Quince Jelly and Gooseberry & Elderflower Jam

Hubby is the god of preserving - I'm rubbish. This may be due to my lack of perseverance. If it doesn't work first time I resign myself to the fact I can't do it and pass the reins over to Hubby.

In terms of preserve making, here in the UK, jam uses the whole fruit whereas jelly is clear and bright and is made using the juice extracted from the fruit. Hubby decided rub in how good he is at this jam making malarkey by making both a successful jam and jelly. One using quinces and the other using blush gooseberries.

Quinces look a bit like ugly, overgrown yellow pears and in the UK can be very hard to get hold of unless you have a friend with a quince tree. A few veg box schemes were also selling them too. Hubby has a friend who offered us some of his quinces. Only after he had made a cracking batch of quince jelly did he announce that his friend has chopped down the said quince tree. The romantic ideas of making refined quince jelly for all the impressed relatives for Christmas was dashed.

Now for the science bit - when quince is boiled it turns red (leading me to be boring and wonder if it was a pH indicator *yawn*). Be warned this stains the cloth you use to strain the juice with. Strangely this stain is intensified with heat and stain remover. The resulting jelly has a distinctive floral taste, unlike anything I was expecting and goes very well with cheese.

The blush gooseberries had been hibernating in our freezer ever since we picked them at a PYO back in June. They are slightly sweeter than green gooseberries...still won't make me like them. However Hubby did manage to transform them, along with some elderflower cordial, into a beautiful jam.

Both recipes are inspired by Preserves - River Cottage Handbook.

Quince Jelly
makes 5-6 225g jars

1.5kg quinces
Granulated sugar
100ml cider vinegar

1) Roughly chop the quinces, discarding any bad parts. Don't peel or core them. Put in a deep saucepan, just about cover with water then bring to the boil. Simmer gently, covered for 45 min. Tip the contents of the pan into a jelly bag or piece of muslin (in our case a clean tea towel!) suspended over the bowl and leave to drip for at least 2 hours, or overnight.

2) Measure the strained juice. For every 600ml, weigh out 450g sugar. Return the juice to the cleaned out pan with the vinegar. Heat to boiling point then add the sugar and stir until dissolved. Increase the heat and boil rapidly for 10-12 min or until setting point is reached. Remove from heat and skim off any scum.

3) Pour into sterilised jars.

Gooseberry & Elderflower jam
makes 5-6 340g jars

1 kg gooseberries
2 tbsp elderflower cordial
1kg granulated sugar

1) Top and tail gooseberries and place in pan with 500ml of water and the cordial. Cook gently until the berries are soft, but hold their shape.

2) Add the sugar. Stir carefully so not to break down the berries until the sugar has dissolved then bring to a full rolling boil for 9-10 until jam reaches setting point. Remove from heat and allow to rest for 10 min then pot and seal.

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.

Hot Smokin' Hubby

Even since Hubby saw Hugh F-W smoke fish in an old bread bin on River Cottage Autumn he's wanted to give it a go. Hubby being the resourceful man he is, he didn't want to buy a brand new smoker, but make one himself.

Hubby bought the bread bin a few months ago on ebay and last week the heat source he had been looking for, an old paraffin lamp/stove, finally arrived. The bread bin was then lined with oak chips that once heated begin to smoke. Hubby also has some whisky soaked chips somewhere, which should give an interesting flavour.



There is essentially 2 types of smoker. A hot smoker and a cold smoker. A cold smoker is use for flavouring a food, but not cooking it whereas a hot smoker not only cooks the food, but also flavours it.

In tonights fading light Hubby decided to try out his new toy by smoking some plaice. The fish was cooked & smoked in 15 min. I have to admit smoked fish isn't really to my taste so I only had the tiniest amount, but Hubby was impressed with what he had achieved and is interested in trying to smoke other things. The cold smoker is now next on his to-make list.

Pickled Red Cabbage

Hubby & I have decided that the culinary theme for this year, well what we want to learn how to do properly, is preservation. Be it jams, alcohol or pickles. So this weekend we've had a big spring clean. Hubby has been busy in the outhouse cleaning it out, putting up shelves, getting rid of rubbish and some frankly dire nettle beer, installing some better lighting, painting it white to make it seem brighter and making Bushel boxes. He has decided to name little project River Shed HQ. Over the next few months we're hoping to fill the shelves with various items and if they go well, blogging them on here.

After making the scouse last week and eating it with pickled red cabbage I had forgotten how much I like red cabbage, in all it's different forms. So my first 2009 preserving project became pickled red cabbage. I'm looking forward to trying it in a few weeks once it is ready.

Pickled Red Cabbage

red cabbage
salt
distilled malt vinegar
1 tbsp pickling spices for each 1 litre of vinegar

1) Quarter the cabbage, remove the heart and shred the leaves. Layer in a dish with a generous sprinkling of salt between each layer or cabbage. Leave for 24 hours.

2) In a aluminum/copper free saucepan heat the vinegar and pickling spices (don't allow to boil). Take off the heat, cover and allow the spices to infuse for at least 2 hours (I did it over night).

3) Once the vinegar has infused, filter through a piece of kitchen paper or coffee filter.

4) When the cabbage is ready, drain then rinse the cabbage thoroughly in cold water to rid of the salt. Pack the drained cabbage into a clean jar and cover in the spiced vinegar.



Over the last month I've been tagged twice by Hayley and Victoria Plum. So here are the 6 facts about me.

1. I had a picture in the HartBeat gallery at the grand old age of 6 3/4 (the 3/4 is very important when your 6). For appearing in the gallery I was sent Tony Hart's autograph and some book tokens. I still have the book and his autograph. This morning the sad news was announced that Tony Hart had passed away. RIP Tony.

2. I love vintage women's fashion and have a collection of dresses and swimwear dating from the 1930's.

3. If I had room I would expand my collection of vintage cookbooks and kitchenalia.

4. I'm a big musicals fan...Hubby doesn't share my enthusiasm!

5. For me, nothing beats climbing a mountain/hill and admiring the view.

6. I'm lost without my handbag.