Islay finds, makes and bakes...

Ginger biscuits for someone you like

 One of my Twitter friends asked for this recipe a few days ago and since she's always so nice to me it seemed a shame not to post it (and make a batch of biscuits for myself, naturally). Why not make a batch for someone you like? 

The recipe was pinched from one that my mother pinched from a friend, so I have no idea where it originally came from, and I've made one or two changes along the way as well, mainly to make them just a shade less sweet and ultra gingery. This recipe makes quite a lot - about two dozen biscuits, as I always mean to make the remainder into cheesecake or something once they're stale, but we've never yet had any left long enough to go stale...

Perfect ginger biscuits:

7oz unsalted butter
1lb self raising flour
5oz caster sugar
3 rounded tbsp ground ginger (yes, tablespoons. This is a seriously gingery recipe)
1 1/2 tbsp bicarbonate of soda
8oz golden syrup
2oz black treacle

1. Heat the oven to 160 degrees centigrade, and cover a baking tray in parchment paper (or use a non-stick tray if you have one lying around)
2. Mix all the dry ingredients and stir in the butter until combined - my misture usually looks a bit breadcrumby at this point
3. Warm the treacle and golden syrup in the microwave or on the hob until runny (but not boiling, or you'll really hurt yourself if you spill it!)
4. Mix treacle and syrup in with the butter/dry ingredients and stir until well mixed
5. Break of lumps and form 1 1/2" balls and place well apart (at least 3" I reckon) on baking tray. I usually have to cook my biscuits in several batches as I can only fit 6 on my tiny little baking tray
6. Bake for 10 minutes. the biscuits should rise, then fall a little, and be a light golden brown colour. If they turn a darker toffee colour then they've gone a bit over, but they're still pretty good dipped in tea!
7. Leave to rest for a few minutes on baking tray before moving to a wire rack to cool fully - they first come out of the oven they're really soft, so will break up if you try to move them.

Easy peasy beany squeezy

One of our favourite meals is Boston baked beans. Served with fresh baked bread (seriously, I couldn't feel any more domestic when this meal is served) and whatever greens are lying around, it really is the perfect homemade-home meal. It has the added benefit of being insanely cheap - there's about £6 (a little under $9) worth of pork in there, about £2.50 (under $3) of other ingredients (mainly beans, to be honest) and it does about eight or nine adult servings and six kids servings (Teddy eats a lot for his age, but remember his age is only 20 months, so that's not a ton more, perhaps two or three adult servings). The recipe below is for half this quantity, as the amount I usually make requires something like a maslin (preserving) pan or a catering sized saucepan to fit it all in.

Boston Baked Beans

1lb dried haricot beans
1lb pork belly
1oz sugar
1tbsp black treacle
2tsp salt
1/4tsp black pepper
1 1/2 pts boiling water
3 large onions
2tsp cumin powder/ground cumin seeds
1 tin tomatoes (approx 1/2lb)

1. Soak dried beans overnight in cold water
2. Drain beans and boil in plenty of fresh water until beginning to soften. This can take anything from 30 minutes to 2 hours depending on how old and dry they are
3. Roughly chop onions and fry in a little oil on a low heat in a big pan
4. Meanwhile, chop the pork into bitesize chunks, toss into the pan after a few minutes
5. Mix sugar, treacle, salt, pepper and cumin with boiling water and pour on top, toss in the tomatoes here too (you can omit the tomatoes, according to my mother, but I think they're a nice addition).
6. Cook for 3-5 hours on a low heat. I stir it when I happen to walk past, but really it can pretty much be left to its own devices. it forms a bit of a skin, but this stirs in and dissolves very easily. You want it to be thick and stew-like, rather than soup-like. Add more water if it seems to be getting scarily thick and the spoon won't move.
7. Serve with just about anything - fresh bread and greens always makes for a nice farmhouse meal.

I normally make double this simply because the man at the farmer's market cuts his pork belly into roughly 2lb pieces. I also sometimes add a few more beans to bulk it out even more and make it even more of a cheapskate dinner if we're feeling a bit poor.

Emergency bread

I meant to post this on Saturday, but got distracted by something more interesting, so here it is...

  I forgot to put any bread on to rise on Friday, and since I'd already done one trip to the supermarket, I definitely wasn't going back just for bread, so I bashed out some soda bread in 30 minutes flat while Teddy grabbed a post-toddler-group nap.

Most recipes call for buttermilk, but I didn't have any (does anyone actually keep buttermilk in their fridge as a staple?), so I just used normal milk, and the end result was delicious. Probably a shade denser than a buttermilk one would be (I'm guessing this on the basis that buttermilk pancakes are lighter than normal ones), but excellent and, crucially, quick!

Emergency bread:

400g plain white flour
1 tsp caster sugar
 1/2 tsp salt
 275ml milk (or buttermilk, if you're the kind of domestic goddess that has buttermilk kicking around your fridge)

1. Heat the oven to 230 degrees Centigrade. Weight out the dry ingredients, make a well in the centre, pour in the milk
2. Using your hand like a claw (or a fork or something, if you're clean and tidy by nature and don't like doughy hands), combine the ingredients until you have something resembling bread dough. I think you're meant to not over-knead it, so I stopped mixing/kneading/clawing  pretty much as soon as everything was combined. If your dough is very dry, feel free to toss in a bit more milk - most recipes seem to call for more than the amount I used, but i found that it was plenty.
3. Flour a 7" cake tin, or other cooking receptacle (a cake tin was what I had on hand, and I figured it would stop the bread spreading in case it was soggy). Dollop your dough into the tin and cut a cross in the centre using a sharp knife (this is meant to keep evil spirits out or somesuch)
4. Cook for 15 minutes, then turn the heat down to 200 and cook for a further 20-30 mins. The bread is cooked when it sounds hollow if you tap it on the base.
5. Slice, load with butter, and scoff with the super speedy jerusalem artichoke soup that you knocked up while waiting for the bread to cook (the recipe for which can be found in the fantabulous Tender, by Nigel Slater). 
6. Feel slightly smug.
7. Wish you had a nicer apron to feel all domestic-goddessy in.

