Showing posts with label Jam and Preserves. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jam and Preserves. Show all posts
Thursday, 13 August 2015
There are times when I feel that just yesterday was the beginning of summer, and as I sit down to write this, we are almost in the middle of August. These precious, fleeting days of summer are almost at an end, and this year I took a break from blogging to work on a personal project that is close to my heart. I have also been cooking, and eating a lot, and one of the joys I have rediscovered is cooking just for the sake of cooking – not to photograph or write or think deeply about what I was making. I needed this break for many reasons, not least because I was also mentally and physically exhausted and not taking the time to recover my joy of living and just being.
Tuesday, 8 October 2013
How things have changed...
Thursday, 29 August 2013
I fell in love with making ice creams way back on one of my first trips to Canada. My father-in-law who is usually the inspiration for most of the ice creams on this blog, has a really old Donvier that he pulled out one year, and made an absolute smashing lime sorbet. Can you say hooked? Well, yeah. Hooked.
Ever since then, one of my dreams on moving back to Canada has been to get my very own ice cream machine... and no sooner did I land in Edmonton, than I got myself my very own ice cream machine. And once I had it, I don't think I've ever bought ice cream again. Because, and you have to trust me on this one, there is nothing quite like homemade ice cream. Especially as a summer's hurrah!
Sunday, 2 October 2011
We've had a weird year. So we have record snowfall all through winter, and I was pretty sure that there was no way that all that snow was going to melt away. I had morbid visions of throwing snowballs in the summer! And then, almost like magic, all that heavy snow just melted away, leaving us with a peek at the first spring shoots arriving everywhere. At first it was a beautiful spring, hot and sunny, which of course led us all to believe that it was going to be a gorgeous summer. Well, nature is not that kind, and it was a mixed bag of a summer. At first I felt like I hadn't left England, it was cold and wet and miserable, and I was seriously considering upping stakes and migrating back to India.
And then... that glorious month that was September gave me the summer my mind and body had been craving. I loved the fact that I could go out without bothering to take a jacket, and in the middle of the month Aditi and I even went for a couple out outdoor swims in the newly built and absolutely gorgeous Queen Elizabeth Pool. Even if it did get a bit cooler for a few days, I was still happy that I got to see Mr Sun, and top up my naturally existing tan :-)
Thursday, 3 February 2011
There are always those days when you just get totally exasperated with the other half! Today was one of those days for me.
It all started when a couple days ago I noticed that Seville oranges had arrived in Safeway. Now, the season for these oranges is fairly short, and they are probably the best oranges to make marmalade with. My dear father-in-law, aka, the world's best marmalade maker, makes his delicious marmalade during this time, and puts it down for the winter. So I asked him his recipe, and made copious notes of his instructions, so I could give this recipe a try. Off I went, and bought the required oranges, plus a normal orange and a lemon that the recipe calls for.
While I was in Safeway, I saw a punnet of strawberries that caught my eye, simply because they looked delicious and ripe and not like the normal stuff we get there (Safeway usually has rubbish strawberries at this time of the year) And the strawberries were also on sale. So I picked up a punnet (in hindsight, I should have picked up two or three), and some BC apples. Back home, I separated the marmalade oranges from the rest of the fruit I had bought, and popped the rest of the fruit into the fruit bowl.
So Kay returns from work, and dinner is not yet done, so off he goes to the kitchen to find a snack. And guess what he finds there? My normal orange that I had saved for the marmalade!!! I notice his indiscretion halfway through the orange, and bawl him out. Upshot is that no marmalade will be made tonight, thanks to greedy husbands!
But you know those times when you've been completely psyched up to do something, and it doesn't happen? You still have all that adrenaline rushing through you, and you need an outlet for it? Well, mine was that I was all made up to make this marmalade, and now I had to find something else to do or I would go crazy and prowl around the house growling at everything in sight! So to save the family the mood, I cast an eye over the fruit bowl, and saw the strawberries and a dozen apples. Well, it was going to have to be strawberry and apple jam then, if I couldn't have the marmalade.
And it was! I did not use a proper recipe for this jam, as I was kind of aware how jam is normally made. And apples are full of pectin, so I didn't need liquid pectin this time. And you need lemon juice as well. Plus the setting point of jam was 105 C. So I kept that equation in mind while making this jam up, and adjusted quantities to taste rather than following a recipe as such. But then again, most recipes for jam are usually fruit, sugar and lemon juice anyway!
