Jams, Jellies and Infusions – The Bombay Boys

Hot stuff, try my cider apple and chilli jelly

It’s that time of year when my love/hate relationship with my apple tree definitely swings towards hate. Why? Because it has so many **** apples! Despite pleading emails to the whole neighbourhood to come and help themselves, the only ones who are really excited are the wasps and I am definitely NOT excited about them.

So, I decided to make my world famous (well in my road, anyway!) chilli jelly. This jelly lasts for ages and is wonderful on top of cream cheese as a dip, or used as a glaze on chicken or pork, or simply served on the side of anything that requires a bit of zing.

Now you can just go out and buy the apple juice if you like, or just use cider, but because of my plethora of apples, I did it the hard way. At this stage you don’t have to worry about weighing anything, so I chopped up the apples, added 6 chopped up lemons for a bit of extra pectin, a bit of root ginger, because I had some left in the fridge and placed them in a large saucepan. I added half and half vinegar and cider until they were just covered and simmered them on low for about an hour or until they have gone satisfyingly pulpy.

Tangerine dream – a marmalade with star anise quality

Now you all know how I hate waste and post-Christmas we are left with all the things that I bought just becuse they look pretty, such as the lovely tangerines, which I had displayed in the kitchen in a Ferrero Rocher style pyramid. The problem is that everyone’s gone now and frankly the tangerines are a wee bit past their best, so what do I do with them??

Marmalade of course! But let’s do something different and add a little aromatic spice, in this case I chose star anise.

This could just as easily be done with left-over clementines or satsumas, or of course oranges. Basically weight the fruit, when it is uncooked and then use double the amount of sugar – easy!

I used :

Tangerines, plus one random lime that was also in the fruit bowl – mine weighed just under 500g
1kg jam sugar with pectin (as these don’t have many seeds in them, you can’t rely on the natural pectin). If you don’t have the sugar with pectin, use the juice of 1 lemon
1 to 2 star anise depending on how strong you like the flavour

Method

Wash the fruit and remove any stalks and place in a saucepan, just cover them with cold water (should be about 2 pints) with the start anise
Bring to the boil
Reduce to a really low simmer and leave for about 1 1/2 hours until the skin of the fruit is really soft

Leave to cool completely and remove the fruit, keeping the liquid
Chop up finely according to taste – I like mine chunky – or maybe I’m just lazy…
Put a small plate in the freezer so that you can check the marmalade to see if it’s set
If there are any pips in the fruit, throw them back in the liquid and bring to the boil to get the maximum pectin out of them, then remove them with a slotted spoon.
Remove the star anise
Add all the lovely chopped fruit and bring to the boil
Add the sugar and reduce the heat, stirring gently until it has all dissolved.
Now bring the mixture to a “rolling boil” – this means a really good, rollicking boil not just a gentle simmer – for about 20 minutes
Check if it’s set, by placing a teaspoon of the mixture on the plate you’ve removed from the freezer -when you push it with your finger it should wrinkle
Give it a good stir and decant in to hot jam jars

This made 2 large jars and 1 and a bit small jars of marmalade which I think is the perfect amount – 2 to eat and 2 to give away.

Cranberry Sauce – 3 different ways – get freezing and bottling!

Christmas is coming and yes, I am getting fat (pre-Christmas diet going horribly wrong) but it also means you should start preparing for Christmas Day!

There are so many things you can do in advance and your cranberry sauce is definitely one of them – don’t go out and buy it – it’s very, very easy to make!! Not only is it easy, but there is a real satisfaction to boiling up these wonderful coloured berries and the aroma will make your house smell amazing.

Fresh cranberries are in the shops now, all in handy 300g packets and it’s up to you whether you want to go super easy, easy or slightly more complicated. Last year I showed how to make an easy cosmopolitan flavoured cranberry sauce ( https://kimdortonbroad.wordpress.com/tag/cranberry-sauce/) so this year, here are some variations.

Classic Cranberry and Orange Sauce

Ingredients

150g sugar
Juice of 2 oranges (made up to 150 ml with water if not enough)
Zest of oranges
300g fresh cranberries
Yes, really…that’s all you need!

Method

Add the sugar, orange juice and zest to a saucepan
Over a low heat, gently dissolve the sugar and simmer for 2-3 minutes until it is clear
Add the cranberries and zest and bring to the boil (it looks and smells wonderful!)
Reduce to a simmer for 5 minutes
Remove from the heat, cool and place in a bag in the freezer until the day before you need it.