Edited to add: I have no idea why the bread is such a freaky colour in this picture. it was definitely yellow tinged, but not quite so fluorescent! I really want a new camera.

24 hour marmalade

I'm so sorry, I completely forgot that I promised you a marmalade recipe! I am totally blaming it on getting ill, despite the fact I've been recovered for almost a week now. The 24 hour marmalade turned out to be lovely. I don't mess with a classic, but I like the fact that it's just a fraction less bitter and a fraction softer (as in, the peel bits are softer) than normal marmalade.

Making marmalade takes me ages - every time I am surprised by how much longer it takes than jam. The fruit takes about an hour to prepare and it has to cook for much longer than soft fruits before hitting setting point.

24 hour marmalade

NB: I make big batches when I preserve, as I only do it when the fruit is in season. You may want to reduce the quantities.

• 12 seville oranges
• 2 normal oranges (I didn't have any normal oranges when I made the second batch and it doesn't make a world of difference)
• 4 lemons
• 12 pints water
• 8lb sugar (I don't like my preserves too sweet. You may want to add a bit more sugar)

1. Pare off the rind from all the fruit, taking as little white pith as possible, then chop into lengths, as fine or coarse as you please. I use a peeler for this, then chop the lengths of peel into little strips. Pop the strips into your preserving pan.
2. If your fruit is quite tender and doesn't have too much pith or seeds, you can cut off the excess pith (don't throw it away!) and just cut the flesh of the fruit into small chunks. If, like me, you usually find that the oranges you buy are a bit aged and stringy, just juice them, saving the pith and seeds. Add the juice or flesh to the preserving pan and cover with eight pints of the water.
3. Put the pith and seeds into a separate bowl and cover with the remaining four pints of water.
4. Leave both bowls to soak at least overnight, preferably for 24 hours
5. Strain the water from the pith bowl into the preserving pan and tie the pith and pips into a piece of muslin. Theoretically you're meant to tie the muslin 'bag' onto the handle of the preserving pan, but I usually just drop it in and fish it out later.
6. Pop a small plate into the freezer (to test the setting point. There are other methods of testing it, but I find the cold plate works perfectly well for me). Wash your jars and sterilise them. I do this by popping them into the oven at about 120C for at least 10 minutes, then turning the oven off and leaving the jars in there till I'm ready to bottle up. If I'm feeling really clever I also sterilise either a jam funnel, jug or ladle, but quite often I forget and find myself boiling one up hastily when the time comes to decant.
7. Bring the contents of the pan to the boil and keep at a rolling boil for at least an hour. The liquid needs to have reduced by about half and the strips of fruit skin should be nice and soft. Stir regularly while boiling.
8. If there is much scum on the surface of the pan, skim it off, then add the sugar and simmer for 20-30 minutes, stirring regularly.
9. Remove the pip and pith bag. Cookery books always tell you to squeeze it out, but I've never figured out how to do that without inflicting severe burns, so I tend to just let it drip over the pan for a minute or so.
10. Bring the marmalade back to a vigorous boil. Quantity will reduce by about half again before setting point is reached, but I tend to test regularly from a couple of minutes after the marmalade comes to the boil, as I don't like my preserves to be too hard set.
11. To test whether the marmalade is ready, drop a teaspoonful onto your cold plate and pop back into the freezer for a minute or two. When you push the cold marmalade with your finger, there should be a visible skin forming on the top. If not, boil for a couple of minutes more and try again, ad infinitum. Sometimes I never seem to hit a 'true' setting point with marmalde, but I tend to get bored after a while, bottle it up anyway, and it always seems to set after a fashion.
12. Take the marmalade off the heat, skim off any scum (save it and eat it when it's cold, it's delicious!). If you want to make sure that the peel is evenly distributed through the marmalade, leave it in the pan until it has started to skin over, then decant into jars, leaving until completely cool before sealing securely (jars should only be sealed when the produce is near boiling or completely cold, to prevent locking in nasty bacteria at perfect growing temperature, I was always told).
13. Enjoy!

Snapshots of a Sunday morning

 

 

  

 

 
  

Just an ordinary morning. I love it when a really ordinary day ends up as a series of lovely things - enjoying the sunshine, a peacefully sleeping boy, drop scones (are they an exclusively British thing? I have no idea. They're basically thinnish pancakes) with syrup, the beginnings of a new quilt.

By the way, that's Adam trying to look thin.

Drop scones:

• 8oz self raising flour
• 1oz caster sugar
• Pinch salt
• 1 medium egg
• 1/2 pt milk

Weigh the dry ingredients out into a bowl, making a well in the centre. Add the wet ingredients to the well and whisk to combine, until you have a smooth batter. Heat a little oil or butter in a frying pan (or a cast iron griddle if you're really lucky. I aspire to own one) and dollop in three (or more, depending on the size of your pan) blobs of batter, a little over a tablespoon each. Cook for around 60 seconds, until the scones can be easily flipped, then cook for 30 seconds or so on the other side. Serve with butter, jam and/or syrup, as you please.

Got a pound or two of elderberries clogging up your freezer? No? Just me then...

But if you happen to have gone elderberrying (why yes, that is a word, thank you) and now have a tupperware filled with little black gems taking up valuable space in your teeny weeny freezer (remember, you turned the big freezer off ages ago), I can recommend making some elderberry rob.

Remember a couple of weeks ago I posted about going to the Weald and Downland autumn fair and admiring the medicinal stuff from the garden? Well I've been meaning to make elderberry rob since then, so yesterday I searched a few recipes, and then ignored them all and made it up as I went along formed a careful amalgamation of all the information I found. By the way, elderberry rob is basically a spiced elderberry syrup that can be taken to prevent/help cure colds, coughs and other minor ailments.

Incidentally, elderberries are bloody good for you. According the various sites I found, they:
1. Have immune boosting properties
2. Are antioxidants
3. Improve heart health
4. Lower cholestoral
5. Improve vision
6. Have lots of vitamin C in
7. Contain potassium (I think this is a good thing, although I seem to recall a potassium experiment at school that resulted in scary flames...)

