He works at a farm nearby, so at this time of year he always has masses of veg going spare at his place. We left with cucumbers (about 5 little ones) and jalapenos. We already had some lovely-looking garlic left from double-CSA week, and I picked up some dill at the Russian store at the end of our road this afternoon. Now all I need is Grillo's top-secret recipe... This is my best guess.

2 fresh vine leaves, washed (or a couple of pinches of tea leaves)
5 small cucumbers, washed, top-and-tailed and cut lengthwise into spears
3 medium-small jalapenos, deseeded and cut in half lengthwise
2 huge cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced chunkily lengthwise
handful of picked dill fronds, washed
1 1/2 cups distilled white vinegar (or cider vinegar)*
2 1/2 cups water*
2 tbsp fine sea (or desert, or pickling) salt
mustard seed (optional)

Put the vine leaves in the bottoms of two large, clean jars. Pack the cucumbers in on top, then add in the dill, garlic and jalapenos, distributing them evenly between the two jars. I decided to try adding mustard seed to one jar (deviating from the recipe I'm trying to recreate, but potentially good). Put the vinegar, water and salt in a pan and heat until just boiling. Pour over the cucumbers, filling right up to the top. Put the lids on and let cool to room temperature before storing in the fridge. Try and wait at least 48 hours before eating.

*A second round, tweaked proportions - changed to the above from 2 cups of vinegar and 2 cups of water.

Edit: We managed to wait almost 48 hours! I made them on Sunday afternoon and we tested the first jar on Tuesday lunchtime. They look and taste like the real deal. S says they are a little more vinegary than Grillo's, which may be just because they could do with pickling for longer (will hang onto the second jar til the end of the week at least), or if that doesn't work I might try using a lower proportion of vinegar in the brine if we come by more cukes. Not bad for a first effort though!

Edit II: After a week the first batch still tasted a little vinegary to S, so I tweaked the proportions of vinegar as above (and ended up subbing some cider vinegar). I gave away several jars from this second batch, and they seem to be universally loved. High praise from D, who not only grew the cukes but is also a bit of a pickle expert. Plus, S reckons he cannot tell the difference between these and Grillo's. Think I've cracked it.

Variations:
Tea leaves instead of vine leaves - it's the tannins that keep things crisp; tea works well and adds an interesting flavour (that can be tweaked eg by using Earl Grey)
Chilli flakes instead of fresh chilli.
Adding fresh nasturtium seeds or dried mustard seeds to the mix.

Lemon, lime and elderflower marmalade

I cannot bring myself to throw away the fruit and flowers left after making elderflower cordial, so I save them to make marmalade. This time I stored them in the freezer for a week or two, as it was super hot when I made the cordial and not good conditions for preserve making. I defrosted yesterday and made this marmalade. It is an adaptation of my usual marmalade recipe.

1 lb mixed elderflowers, sliced lemons and limes left from making cordial
900 ml water*
100 ml elderflower cordial* 
2 lb sugar

Cut around the edges of the lemon and lime slices to remove the peel and turn it into strips. Put the peel pieces in a pan and put the rest of the fruit and flowers in a muslin bag before adding to the pan as well. Add the water and bring to the boil. Simmer for ~2 hours, until the peel is soft (add the cordial about halfway through if using). Then remove the bag and squeeze it into the pan. Add the sugar and bring to a rollicking boil until setting point is reached. Turn off the heat and let sit for 10-20 min before putting in sterilised jars and sealing.

*I had some cordial in the fridge that needed using up, so I used it. If you don't have cordial that needs using up, just use 1 litre of water instead of 900ml water and 100ml cordial.


Perfectly good marmalade. Mostly tastes like lemon. There's subtle floweriness if you search for it, but subtle is the word.

Sweet, salty pickled cucumber slices

We had sooo many cucumbers: some still from last week's CSA, some from this week's, and even more because we picked up another CSA for a friend who is out of town. In total about 12 medium-large cucumbers. So many! I decided to pickle some of them. I have promised S I will try and make Grillo's-style picked cucumbers, but we had no grape leaves or dill, so that is sidelined. I wasn't feeling very creative, and liked the use of celery seed in this recipe (and had all the ingredients), so I just followed it.