Spiced Apple and Cranberry Jelly and Puree with Port and Brandy – these are 2 different types – more complicated but worth it – go on, get your jelly bags out!

Ingredients (makes about 3 jars, double up if you want to give as presents)

3 large or 6 small jam jars with lids
Jelly bag (available from Lakeland)
500g Bramley apples
500g fresh or frozen cranberries
200ml port
100ml brandy
1 dessert spoon of cloves
2 small cinnamon stick
2 star anise,
Zest and juice of 2 oranges
850ml water
Jam sugar, preferably with pectin

Method

Chop the apples. Do not peel or core them, but cut away any bruised parts.
Put into a large, deep pan with the cranberries, orange juice and water, the port and brandy, cloves, cinnamon sticks, star anise, orange zest
Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer for 25 minutes, stirring now and then. Do not crush the cranberries as this will make the jelly cloudy.
Carefully pour the mixture into a clean jelly bag (available at Lakeland) suspended over a very large bowl, and leave to drip through until it stops. ( I did buy their stand/tripod thing but found it so difficult to assemble that I prefer I tie mine with string on to the the clothers horse and leave overnight.
Don’t be tempted to squeeze the bag as this will make the jelly cloudy.
Pour the juice in to a measuring jug and measure the volume, keeping the bag containing the pulp aside to use later for another variation on cranberry sauce
Weigh out the jam sugar, allowing 450g jam sugar to every 600ml juice, and set aside. ( I got 900ml of juice and used 675g jam sugar)
Wash and rinse some jars with lids and sterilise them in the oven at 160°C/fan140°C/gas 4 whilst you’re making the jelly
Pour the juice into a large pan, bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes to concentrate the flavour, skimming off any scum as it collects on the surface.
Add the sugar and stir until it has dissolved, then bring back to the boil and boil rapidly for about 10 minutes (If you are passionate about a very clear jelly, skim off all the scum as you go)
After 10 minutes, test the jelly by pouring a little onto the cold saucer If it wrinkles, then it’s ready.
Take the pan off the heat, leave to settle and skim off any scum from the surface and after 5 minutes ladle in to hot jars

Cover with waxed discs and lids and keep in the fridge once opened and use within 3 months. They do look so beautiful they make lovely Christmas presents, very good with Boxing Day leftovers.

…and then there’s more

There are 2 choices here, you can either chuck all the pulp in the bin and just stick with the jelly, but if like me, you hate waste, then you can make a delicious spiced puree which is a lot less sweet than the jelly and some people actually prefer! However, it is time consuming as you will need to push the pulp through a sieve and that can take 15 minutes. So, for the hardier amongst you …..

Push as much of the pulp through the sieve as possible in to a pan until you have a saucepan full of beautiful pink puree

Add 150g of sugar (or more or less dependent on your taste) and return to the heat and bring to the boil
Reduce the heat and stir for 5 minutes
This won’t set like your lovely jelly and needs to be kept in the fridge and eaten within 3 days, but does also freeze extremely well.

Don’t panic…last minute Christmas present? Make Christmas Jam!

Christmas Jam is just great. It’s cheap, it’s tasty, it shows how thoughtful you’re being by making something so personal and best of all… it is a brilliant red colour! It has the lovely flavours of cranberries, orange and cinnamon with the freshness of strawberries.

It really doesn’t take long to do and here is the recipe:

You will need:600g cranberries, 450g fresh strawberries chopped in to small pieces, 1.2kg of jam sugar with pectin, juice and zest of a large orange, 1 bottle of certo pectin, ground cinnamon and cloves to taste.

Method:

Add one and a half pints of water to the cranberries, orange and zest, bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes
Sieve the mixture to get rid of the seeds and skins, really push the mixture through to get the maximum fruit puree (You don’t have to do this if you don’t mind it slightly coarser textured)

return to the heat and add the chopped strawberries and the sugar bring slowly back to the boil
Stir in half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon and a quarter of ground cloves, taste and add more if you like
Boil hard for 1 minute
Remove from heat, stir in the bottle of certo
Pot in to clean jam jars

This is such a pretty jam and people do like it when you’ve taken the trouble to make something special.

Merry Christmas!

Experimental jamming, the ideal stress buster and this week it’s rhubarb and ginger

Now I don’t mean jamming in the musical sense, although I expect that would be a lovely, calming experience too even if you can’t play a note in tune, like me. No, I mean playing with hot sugar, fruit and jam jars. Honestly making jam is really therapeutic and calming and not only that, if you start doing it now,you can make brilliant Christmas presents. It’s a real myth that you have to make vast quantities of jam or marmalade every single time which can put people off making it. If you choose and weigh your ingredients carefully, you can experiement with flavours and only make small amounts, then go ahead and make masses if you want to or just make it a little at a time.