So, it's basically marvellous. Here's my recipe:

Elderberry rob with a ginger kick
Ingredients:
Elderberries
Granulated sugar (or whatever sugar is kicking around)
Ground ginger (you could probably use whole ginger and whole cinnamon)
Ground cinnamon
Cloves

Method:
1. Put your elderberries in a big pan, just cover with water, put the lid on (saves energy!) and simmer for 30 mins, stirring occasionally.
2. Strain the liquid through a muslin. I expect that if you were very committed you could strain it overnight through a jelly seive, but I was too impatient
3. Bin the berries, measure the remaining liquid and pour it into a clean pan. Give the jug a quick wash and sterilise it (or a funnel) and some bottles. See here for more information on sterilising.
4. To every pint of liquid add 8oz of sugar, 2 tsp of ground ginger, 1tsp of ground cinnamon and about 20 cloves.
5. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 20 mins or so, until the mixture has thickened into a syrup.
6. Fish out the cloves (or strain it, if you're feeling clever) and pour into bottles, using the sterilised jug/funnel.

Ta da!

To drink, either have a tablespoonful straight from the bottle or dilute in a little warm water and sip. It's nice and gingery! I don't think this would keep for aaaages - probably a month. On my internet trawls I read various things about using alcohol as a preservative to make it last longer, but to be honest if you have a sensible sized freezer you could make up a batch every now and again.

 

And the preserving still isn't over...

I just made this:

 

Crap photo, but pretty, no? It's pears and orange slices in orange liqueur. I would give you the recipe, but it's straight from a recipe book, and I think that's against the rules. It's this book.
I actually can't recommend it highly enough - lots of basic and actually useful preserves, including information on drying and preserving fruit in plain old heavy syrup. I've adapted a lot of my basic chutneys and jams from the quantities that Gladys recommends. I'm a bit of a fan of Gladys.

Sloe gin yumminess

Now, there are many methods for making sloe gin - do you prick with a fork, freeze, or wait until after the first frost and hope that they haven't all gone? The Cottage Smallholder (interesting blog with lots of recipes from people who clearly have more of an idea what they're talking about than me) carried out an experiment to see which method worked the best. Her results are here.

I had to take sloes when I could get them last weekend (none round here really), so it was the second best method for us - freezing for a few days. And here's what I did:

Sloe gin
Ingredients:
75cl gin (I bought a couple of litres of Sainsbury's standard gin. I hear varying reports on whether the quality of the gin makes a difference, so I've gone one step up from the Basics range, but not all the way to Gordon's)
1lb sloes
6oz granulated sugar

Method:
1) Don't panic too much about the quantities. But put about a pound of sloes into sterile bottles (wide necked enough to fit sloes into, around a litre in size), add about 6oz of sugar, and top up with around 75cl of gin.
2) Shake the bottle (seal it first!) every day for a week or two, then store in a cool dark place for at least a couple of months. Ideally you leave it for around six months, strain and rebottle, but I expect we'll give in and have some at Christmas.

Good cheapy recipe

I can highly recommend a recipe I just made up/adapted.

Lentil soup
Ingredients:
500g carrots
125-150g red lentils
1tsp whole cumin
Pinch dried chilli flakes/finely chopped fresh chilli
Oil of some description (I used olive)
1l vegetable stock (I used stock made from my amazing stock recipewhich I use a lot)
125ml milk/smaller dollop of cream

Method
1) Grate/finely chop the carrots
2) Dry fry the spices in a big pan (you could probably add some other spices if you had the least idea what you were doing. I don't) for a minute or so, until they begin to smell nice and spicey and toasted. If you smell burning, remove from the heat!
3) Add the olive oil, carrots, lentils, stock and milk and simmer for 15-20 mins until everything is soft and yummy. Add more water if things are getting a bit thick and gloopy
4) Whizz up with a stick blender if you want to - we did, I think it improved it.
4) Serve with a dollop of yoghurt and a drizzle of olive oil if you want to be snazzy. We had ours with freshly made bread too. Mmmmm super cheap and yummy.

Ooh, I just remembered that I promised you a sloe gin recipe! Be right back.

Tuesday the second: On plums

I finally potted some plum chutney that's been sat in the fridge for three days - I had to rush out, so it got a bit abandoned, but doesn't seem any the worse for it. Here's the recipe:

Plum chutney, no frills
You could add raisins or chopped prunes to this, or almost anything you wanted, but I was just on a use-up-the-plums mission, so I didn't. I still have half a freezer full of the things though, so might make some fancier stuff soon. I also reckon that the spices mix is pretty adaptable - just use whatever you fancy.

Ingredients:
3lb plums
1lb apples (I had half as much again, and chucked it in. Seemed fine)
1lb onions, roughly chopped
1/2lb brown sugar (I added a bit extra due to extra apples)
3 cloves garlic
2tsp cinnamon
2tsp ginger
1/2 small chilli, crushed
1 1/2 pints white vinegar
10 juniper berries
20 peppercorns

Method:
1. Sterilise jars and a jug
2. Pop the juniper berries and peppercorns in a muslin bag, or be prepared to pick them out afterwards (very fiddly. Not a time saving measure), stone the plums if you want (I usually count the number of plums in, then count the stones out afterwards. Again, not very time saving, but I hate stoning with a passion)
3. Stick all the ingredients in a pan and simmer gently for around three hours, stirring occasionally (more often as time passes, to prevent burning), until everything is mushy and lovely
4. Pick out any stones/berries/muslin bags/drowning bugs and pot in sterile jars. Leave for at least a month before eating.

Tuesday the first: On quinces

I have three quinces:

 My mother bought me one (she knows how to treat me), and then promptly found a quince tree, so picked a couple more. There are two things that should be done with quinces; quince jelly, or quine jelly as it is known in our family after a mislabelling incident on my part once upon a time; and membrillo, or quince cheese (a much denser jelly thing).

Now, some people will tell you that you can make membrillo and quine jelly from the same quince, by extracting the juice in the same way as for apple jelly (cook till soft with some water, strain overnight to extract juice) and then seiving and cooking down the mush that's left. I happen to think that doing this means a much less tasty membrillo, as so much of the flavour gets sent off into the juice/jelly. So, here's my own franken-recipe, made up from bits and bobs of other recipes:

Membrillo

Ingredients:
Quinces
Granulated sugar (approximately 200g per quince, less if they are small)

NB: If you pot the membrillo in ramekins, as I did, you'll need some waxed discs (like theseones).