The jam worked pretty well, and was a lovely dark red colour, with lighter chunks of apples floating through it. And it did taste really lovely, not super sweet, but with a delicious apple-y tang. So, no thanks to husbands, it was a successful jam making evening after all!
Recipe:
(Printable Recipe)
450g ripe strawberries
2 eating apples (I used Gala)
1 1/2 cup sugar + a little more if you like
Juice of one lemon (roughly 1/2 cup)
1 tsp butter
Method:
Wash, hull and quarter the strawberries. Wash and peel the apples, and dice them into small pieces.
Roughly mash the strawberries, till quite pulpy. You can also puree them in a blender if you like a smooth jam.
Put the mashed strawberries and apples into a deep, heavy pan, along with the sugar, lemon juice and butter. Taste and add some more sugar if you like your jam quite sweet.
Simmer gently on low heat for 15 minutes. Then, using a masher or fork, mash the mixture so they the apples are all pulpy and soft. Turn up the heat to medium, and cook, stirring often, for another 15 minutes. Then allow the jam to come to a rolling boil for an additional 5 - 10 minutes, stirring frequently, and not letting the jam burn at the bottom (which is why you need a deep pan, or it will splatter absolutely everywhere!)
If there is foamy stuff on top, skim away using a spoon.
If you have a candy thermometer, the reading should be 105 C or 22o F. If you don't have one, no worries, just drop some jam on a cold plate and draw your finger through it. If it wrinkles, and doesn't get back together, its done.
Take the jam off the heat, and leave for around 5 minutes or so.
Then spoon into sterilised jars (boil the jars and lids for two minutes, take out and leave to dry, the jars should still be quite hot to touch). As this recipe only makes about two 500 ml jars, I didn't bother with the whole canning process. So this jam needs to be kept in the fridge and should keep well for up to three weeks (not in our house it won't, but one can only hope!!) If you want to make more and can the jam, then follow the canning instructions that I linked to in my cherry jam recipe.
The marmalade will come soon, once I have had a chance to pop back to the grocery store again tomorrow (bloody husbands!!) :-)
Monday, 30 August 2010
I know I've disappeared for a while. I've been travelling, and with that, and moving into the new house, things have been hectic. I've been exploring our new neighbourhood, and so far loving it. Its bang on suburbia... minus the white picket fence, and for a few weeks my city spirit rebelled against it. But now that I've figured out the buses, things have been better, and I've been having lots of fun in my new kitchen (with a cooking island, no less). I've got loads of recipes to share, and now that I am back home and with no plans to travel anywhere for the next few months, I promise I will be a more regular blogger.
The in-laws have been visiting, and good ole bean MIL has been more than generous in sharing her recipes as well as her expertise in all things homemade. Take this jam, for example. I call it the cheat's way, as I used liquid pectin to make it, rather than making it the old fashioned way, but you know what? It works, its easy and its fast. We had jam in less than three hours. Result!
The cherries were from MIL's next door neighbour's tree (thanks Marge!) The tree basically had no green, such was the bounty of delicious dark red cherries on it. Kay, Aditi and I spent an entire hour filling two huge ice cream buckets full of cherries (eating an almost equal amount, even) and we hadn't even made a dent in the tree. Marge then froze a few and passed them on to MIL, and the jam is from those cherries. I made cherry pies with some, cherry frozen yoghurt with some more (both recipes coming soon), and I still have a box and half in the freezer, such was the bounty.
This recipe is adapted from the Certo insert. I made a few changes, as I always do, and the result was some really lovely jam, that is as local as it gets.
Cherry Jam Recipe:
4 cups fresh or frozen pitted cherries
6 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 packets Certo or any other liquid pectin
A few drops almond extract (optional)
A small dried vanilla pod out of which the seeds have already been scraped out (dry your pod after using, and reuse)
This makes around 7 cups of jam.
Prepare your jars first. Here is an excellent blog that tells you how to do it.
In a deep bowl, using a hand blender, chop the cherries roughly, do not over process, you want some lovely chunks of fruit in the jam (MIL chops by hand, but the blender was way easier)
In a stockpot, or similar, bring the cherries, sugar, almond extract and vanilla pod to a heavy boil and boil hard for 1 minute. Skim off the foam from the top. Fish out the vanilla pod (dry and reuse)
Stir in pectin, wait till its fully dissolved, then take the jam off the heat. Ladle into the jars, wipe edges, then seal the jars. Label with dates etc. If any jar does not seal, then pop it into the fridge and use within 2 weeks.
My next stop is peach preserves (just got a huge box full of ripe peaches off the superstore!)
Enjoy your jam :-)
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