One of the key challenges of making jam, is understanding when the jam has reached setting point and the beauty of experimenting with really small quantities is that they set very quickly. Everyone has their own preferred methods of checking, but I always place a couple of saucers in the freezer before I start cooking, and then when you think your jam is ready, take it off the heat and drop a teaspoonful on to the cold plate. If you push it with your finger it should wrinkle, that means it will set.

English forced rhubard, with its pretty pink colouring and sharp taste is a noble ingredient at the best of time and is wonderful in crumbles and fools, but combine it with crytallised ginger and you have a jam made in heaven, and so, so easy. You will need:

275g chopped, washed rhubarb (English forced pink is best)
275g preserving sugar with pectin
juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon (or more if you really like it) of chopped, crystallised ginger
2 small jam jars with lids

Method:

Place your clean jam jars in the oven for 10 minutes on regulo 4/Gas 180 or 160 fan to sterilise them
Immerse the lids in boiling water (I just pour it over them from the kettle) and wipe them dry with clean kitchen roll
Simply place the washed rhubard and lemon juice in a non-stick pan over a low heat until the fruit is soft, takes 5 to 10 minutes.
Add the sugar and stir gently until it is absorbed
Increase the heat until it is bubbling – be careful not to do it for too long, mine only took 2 minutes to reach setting point
Allow to cool for 5 minutes and then stir in the chopped crystallised ginger
Pour or spoon the mixture into the hot jam jars (place waxed circles on top if you wish) and place the lids on the jars

This is so delicious with hot toast and butter, or Katy just eats it by the spoonful straight from the jar. It would be wonderful in a microwave sponge pudding or with scones. The joy is, that with small quantities you can try any flavours you like – plum and vanilla (Thanks Debbie, for that suggestion), blackberry and star anise, lime and ginger or orange and chocolate chip marmalades (or is that just wrong- jaffa cake marmalade?), the possibilities are endless. Watch this space for suggested christmas presents – flavoured oils, vodkas and a special Christmas jam recipe.

Mango Jam – trust me there isn’t another decent recipe for it!

Those of you who know me well, understand my secret vice. No, not that one…..but jam making. I absolutely adore it, there is something so therapeutic about a large pan full of bubbling fruit and sugar which you then place in to crystal clean glass jars. It’s a blend of 50’s housewife meets “Charlie and the Chocolate factory”. So there I was in the supermarket, and I see a pile of delicious, Alfonso mangoes on special offer – 4 for £1, can you believe it? I had to have them and so bought 8, with visions of a delicious, tropical jam in mind. However, I get home and scour through my adored Marguerite Patten’s “Guide to Jams and Jellies” and there is nothing, I then resort to the internet and again, the only recipe that pops up is far too over-spiced for my liking. So it’s invention time! I decide that there is probably very little pectin and mangoes and will therefore rely on my good friend, commercial pectin. 1 hour later, I have six bottles of the most delightful looking mango jam and it was easy, easy, easy. Try it and see. Ingredients:

1 kilo of fresh, chopped up ripe mango (that’s the worst bit of the recipe, as they can be messy)
1.5 kilos of preserving sugar
1 bottle of commercial pectin (I use Certo).

Method

Place the sugar and the mangoes in to a large preserving pan and heat very gently until all the sugar has dissolved
Boil rapidly – that’s really bubbling for just 1 minute
Remove from the heat and stir in the Certo
Leave for 20 minutes and then bottle in to clean, sterilised jam jars.I made the mistake of bottling straight away, and that meant that all the fruit floated to the tops of the jars. Next time, I’ll leave it in the pan for twenty minutes and bottle it then. I’m also planning to make a vanilla sponge cake and put mango jam and whipped double cream with coconut liquer in it as a sort of tropical victoria jam sponge. Watch out for pictures.

Last and totlally unrelated to jam, I just had to put in this picture of me meeting “One Direction” at the Katie Piper Ball on Thursday. They look faintly terrified don’t they??