Method:
1. Roughly chop the quinces into fairly small pieces - about 1cm cubed max is ideal (I did mine bigger, they had to cook for longer. Not very eco), pop into preserving pan or an ordinary saucepan (see here for my preserving essentials list) and simmer for absolutely ages until soft - this can take anything from 45 mins, if you're sensible and chop small, to 3 hours if you're stupid like me.

 2. Push the quinces through a nylon seive, using a spoon - you can be quite obsessive about this and end up with a tiny bit of almost dry pulp and some seeds, just carry on until your arm is tired!

 3. Measure the volume of juice/pulp and return it to the pan, adding 200g of sugar for every 500ml of liquid (you may need to increase or decrease this depending on the sweetness of your pulp - mine may have been ridiculously sweet quinces, as most recipes call for around 450g of sugar per 600ml). Sterilise some small ramekins and a jug.

4. Cook on a very gentle simmer until the mixture is very very thick. A spoon dragged through the mixture should leave a clear valley behind it that doesn't fill up immediately. 
5. Pot the membrillo into the ramekins and cover with waxed discs. If you're feeling particularly artistic you can cover the ramekins with a bit of fabric or coloured paper held on with a ribbon, or you can just cover them with cling film.

Please note: Be patient, the sieved pulp will need aaaaaages to cook down. If you are impatient, you will quite quickly produce half a dozen little ramekins of lovely, perfumed membillo, like this:

 and then you will need to return the whole lot to the pan and reboil it until it is even thicker. Grrrrr.

I'm so sorry, I'm going to inflict more preserving on you

I'm back at my mother's, and this time it's the pears that are under attack. This was the scene at 7am:

 (I should add - these are only the windfalls, there's a whole tree full of the buggers).

By 10am they had magically transformed into two jars of spiced pears and three jars of pear and apricot jam:

 
 The spiced pears are lovely (recipe to follow), but I'm not entirely convinced about the jam. I think it will be really nice on ice cream or stirred into yoghurt, but I'm not sure I'd want to spread it on my breakfast toast - it's quite rich, and would perhaps have been improved by the addition of a bit more lemon and some spice or other. I might play around with the recipe before I post it. But here's the pear one:

Spiced pears

Ingredients
1/2pt white vinegar
1 big stick cinnamon
12 cloves
2tsp whole allspice
1lb sugar
2lb pears

Method
- Sterilise the jars and a jug
- Bring all the ingredients except the pears to a gentle boil, stirring until the sugar has dissolved
- Peel the pears. If you're really clever you can do this by dunking them in boiling water and slipping the skins off. Since over here in South Wales we don't grow namby pamby pears that shed their skins at the drop of a hat, I had to use a peeler. Chop them in half and remove the cores
- Drop each pear half into the vinegar as soon as it is peeled and cored (pears go brown very quickly in air)
- Simmer for 5 mins or so until the pears are soft, then scoop out the pears with a slotted spoon and pack into sterilised jars
- Turn up the heat on the vinegar and boil it hard until it has reduced to a more syrupy consistency (about 5 minutes I think, maybe a bit longer depending on how impressive your hob it), then pour over the pears.
- Seal the jars and store for at least a month before eating.

That's all for now!

You mean there's more you can do with plums and apples?

How alarming. Despite a week long preserving session, in which I have tried almost every method known to mankind, I am still not keeping up with the fruit trees. Incidentally, if the apple and plum recipes here and here weren't enough for you, don't worry. I've got more... Ten minutes work yesterday morning yielded this:

 
 Oh, and another five minutes in the afternoon produced this:

 On a brighter note, that is pretty much all that the tree has too offer now. The rest have gone mouldy (in the case of the plums), or to the wasps. Just so you don't think we're dealing with some ancient, well established orchard, there's a picture of the apple tree here if you scroll down.

you'll notice that the trunk is no more than about four inches in diameter. This is not a big tree, and neither is the plum. Next year there might be even more fruit...

I was a little distressed by this, as I'd already preserved this much over the past few days:

 It might not look that impressive but trust me, a lot of jam hours (and fruit!) have gone into that. Jam weary, I headed back into the fray, and altered/invented a few more recipes.

Apple chutney
I should mention, the quantities for this are quite large, as I wanted a good amount of chutney. We eat a lot of it over the year, in sandwiches, with any meal that needs a little something, by itself from the jar if it's tasty enough. Feel free to scale down if you're not quite up to our consumption levels.

Ingredients (spiced vinegar):
2oz peppercorns
1/2oz ground nutmeg
1/2oz cloves
10 bay leaves
1oz root ginger
3tsp mustard seeds
1/2oz whole allspice
3 cinnamon sticks
2 chillis
2tbsp salt
2pt malt vinegar

Ingredients (chutney):
5lb apples
1lb onions
1lb brown sugar
12oz sultanas/raisins
1tbsp salt
2tsp dry mustard powder (e.g. colmans)
4 chunks of root ginger (about 1/2 inch long each)
2tsp coriander seeds, crushed
1 1/2pt spiced vinegar

Method:
1) Lightly bash all of the vinegar ingredients, and put into a pan, Adding a little of the vinegar and bringing to the boil
2) Boil for a minute or two, then add the rest of the vinegar and boil for 3-4 minutes. Much longer and you start to lose most of the vinegar. If you have time, leave the spices in the vinegar while it cools to allow it to infuse a bit more. If you're making more than one batch, save the spices for a second boiling and just add a quarter of the quantities again. Strain vinegar.
3) Wash and sterilise jars and a jug, putting them into an oven at 125 degrees C for at least 15 minutes. Leave them in the oven while you make the chutney.
4) Finely chop or mince all the ingredients, depending on how smooth you like your chutney. I tend to roughly chop the apples and onions and leave the sultanas whole, for a chunky chutney.
5) Simmer the apples and onions with half the vinegar until tender (I sometimes fry the onions first, but it really doesn't make much difference), then add the rest of the ingredients and simmer until thick (anywhere from 15-45 minutes).
6) Remove ginger chunks, pour into sterilised bottles and seal.

