Sweet Chilli Jam

This weekend started off quite busy with me making a batch of Tiger rolls and Guernsey Gâche. The Gâche, a butter laden fruit bread, was delicious, but I feel it needs a bit of tweaking until I post the recipe.

The rest of the weekend has been spent trying to recover from a nasty cold and preparing for a new term of Cookery Club (CC). CC has gone from strength to strength. This term 50% of the children old enough to come, applied to join my club. However due to funding and space I'm only able to offer places to 2/3 of these children, meaning I had to disappoint some kids but I have already got the funding to run it again in the new school year. One thing that has totally shocked me is how many boys applied. From last terms 4 boys taking part it has ballooned to 24 boys applying with a significant proportion of those being aged 9+. I don't have a clue how I managed to influence so many boys to get into cooking, but I'm very proud. I try to bring a bit of fun science into my CC and we don't make Fairy Cakes (I call them muffins!) so I think this may have had had an impact.

As well as my cooking in the kitchen Hubby has also been busy making salami and Sweet Chilli Jam. The salami is being made with some of the Middle White pig a friend gave us back in February and it is also a chance for Hubby to play with the KitchenAid gadget I gave him for Christmas, a food grinder. I have to admit I'm not a big fan of the offaly smell due to the ox runners, but once they are out hanging in the meat safe in the outhouse the smell soon goes.

This particular recipe for Sweet Chilli Jam was concocted by Hubby and his friend (a fellow foodie) while on a work jaunt to Manchester. Hubby not one to use recipes. Kind of a bung it in a see type of bloke, so this recipe is a guestimation of quantities. It turned out to be the perfect dipping consistency. Not as thick as a traditional jam, but not as thin as a sauce. If you wanted it thicker it would just be a case of adding more pectin.

Sweet Chilli Jam
makes about 5 jars (that should keep us going for a few months!)

15 chillis, finely chopped
350ml cider vinegar
900g jam sugar with pectin
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1) Mix together all the ingredients together in a pan. Simmer for 20-30 min until you get the desired consistency. Transfer to a sterilised jar.

The Fruits of Hubbys Labour

The advantage of living where we live is that there can be an abundance of wild food and many people prepared to tell you their wild food haunts. Since tasting my Father-in-Law's sloe gin at Christmas last year I was determined that this year we would make our own. Well the weather put a stop on that plan as the sloe harvest is really poor this year so had to settle on some other fruits we could forage.

Inspired by Hugh F-W, Hubby set out Ray Mears style to forage for free food. Although there was no sloes he did manage to find the last of the blackberries and a tree heaving in haw berries. Added to the 5kg of apples from Auntie's tree we had a plethora of free food to work with.

A few months back we picked up a copy of River Cottage Handbook: Preserves and today it certainly came into its own!



First to be made was Haw Ketchup. Haws eaten raw are incredibly sour (Hubby can vouch for that!) and you wouldn't expect them to be edible, but with a bit of cooking they can be made into a lovely fruity sour sauce that will be perfect with game. I'm looking forward to trying this with a dish in a couple of weeks.

Haw Ketchup
Makes about 500ml
From River Cottage: Preserves

500g haw berries (Haws), washed
300ml cider vinegar
300ml water
170g sugar
1/2 tsp salt
black pepper, to taste

1) Simmer the haws in the vinegar and water for around 30 min until the berries are soft.

2) Pass through a sieve to rid of stones and skins.

3) Return the juice to a clean pan, stir in sugar and gently boil for 5 minutes. Pour into a sterilised bottle. Keeps for 12 months.



Next was the turn of flavouring some alcohols. If we weren't going to have sloe gin for this Christmas we could at least have blackberry & apple gin plus some haw brandy. The method for both of these flavoured alcohols is the same, all your doing is changing the ingredients. The longer you leave them to steep the better. Ideally they say you should leave them for a minimum of 8-10 weeks. The tasting at Christmas will tell us if they are really any good.

Blackcurrant & Apple Gin

300g apples (2 large apples)
200g blackcurrants
200g sugar
700ml gin

Haw Brandy
225g haws
110g sugar
300ml brandy

1) Pour alcohol into bottle, followed by fruit then sugar. Give it a good shake until all ingredients are well mixed.

2) For the first week shake the bottle to stop the sugar settling to the bottom. After that shake on a weekly basis and taste after 8 weeks. Once it is ready for drinking filter through some kitchen paper/coffee filter. Enjoy!