Christmas is coming…time to make your blackberry and blueberry vodka

Okay so I don’t want to come up with the cliche of telling you how many shopping days are left between now and Christmas, but if you want some extra loveliness, now is the time to prepare! Like puppies, this liquer shouldn’t be only for Christmas, but it has become a bit of a tradition on both Chrsitmas Eve and Christmas morning in our house, to drink kir royales; made with my own version of the “cassis” bit. Homemade blackberry liquer and champagne is heavenly, this is also good for Christmas presents, too .This is the easiest thing in the world but do it now, so that it will be beautiful by Christmas time and here is how you do it:

This year it’s blueberry and blackberry vodka

Ingredients (as above) vodka, fresh blackberries, fresh blueberries, cheap vodka (last year I used brandy, but I’m going for a lighter flavour this year), caster sugar and a sterilised kilner jar. (You could add a vanilla pod to create something really different).Method: Layer the fruit in to the kilner jar with about 4 tablespoons of caster sugar and then fill with vodka and seal. Leave in a dark place for a minimum of 3 months, then strain the fruit out of the vodka and decant in to a clean, sterilised bottle. At this stage you can taste it, and if too sweet add more vodka, or if not sweet enough add some sugar syrup. Leave in the dark for a further month (or more) then serve either ice cold as an after dinner drink, or with champagne.Roll on Christmas!

The Boys are back in town…tough and bitter as ever. Yes, the seville oranges are back and it’s marmalade time!

Guess who just got back today? No, not another album of Thin Lizzy’s greatest hits, but Seville oranges are in the supermarkets everywhere, hoorah! They are only in season for a few weeks so rush out now and buy some! If you are a marmalade virgin, this is your perfect chance to have the ultimate first experience. Do allow yourself some time, however as you have to pre-cook the oranges before you can start on the fun marmalade stuff.

Why are they so popular? Originating from Seville in Spain (ok, so it was in the name), these are no ordinary oranges; for a start they are sour and full of pips which makes them very unpleasant to eat raw BUT they make amazing marmalade. Their flavour lends itself to the most exquisite bitter sweet taste but the best bit is that because they have so many pips, they are jam packed (no pun intended) of pectin, which means it’s incredibly easy to get the marmalade to set. No sweating with jam thermometers and guessing whether it really will gel or not, especially if you use my fool proof recipe, you will have success. The only downside of my lovely recipe is that it is a really old one and so is in pounds rather than metric, which makes the metric quantities look a bit odd.You will Need: At least 1lb of Seville oranges (450g), Double the weight in sugar e.g. 2 lbs of preserving sugar (900g) and 2 pints of water. You will also need clean, sterilised jam jars and lids, you can also use little waxed triangles if you wish. I have made masses today, so I actually used 7 ½ lbs of oranges and 15lbs of sugar!

John loves the really dark marmalade, so I generally make half of each, and so to make a really rich version, you will need 1 tablespoon of black treacle for every pound or 450g of sugar.

How to do it:

Place your oranges in a very large saucepan or preserving pan and cover with the water
Place on a high heat and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat until it simmers, cover and leave for 2 hours or until you can poke the oranges easily with a skewer or fork.(I do this the day before and then leave them overnight to cool in the cooking water, which makes them even more tender.
Once the oranges have cooled, fish them out from the pan, making sure you leave the cooking water in
Scoop out all the seeds and place the seeds back in the water
Bring to the boil and boil on high for 10 minutes – this releases all the lovely pectin from the seeds
Whilst the liquid is boiling, chop up the oranges to your taste, or if you are lazy like me, chuck them in a food processer and pulse a few times. Don’t be tempted to over blitz it, or you will get mush.

Place a small plate in the freezer…yes, I mean it! This is so that it is easy to check whether your marmalade will set later. With a slotted spoon, fish out all the seeds and throw them away. Sorry lovely friends, I always miss quite a few, so watch out for the odd rogue seed in your pots!

Bring the liquid back to the boil and add the sugar. Now, the stalwarts of the WI would probably tell you to warm your sugar first, but when you are using Seville oranges, it’s really unnecessary. I also go for “belt and braces” and use jam sugar which adds even more to the pectin content.

If you want the dark marmalade, add 1 dessertspoon of black treacle for each pound of sugar now.

Stir until all the sugar is dissolved and then reduce the heat, but make sure it is bubbling nicely

Place your clean jam jars in the oven on Gas Mark 4, 180 degrees non-fan, 160 fan for 10 minutes to sterilise them. If you are using lids, put them in a jug and pour boiling water all over them. (Why bother sterilising? It’s because the air is full of random yeast and if you don’t kill of as much as possible, it may cause your marmalade to go mouldy).

Leave it bubbling undisturbed except for the occasional check to make sure it is not sticking to the bottom for 15 minutes.
Start to check if has reached setting consistency, by taking a teaspoon full of the marmalade and placing it on your cold plate from the freezer. Leave it a couple of minutes and then push the top with your finger; it should go thick and wrinkly which means it will set. If it doesn’t form a skin, keep boiling the marmalade checking every 5 minutes, but most will be fine after 15.