I'm trying to remember whether I've made anything that I haven't yet posted the recipe for, but I've got one last day of preserving ahead of me, so I'll let you know if I come across anything.

Still got a glut? Head this way!

Too many plums and apples? Yesterday's recipes for plum and apple jam and spiced whole plums not enough for you? Then read on, my fried. Here's another batch of plum/apple/freezer leftover recipes. There's not a lot other than recipes, I promise that when I'm less bake-weary I'll add photos and some of my usual wit, charm and drama. Ahem.

Spiced apple butter

Ingredients:
4lb plums
1 1/4pt water
1 1/4pt medium cider (you could probably replace this for water without an enormous difference to the taste)
1tsp ground allspice
1 1/2tsp ground cloves
3tsp ground cinnamon (all the spice quantities are quite generous, I like spices. Feel free to reduce slightly)

Method:
1) Wash jars and a jug and pop into the oven at 125 degrees C for 15 mins or so. Turn the oven off and leave in there for now.
2) Chop the apples, cores and peel included, discarding stems and any badly bruised bits
3) Place into a pan with the cider and water and bring to the boil, then simmer gently, stirring frequently, for about 30 minutes or until the apples are very soft and pulpy
4) Rub the pulp through a nylon sieve (a metal sieve might taint the colour and taste of the butter) and discard the leftover pulp. Weigh it before returning it to the pan.
5) Add 10-12oz of sugar for every 1lb of apple pulp (more if you've used cookers, less for eaters), as well as the spices, to the pan.
6) Bring to the boil and stir until the sugar is dissolved.
7) Continue boiling, stirring occasionally. I didn't quite know how long to boil it for, as it didn't seem to want to set quite like normal jam, so I boiled it at a rolling boil (bubbles remain even when you're stirring) for about 10 minutes, then potted it. I'll let you know at a later date whether that was a success.

Herby apple jelly

There are a number of different options for this, but they all start by making apple juice. if you have a good juicer (i.e. one that makes clear, not cloudy or thick), use that. If not, a jelly bag is far cheaper to buy, so use the method below.

Ingredients:
3lb apples
2pt water
Granulated sugar
Herbs of your choice (see below for more details)

Method:
1) Chop fruit, including peel and cores. Put in a large pan and cover with water (add more if it looks remotely dry - you want there to be plenty of water to get the maximum juice, but not so much that you end up with flavourless liquid when you strain).
2) Put fruit in a pan and simmer very gently for at least 30-45 minutes, probably more like an hour, stirring occasionally, until the fruit has completely disintegrated.
3) Strain through a jelly bag overnight (suspend jelly bag over a bowl, but hanging it from a hook or the legs of a tall stool, and fill with apple pulp), then measure the volume of juice. If the apple pulp is still strong tasting, you could boil it again with more sugar and repeat, storing the first lot of juice in the fridge.
4) Sterilise jars and jug as above and pop a small plate in the freezer.
5) Pour juice into the pan (you may want to divvy it up if you've got a lot of juice and want to make a few different types of jelly), adding 12oz-1lb of sugar for every pint of juice (less if you've used eating apples, more for cookers, unless you want a fairly tart jam).
6) Bring to the boil stirring until sugar is dissolved.
7) Boil vigorously until setting point is reached (a spoonful on the cold plate, when left for a few minutes to cool, forms a skin if you nudge it with a finger), stirring frequently.
8) Skim (I often don't bother skimming with jam, but I think it's quite useful here, as the jelly can be cloudy otherwise), pour into sterilised jars and seal.

Herbs:
All quantities assume you're using at least a pint of juice, add more if more juice, less if less. Not complicated. Blanch all leaves in boiling water for a few seconds then rinse in cold tap water before using, to get rid of any nasties.

1) Mint - add a good handful of mint leaves as soon as the sugar is dissolved, reserving another handful and chopping them finely. Before potting the jelly remove the leaves and stir in the finely chopped ones.
2) Rosemary - Add a small handful of small sprigs once the sugar is dissolved. Remove before potting, and wedge a large sprig in each jar. The sprig needs to be quite well wedged in place so it doesn't float to the top and either go off or make your jelly look like there's a many legged creature hanging from the inside of the lid.
3) Tarragon - as for rosemary
4) Cinnamon - add a couple of cinnamon sticks once the sugar has dissolved. Assuming they don't lose their shape, you could use these in the jar too, as they'll still look nice and have plenty of flavour left to infuse into the jelly.

You can actually add pretty much any herb, spice or flavouring to go with any meal - basil, cloves, ginger, thyme and marjoram would probably all be nice if you were eating something that they might go with. You could try making a jar of each and see which is successful. This is very much a trial year for me too - I've made jellies and jams before, but not on this scale!

Dried apples

Ingredients:
Apples
Salt
Water

Method:
1) Peel and core apples (if you have a corer). If no corer presents itself (does anyone actually have one of these?), do what I did and quarter them, remove cores and slice into thin wedges, about 2-3mm max at the fattest point
2) As you slice, put the apples into a bowl of weak brine (about 1 tsp of salt to a generous pint of water). This stops them going brown.
3) Once all the apples are sliced, rinse under a cold tap, drain and arrange on a wire oven shelf.
4) Turn the oven on to its lowest temperature (ours is 50 degrees C), put the shelves back in the oven, and almost close the door, wedging it a little bit open to allow moisture to escape.
5) The apples will take anything from 2-8 hours to dry.

I don't know whether these will last as long as shop bought dried apples. I'm planning on putting them in sterile airtight jars and seeing how long they last - we have enough of a glut to try things like this, and we'll know what we can and can't do next year. I'm also trying plums, but six hours in they aren't yet dry, and I'm not sure how much longer I'm prepared to give them.

More tomorrow!

August preserve-fest!

My goodness, but I've been a busy little domestic goddess the past couple of days. Apologies for the lack of posting.