(Made one large and one medium jar)

2 lb cucumbers, sliced 1/4-inch thick (use smaller ones if you have them)
2 sweet onions, thinly sliced
1/2 cup large-crystal sea salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup distilled white vinegar
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
2 tbsp mustard seed (used 1 tbsp brown mustard seed and 1 tbsp yellow)
2 tbsp coriander seed
1/2 tsp celery seed

Put the cucumber, onion and salt in a large bowl and mix. Cover with ice* and let stand at room temperature for two hours, mixing at least once along the way. Put sugar, vinegar and seeds in a large pan and bring to the boil. Rinse the cucumbers and onions and drain well. Add the cucumber mixture to the vinegar mixture and bring almost back to a boil. Remove from heat, let cool a little, then transfer to clean jars with non-metallic lids. Store in the fridge for up to a month: they will be ready to eat after ~24 hours.

*I didn't really have any ice (just 3 cubes), and I wasn't quite sure what it was for anyway, so I just set this up without ice (well, with 3 cubes), and made sure to rinse the veg well when their salting time was up. The pickle did come out quite salty - wonder if this was why?


I wasn't sure about these at first - thought they were a bit too salty, and that perhaps there was a few too many seeds. But despite these considerations, S has been enjoying them from the start, and I think they have matured a little after several days. Still, the next batch will contain less / different seeds and I will wash out the salt even more thoroughly (and/or use less) - think my next batch will contain turmeric, garlic, mustard seed, celery seed, chilli flakes, perhaps anise or fennel seed, or peppercorns...

2 lb cucumbers, sliced 1/4-inch thick (use smaller ones if you have them)
2 sweet onions, thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic, sliced lengthwise
1/4 cup large-crystal sea salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup distilled white vinegar
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
2 tbsp mustard seed
1 tsp celery seed
1/2 tsp chilli flakes

Mulberry harvest: mulberry and orange jam

I kind of thought I had taken more berries: was thinking of trying dehydrating too. After looking at so many all day my sense of scale was completely screwed. Anyway, I ended up with about 3 lb that needed using quickly - I strapped them to the back of my bike and they dripped a trail of black juice that looked like engine oil through three plastic bags and a (broken) plastic tub. Mulberries seem to be low pectin, so I decided to include orange in the hope of improving the set (and because I thought it might taste interesting). I was a little nervous about getting good results as I knew I needed to return some jam to LUrC.

(makes ~ 3 medium jars)

3 lb mulberries
1 orange
2.6 lb sugar

Wash mulberries (don't bother removing the little stems) and put them in a large pan. Try and include some of the somewhat underripe ones (red / white / greenish) as these will help with set (mulberries are low in pectin). Add the juice and grated zest of the orange. Bring to the boil and simmer for 30-60 min, until the berries are quite well broken down and the volume is reduced. Add the sugar and boil fast until setting point is reached (30-60 min). Let cool for ~10 min, then transfer to sterilised jars and leave to cool.


Hmm, I slightly overboiled it because of my nerves and it ended up crystallising slightly. Bums. This has only happened to me once before. I am embarrassed.

Mulberry harvest: pickled mulberries

Second experiment with my mulberry bounty was pickled mulberries: I fancied making something savoury, this idea came into my head, and I liked it. I used this recipe.

Pickled Mulberries
(quantities below would make 3 smallish jars (the official canning style of jars) - I did only one cup of mulberries' worth though)

2 cups mulberries
3/8 cup white vinegar
3/8 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cardamom
1/8 tsp ground allspice
1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 small bay leaf

Put the berries in dumpy, sterilised jars. Put the remaining ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Pour over the berries, so that the vinegar reaches to 1/8 in below the top. Put the lids on and screw on (but not too tight). Bring a large pan of water with a rack in it to the boil. Put the jars in, bring back to the boil and keep at a simmer for 10 min. Remove the jars carefully and allow to cool.


Mulberry Salad Dressing

1 tbsp pickled mulberries - make sure to include some berries and some vinegar
1 tbsp azuki bean miso
1/2 tbsp tahini
1 tsp honey
1/2 tbsp mirin

Mix all the ingredients together in the bottom of a salad bowl to make the dressing. Add washed lettuce leaves, chopped tomatoes and a sprinkling of sesame seeds, toss and eat.


These are interesting. I opened one jar immediately out of curiosity, and they are bright pink and lovely. Quite vinegary (perhaps they will mellow over time?) and a little sweet, and unavoidably reminiscent of pickled beetroot. Thought they worked really well in the salad dressing: the azuki bean miso is also pinkish (-red-brown), so the dressing comes out really pink as well as really tasty.