Now….decant your hot, lovely marmalade in to your jars, place a waxed circle on the top and screw the lids on.

Allow them to cool, make a piece of hot, crusty toast, add liberal amounts of butter and top with your own, lovely, lovely marmalade. It’s so easy! Look how much I actually ended up making, hopefully that will last us for ages. There are loads of other things to do with your Seville oranges as well as make marmalade, one of my favourites is that you can infuse them in a preserving jar with vodka or gin and a bit of sugar. Also don’t forget if you have made marmalade that you can use it for my easy Marmalade Bread and Butter pudding or you can use it in a steamed sponge…..more marmalade-type recipes to follow, including smearing it all over the top of a roasted duck.

The saga of my apple tree – jellies, wasps and a guilty conscience

I have an amazing apple tree in my front garden, it produces an incredible amount of sweet, juicy apples every two years and do you know what? I hate it with a passion, because when I say an incredible amount of apples, I mean a gargantuan, ridiculously huge amount and why would I hate this you ask? Because I am the one that has to do something with all the apples!!! I have secret fantasies about chain saws, not Texas massacres, relax, no I mean chopping the damned thing down branch by branch. That’s where the guilt comes in. How could any responsible, eco-minded person even contemplate annihilitating one of nature’s treasures? Comments please! Anyway, our annual perseverance event took place last week, Katy even managed to smile her way through it and we picked as many as we could, so whilst I’m still wrestling with my conscience and all the swarms of wasp that also accompany the apple glut, here is one of the recipes I use to try and get through at least some of the apples.

Kim’s reluctantly home-made mint jelly

You will need: apples, cider vinegar, fresh mint and sugar (use jam sugar if you are worried about the setting) and finally, lemons. Read on and you will see why I am being non-specific about quantities. First, wash your apples (don’t bother cutting them unless they are huge), just chuck them in, skin, pips, core and all. Place in a saucepan and add just enough water to cover them, I add one quartered lemon. Bring them to the boil and then simmer until they have turned in to a thick pulp. Place the apple pulp in to jelly bags (available online from Lakeland) over a container and leave for 24 hours, don’t be tempted to squeeze the bags, as your jelly will then be cloudy. A pathetically small amount of juice will appear (Oh dear, I’m sounding bitter again…) which you should then measure and for every pint of juice, you will need 1 pound of sugar and 2 tablespoons of chopped, fresh mint and 2 tablespoons of cider vinegar.

Heat the juice and when boiling, stir in the sugar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved, then boil rapidly without stirring until the setting point is reached. (Same principle as for previous jam recipes). Thsi can vary enormously from 10 to 25 minutes, maybe even longer, but be sure that it is setting before you stop. Add the mint and vinegar and allow to sit for 15 minutes before pouring in to clean, sterilised jars.

I do also have variations for rosemary and chill jelly which I will share at a later date, but this jelly is in fact, extremely good and of course perfect for lamb and makes a lovely gift for people when you’re trying to get rid of all the apple produce…did I say that out loud???

Anyway, you know how I said the apples produce heavily every other year, well guess what? The wretched plum tree next to it fills in as my chief tormentor in between. But in the meantime, anyone for apples…please, anyone????

Always use condiments – add some relish to your life

Does this look like a person who is brilliant at condiments? (Yes, Josh, I said condiments). The answer to that is a big, fat YES.

Our good friend Jason in fact is a dab hand at making an amazing home-made relish from beetroots that he grew in the garden. He has been so inspired by the success of his early crop, that he is growing more to experiment with bortsch later this summer. I tasted this lovely chutney with crusty white bread, butter and cheese and it really is worth the effort. If you would like to make it you will need:

1200g cubed cooked beetroot (½ cm), 600g of chopped onions, 600g cubed cooking apples (½cm), 350ml red wine vinegar, 150g demerara sugar, 1 teaspoon of dried ginger, 4 teaspoons of salt, 5 crushed cloves of garlic, 8 tablespoons of lemon juice.

Jason assures me that it is very simple to make. Pour the ingredients into a very large saucepan (he used a stockpot). Bring to the boil whilst stirring regularly. Cover, simmer, and stir occasionally for approximately 45 minutes to the point where all the excess fluid has evaporated. Pour into sterilised jars, label and store. That’s it!

Brilliant, we can’t wait for the Bortsch report, but just one thing…I hope that isn’t your gardening hat, Jason?