Whenever I read books on self sufficiency they always describe August as being the busiest month, harvesting and preserving non-stop to keep perishable goods for winter. We are, as you've possibly noticed, in no way self sufficient yet, but keeping on top of the fruit my mother grows and the blackberries in the hedges is exhausting enough!

It's been good doing this at my mother's, because as well as the fruit trees she has a lot of cooking equipment that I don't have (a jam sieve, big mixing bowls, lots of pans, etc), a more efficient oven, a functioning herb garden (mine aren't really big enough to steal large quantities from yet, while hers are in danger of murdering the vegetables and taking over the world) and lots of spices, although I've had to buy even more! I went and bought about £20 worth of sugar and vinegar to make everything, but I'll do a bit more of a precise run down when I've finished the bake-fest. Suffice to say, I can now state with certainty that doing it yourself is a lot cheaper than buying, even if you have to spend a bit of money on pans and things rather than pinching from a willing/unwilling parent.

Over the past couple of days I've made: 
1) Plum and apple jam
2) Spiced apple chutney
3) Spiced preserved whole plums
4) Apple butter
5) Blackcurrant jam
6) Apple and rosemary jelly
7) Apple and mint jelly

I'm too bake-weary to post all the recipes today, but I'll make a start. Apologies for all the imperial measurements, for some reason I automatically operate and note quantities down in imperial when I'm cooking.

Plum and apple jam

Ingredients:
3lb apples, peeled and chopped (place cores in a muslin bag, keep the peel if you want to make apple butter later)
3lb plums, washed
1pt water
4lb 8oz sugar (you could up this to more like 6lb if you use cooking apples. I used eaters so they were quite sweet)
Juice of two lemons
1 tsp cinnamon

Method:
1) Wash jars and a jug and place in an oven at 125 degrees C for 10-15 mins. Turn oven off and leave everything in there for now. Put a small plate in the freezer to chill.
2) Place apples and plums into preserving pan. You can either leave the plums whole, counting them in and counting the stones out (which is what I do), or you can halve and de-stone them before putting them into the pan. Add half the water and simmer gently until everything is cooked and squidgy.
3) Add sugar, lemon juice and cinnamon, and the rest of the water if it's looking a bit drier than you think is healthy (I just add it regardless) and turn the heat up to a rolling boil (i.e. it boils even when it's being stirred)
4) After a few minutes of rolling boil, drop a little bit onto the side plate and pop it in the fridge for a few minutes. If the jam forms a skin (it wrinkles when you push it with a finger), the jam is ready. If not, boil for another few minutes and try again. For some reason, I noticed with this jam that it went from not set to quite a solid set very suddenly, so keep testing regularly!
5) Turn off the heat, ladle jam into jug and pour into jars (or ladle straight into jars if you have one that isn't the size of a whole soup bowl, like mine). Seal and label.

Spiced whole plums:
I have to say, I was a bit dubious about this recipe, as the idea of mixing sugar and vinegar freaked me out a bit, and I don't really like pickled things so generally was unconvinced by the presence of vinegar. But my mother assured me it's delicious, and having tried the spices vinegar syrup I can well believe it. I don't know whether these will be more of a cold meat accompaniment or something to eat with ice cream, but I've only done four jars so it's a bit of a test run for me. The recipe is adapted from a very ancient recipe book which is mostly held together with sellotape.

Ingredients:
1lb 8oz plums
3/4pt white vinegar (I used that clear malt stuff, no idea if that's what you're meant to use
1lb 8oz granulated sugar
1 1/2oz stick of cinnamon (I made this about 3 sticks)
1/2oz whole allspice
1/2oz cloves (I just chucked in a heaped tablespoon of all the spices that called for half an ounce, I couldn't get my scales to register such a tiny amount accurately)
1/2oz coriander seeds
1/2oz grated nutmeg (it's cheaper to buy whole and grate your own)
A few slices fresh ginger

Method:
1) Sterilise jars and jug as above and leave to cool in oven.
2) Boil vinegar, sugar and spices together for about five minutes until syrupy (drop it on a plate, when it cools a bit it should have the consistency of a light syrup).
3) Wipe plums with a cloth wrung out in hot water and arrange upright in jars. Discard any bruised/damaged ones.
4) When the syrup has cooled enough to put a finger in it comfortably, pour it over the plums, filling the jar brim full. The plums may float up a bit, but don't worry too much. Ideally you'll have a bit of syrup leftover, stick it in the fridge for now.
5) Leave for 12-24 hours, the strain off syrup, reboil it (adding the extra from the fridge), cool and pour over plums and seal jars.
6) Store in a cool, dark place for at least three months before using - at Christmas!

Right, I'm off to make another batch of jelly and take photos of my wares so far to add to this post (check back in a couple of hours, they'll be here). It's perfect stay-in-and-bake weather, so I'll probably get more done today:

 Any more ideas for using up half a tree's worth of eating apples gratefully received!

A little blackberry cordial interlude

To break up the boring budgeting posts, I thought I'd post this incredibly simple blackberry syrup recipe. I am constantly on the hunt for something new to do with blackberries at the moment, as it seems such a shame not to pick them every time I go out for a walk!

The syrup makes a nice cordial, and I'm also thinking of using it to flavour ice cream (with some frozen blackberries chucked in), and it would probably add a nice summery flavour to some kind of punch.

Ingredients:
Equal weights blackberries and sugar (I had about 2lb of both)

Method
1) Preheat over to 125 degrees C, pop clean bottles and a jug into the oven to sterilise. After 15 mins or so, turn the oven off, leaving everything where it is to cool down while you make the syrup.
2) Weigh out blackberries into a saucepan, weigh out sugar on top
3) Place pan over a low heat and ignore for a few minutes
4) I think you're not meant to stir it at all, for the clearest, purest cordial, but I can't work out how to make the last bit of sugar dissolve without stirring, so stir gently after most of the sugar has dissolved
5) Once all the sugar is dissolved, simmer very gently for a couple of minutes
6) Strain the syrup through a muslin (invest in a butter muslin, it will get lots of use, or fold a clean baby muslin in half and strain through two layers) into a sterilised jug. You can skip this step if you have (a) a steady hand and (b) a pan with a decent spout
7) Pour into sterile bottles, seal. Label when cool.

 (For the record, I think that's a 750ml bottle, so 2lb of blackberries makes about 500ml of syrup). No idea how long this will last, but I would think with all that sugar, and in a sterile sealed bottle, it must be good for a couple of months. I'll put a bottle away for a couple of months and examine it for mould...

In other news, I have decided carrots are not worth growing. I bought Parmex carrot seeds, which are bred to be good container producers, and this is the best specimen so far:

 

Fab idea for apple leftovers

I only posted about five minutes ago, but I came across a fabulous tip here, on the Simple Green Frugal Co-op blog (a great blog co-authored by lots of eco/frugal/self sufficient types) and had to share.

Basically, save cores and peels from all your apples (you could use my vegetable stock tip, and keep a tupperware in the freezer and pop in the cores/peel as you get them - I've heard that freezing denatures pectin, but it hasn't affected any of my jam so far). When you've got a sensible amount, add spices (if wanted) and sugar, and cook over a very low heat for aaaaaaages. There are more detailed instructions on this site.

Efficient sufficient, or what? I'm going to my mother's this week, and she has a couple of trees weighed down with ripe apples at the moment, so I'm on the hunt for apple recipes. If anyone's got any more, feel free to chuck them this way!

I promise to leave you alone until morning now. 

Jam, with a kick

I bought a load of rhubarb (2lb, to be precise) cheaply from the farmers' market last week, with no real idea what I might do with it. Since I haven't yet come up with anything more inventive, I decided to make jam.

All the recipes I found called for fresh ginger along with crystallised, but since all I had was the end of a bag of crystallised jam and some ground ginger, I improvised. Here's my recipe:

2lb rhubarb, chopped into approx 1 inch chunks
1lb 12oz sugar (I don't like my jam too sweet, most recipes call for equal quantities fruit and sugar)
125g crystallised ginger, chopped into smaller chunks (usually in the dried fruit/baking section of the supermarket, and in health food shops)
1tbsp ground ginger (I guess about 25g fresh, grated or chopped and in a muslin bag, would have the same effect)
500ml of water
Juice of 2 lemons

1) Stick a plate in the freezer, sterilise jars (wash, pop into over at 125 celsius for 10 mins, then turn off oven and leave there until you need them)
2) Bring rhubarb, lemons, ginger and water to the boil, simmer for 10-15 mins till rhubarb is tender
3) Add sugar, turn up heat to max
4) Boil as vigorously as you can for 10-15 mins
5) Test jam on cold plate (put a teaspoonful on plate, put in fridge for a few minutes, if jam wrinkles when pushed with a finger, it's ready. If not, boil for 5 more mins and try again)
6) Ladle into jars, seal, label when cool

Job done. I can't verify for how well it will set (I got bored of boiling it after 20 minutes, and it was beginning to get a bit of a skin at that stage), but it tastes absolutely gorgeous. I'd add more photos, but to be honest all there is to see is a line of three jars...

I've had a bit of a bake-fest today. As well as the jam, I made:
1) 1 loaf white bread
2) 6 barleycorn rolls (Doves Organic flour, has flaxseed and barley and things in. V good)
3) 18 spiced biscuits (Rachel Allen's Bake, fabulous book, can't recommend it enough, use it for everything)
4) 1 loaf gluten free bread for Adam's colleague, who apparently was impressed enough with the last one I made (I have no idea why, it looked supremely unappetising to me) to want more
4) Shortbread oatmeal vanilla biscuits (also Rachel's)

The Jam

Having mentally resolved my sugar dilemma, I made jam. It's really simple recipe, adaptable for pretty much any fruit you might want to make jam from:

1lb fruit
1lb sugar (use less for sweeter fruit)
1/4 pt water
Pectin (optional)

Multiply the above figures up or down according to fruit quantity. If you have a low pectin fruit, like strawberries, you need to add pectin in the form of liquid pectin or lemon juice and pith (I'll find some instructions at some point and add a link here). Googling can usually yield quantities of pectin required for any given fruit.

Before you begin, pop a side plate into the freezer (or fridge if the freezer isn't convenient), wash up your jars (we keep all our jars from mayonnaise, chutney, anything we buy really, and still sometimes have to buy extra), and pop the oven on to about 125 degrees. Put the jars and lids into the oven for a good 10-15 minutes (this can be while you're making the jam, they don't need to cool down before you fill them or anything). Once they're done, turn the oven off and leave them in there for now. It helps to put them all on a baking tray - it makes getting them out when they're roasting hot a lot easier!

I had 3lb 8oz of blackberries and 8oz of apples, which I figured I may as well chuck in:

 
 I think you need to do this before adding the sugar to release the pectin or something. Not entirely sure, but too scared to attempt to alter things! You'll notice I use a jam thermometer, but it's not really necessary, just a nice little indulgence of mine since I plan on making a lot more things like this.

Then added the sugar:

 (Incidentally, that jar cost me all of £1 from a charity shop. I'm rather pleased with it). I only added 3lb sugar to 4lb of fruit, as I prefer my jam a bit tart and the blackberries were quite sweet. It still ended up coming out plenty sweet enough, so I might put in even less next time.

Anyway, the sugar and fruit bubbles away - you need a rolling boil, i.e. still bubbling while you stir. It's usually the maximum heat your hob will manage, but a bit less if you have an uber-hob - for about 10 minutes. Then test a teaspoonful on the side plate - drop it onto the plate, leave it to cool for a few minutes. If the jam makes a skin and begins to set (if you nudge it with your finger the skin should wrinkle), the jam is ready. if not, give it another five minutes and try again.

Once you've got wrinkly jam, bring the jars out of the oven, ladle in the jam, and screw on the lids (keep your hands protected - even the lids are hot!)

Et voila!

 And minimal washing up:

I reckon I put about £2.25 worth of sugar in the whole lot, the blackberries and apples were foraged, and I guess I might have spent 75p on energy (I really have no idea, to be honest). So six jars of beautiful, junk free jam, for under £3. Not bad for 45 minutes work really, is it? 

Does popping my own corn make me self sufficient? And other random Sunday things

I am sitting here in front of a very silly film (American Dreamz, since you ask), eating popcorn, drinking fizzy beverage of dubious corporate provenance and pondering:

1. Does it count as being in the spirit of efficient sufficient if I pop my own corn? I did, by the way
2. Is this more than offset by drinking said fizzy beverage?
3. Is the environmental benefit of growing my own salad completely ruined by the fact that I bought a (beautiful) salad spinner today? It is completely beautiful, by the way.
4. Is spending a ridiculous amount of money on a salad spinner justified, given that I have been looking for the perfect salad spinner for about 18 months?
5. Shouldn't I be able to get to at least five thoughts of varying degrees of meaningfulness before running out of things to say?

Incidentally, popcorn:
Dried corn, a handful
A splash of sunflower oil
A big pan
Butter
Sugar

1. Put oil in pan, heat pan to pretty hot, put corn in
2. Put lid on (this part is crucial), and jiggle pan every now and again
3. When corn starts popping, jiggle it more often. When popping slows to about 2 seconds between pops, remove from heat, keeping lid on and jiggling lots to prevent it burning
4. After a few minutes, remove lid, and either sprinkle over sugar and butter mixture (less butter, more sugar for easy sprinkling), or melt butter and sugar together (more butter, less sugar for minimal burning risk and easy pouring) and drizzle over.
5. Eat, with or without attendant fizzy beverage

How not to be efficient, sufficient, frugal or even remotely healthy

I started out with a kilo or so of potatoes dug from a friend's garden (I should add, the friend dug them, not me), which is all lovely and frugal, in the spirit of self sufficiency, and so on.

I then went to Waitrose and spend £18.57 on:
1) Half a round of Reblochon (gooey smelly cheese)
2) 1 big old tub of creme fraiche
3) 2 packs of pancetta
4) 1 bottle of white wine
5) 3 sprigs of rosemary (my rosemary bush is still only three sprigs big, so wouldn't take the abuse)
6) A pack of tomatoes
7) 2 onions

And I created:

 Yummy, gloopy, calorific and expensive tartiflette. But it tastes soooooo gooooooood.

Hey, you can't be perfect all the time.

How not to be efficient, sufficient, frugal or even remotely healthy

I started out with a kilo or so of potatoes dug from a friend's garden (I should add, the friend dug them, not me), which is all lovely and frugal, in the spirit of self sufficiency, and so on.

I then went to Waitrose and spend £18.57 on:
1) Half a round of Reblochon (gooey smelly cheese)
2) 1 big old tub of creme fraiche
3) 2 packs of pancetta
4) 1 bottle of white wine
5) 3 sprigs of rosemary (my rosemary bush is still only three sprigs big, so wouldn't take the abuse)
6) A pack of tomatoes
7) 2 onions

And I created:

 Yummy, gloopy, calorific and expensive tartiflette. But it tastes soooooo gooooooood.

Hey, you can't be perfect all the time.

Free stuff makes good stuff

I have just made another batch of vegetable stock. This one is lacking the lentils and the crucial half a lemon so might be a bit less interesting, but will doubtless be useful for something.

I have also made foraged crumble! Well, almost foraged. Free, anyway. My lovely friend brought this for me when she came over for dinner the other night:

 You see, it pays to let everyone know you're a cheapskate.

I was, at the time, trying to think what to do with the windfall cooking apples I snaffled while walking through the park the other day:

 So I cooked the apples up with some sugar, the handful of blackberries I picked the other day while out for a walk (always take a tupperware when you go walking - you never know what you'll find) and about three tablespoons of already cooked rhubarb I found while emptying out the freezer. Et voila

 Pink vomit! But it's tasty, I promise. Three minutes work with the topping, filling and a load of glass ramekins saved from the numerous times we've splashed out on yummy Gu puddings from Waitrose, and I had eight portions of crumble, just like that:

 It took me perhaps 15 minutes, and cost the price of two tablespoons of sugar and a bit of ground ginger chucked into the crumble topping.

I'm going to pick up more cookers next time I'm out walking and see what else I can do with them. I fancy trying some kind of apple syrup/cordial, but have no idea where to start. Google, here I come.

No compost heap? No problem!

I hate the fact that we don't have a compost heap/bokashi bin/wormery (no un-paved/gravelled outside space for compost, and don't fancy the thought of moving a wormery or bokashi bin if we move next year), and always feel ridiculously guilty for the peelings and veg scraps that go in the bin and out with our normal household rubbish. Seems such a shame to throw something that could be useful away.

So I was inordinately pleased with myself for finding a way to at least use the veg scraps before they go in the bin. I saved these in a tupperware box in the freezer over the course of the week:
- A couple of dozen broad bean pods
- Several onion skins
- A few garlic skins
- Potato peelings from a couple of meals worth of potatoes
- Some carrot peelings
- The sad and wilting ends of a lettuce, two carrots and a couple of the new potatoes from the garden, all good for nothing but the bin in normal circumstances.

At the end of the week, I bunged them in the pot with half a lemon (if you google, apparently this is essential), a small handful of green lentils (apparently also slightly essential), a few herbs (I had some lemon thyme and rosemary, but I think pretty much anything fresh or dried will do), a couple of bay leaves and some salt (not much) and pepper. Et voila!

 No, not the least appetising soup you've ever come across, but vegetable stock. Not completely free, but since we're growing herbs, the only thing that was paid for was the lemon half and the lentils (neither of which are bank breakers). Not bad for a couple of pints of stock - definitely less than buying organic stock cubes. I strained it through a butter muslin (everyone should have one - basically like a baby muslin but with tighter weave so fewer bits get through).

No reason why the stock couldn't be frozen, but I used mine immediately in a risotto. Tasted at least as good as any shop bought stock.

So although it's not quite as self sufficient as having a compost bin, at least it's a nod in the direction of self sufficiency until we can improve on it, which I feel is nicely in the spirit of being efficient sufficient. It also marks the end of this week's Monday Challenge, which I have concluded was a success. I didn't save as much as I would have liked, but definitely a lot more than normal, and I'll keep saving the bits for Ebay packaging and vegetable stock, as well as keeping an eye out for anything else I can put to good use!