Nigel Slater's Jam, Pickle and Relish Recipes
At this time of year, I store plums, currants and blackcurrants in the freezer. A squirrel-store of fruits that are distinctly seasonal and virtually impossible to find in freezer aisles. At the height of winter, I tend to enjoy an out-of-season currant crumble or a compote of warm plum plums with my breakfast porridge. But my freezer is small and quickly filled.
When the apricots finally come down in price, I make jars of glowing jam; when the peaches are at their best or the supply of zucchini and beets seems endless, I'll make jam or chutney. If I find a cheap supply of those tiny, intense-tasting cucumbers that are so hard to find, they'll end up in a homemade pickle with fennel seeds and dill to eat with cheese. A row of sparkling pots to last me through winter.
This summer I grew lavender and fragrant geraniums like never before (I can usually kill a lavender bush 20 paces away), so their flowers and leaves ended up stored in pots of sugar to make a fragrant pinch for sponge cakes or shortbread. Rose petals too.
I'm not the kind of cook to make hundreds of tubs of chutney or pickles, yet there's something rather delicious about it. Open a kitchen cupboard to find recycled jam jars full of your own work. Recipes that you have personalized to your liking. A homemade pickle can be as sweet and sour as you want it to be. the jam can be taken more gently than commercial recipes and the heat of the chilli of a relish can be modified to work for you.
There is, to some extent , a bit of good housekeeping is going on here. When something is so plentiful that its price drops, I make the most of it, picking up a few extra zucchinis to make into a pickle or a second and third bag of plums to make jam with. That said, I do all canning as a treat rather than a way to get rid of a fruit or vegetable cart. A jar or two of peach chutney or bread and butter pickles is like finding treasure in the closet, but I don't want to eat bean relish or marrow jam for the next six months. /p>
You must use sterilized storage jars for all preserves and pickles. Heat the oven to 160°C fan/thermostat 4. Remove the rubber seals from your storage jars, pour boiling water into the jars, empty them carefully and let them dry upside down on a baking sheet. pastry or roasting pan. Put the sheet in the oven and bake for 15 minutes, then fill and seal as needed.
Apricot and rose petal jamThis is one of the few jams that I make every year. My version is sweeter than most you can buy, much like the jams you find in the Middle East. Letting stone fruits sit overnight under a blanket of sugar is a tip worth following. The sugar softens the fruit, which reduces the cooking time and the flavor seems more intense. Use a sugar thermometer right from the start. If you don't have one, chill a few saucers in the fridge before you start and follow the instructions here. This is a delicious soft jam, but if you want something firmer, use canning sugar with added pectin. Make sure your roses are from the garden and untreated.
Makes 3 350ml storage jarsApricots 1 kg, firm, nearly ripe granulated sugar 750 rose petals 40 lemon 1 , large
Wipe apricots, remove stems, then halve and remove pits. Place fruit in a large mixing bowl, then sprinkle with granulated sugar. Cut the lemon in half, squeeze the juice over the fruit, then mix everything together with a large spoon, so that the sugar is soaked in juice. Cover the bowl and let sit for three to four hours, or even overnight, in a cool place.
Place a large, heavy-bottomed stainless steel or enamel saucepan over low to moderate heat. Add fruit and sugar and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer gently for about 20 minutes. The jam is ready when it reaches 105C on a sugar thermometer. As soon as the temperature is reached, incorporate the rose petals, pour into sterilized jars and close hermetically.
To test without a thermometer, put a few saucers in the refrigerator. As the fruit becomes soft, place 1 teaspoon of jam on one of the cold saucers. Put it back in the fridge for 2 minutes and, if a skin has formed, the jam is ready.
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At this time of year, I store plums, currants and blackcurrants in the freezer. A squirrel-store of fruits that are distinctly seasonal and virtually impossible to find in freezer aisles. At the height of winter, I tend to enjoy an out-of-season currant crumble or a compote of warm plum plums with my breakfast porridge. But my freezer is small and quickly filled.
When the apricots finally come down in price, I make jars of glowing jam; when the peaches are at their best or the supply of zucchini and beets seems endless, I'll make jam or chutney. If I find a cheap supply of those tiny, intense-tasting cucumbers that are so hard to find, they'll end up in a homemade pickle with fennel seeds and dill to eat with cheese. A row of sparkling pots to last me through winter.
This summer I grew lavender and fragrant geraniums like never before (I can usually kill a lavender bush 20 paces away), so their flowers and leaves ended up stored in pots of sugar to make a fragrant pinch for sponge cakes or shortbread. Rose petals too.
I'm not the kind of cook to make hundreds of tubs of chutney or pickles, yet there's something rather delicious about it. Open a kitchen cupboard to find recycled jam jars full of your own work. Recipes that you have personalized to your liking. A homemade pickle can be as sweet and sour as you want it to be. the jam can be taken more gently than commercial recipes and the heat of the chilli of a relish can be modified to work for you.
There is, to some extent , a bit of good housekeeping is going on here. When something is so plentiful that its price drops, I make the most of it, picking up a few extra zucchinis to make into a pickle or a second and third bag of plums to make jam with. That said, I do all canning as a treat rather than a way to get rid of a fruit or vegetable cart. A jar or two of peach chutney or bread and butter pickles is like finding treasure in the closet, but I don't want to eat bean relish or marrow jam for the next six months. /p>
You must use sterilized storage jars for all preserves and pickles. Heat the oven to 160°C fan/thermostat 4. Remove the rubber seals from your storage jars, pour boiling water into the jars, empty them carefully and let them dry upside down on a baking sheet. pastry or roasting pan. Put the sheet in the oven and bake for 15 minutes, then fill and seal as needed.
Apricot and rose petal jamThis is one of the few jams that I make every year. My version is sweeter than most you can buy, much like the jams you find in the Middle East. Letting stone fruits sit overnight under a blanket of sugar is a tip worth following. The sugar softens the fruit, which reduces the cooking time and the flavor seems more intense. Use a sugar thermometer right from the start. If you don't have one, chill a few saucers in the fridge before you start and follow the instructions here. This is a delicious soft jam, but if you want something firmer, use canning sugar with added pectin. Make sure your roses are from the garden and untreated.
Makes 3 350ml storage jarsApricots 1 kg, firm, nearly ripe granulated sugar 750 rose petals 40 lemon 1 , large
Wipe apricots, remove stems, then halve and remove pits. Place fruit in a large mixing bowl, then sprinkle with granulated sugar. Cut the lemon in half, squeeze the juice over the fruit, then mix everything together with a large spoon, so that the sugar is soaked in juice. Cover the bowl and let sit for three to four hours, or even overnight, in a cool place.
Place a large, heavy-bottomed stainless steel or enamel saucepan over low to moderate heat. Add fruit and sugar and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer gently for about 20 minutes. The jam is ready when it reaches 105C on a sugar thermometer. As soon as the temperature is reached, incorporate the rose petals, pour into sterilized jars and close hermetically.
To test without a thermometer, put a few saucers in the refrigerator. As the fruit becomes soft, place 1 teaspoon of jam on one of the cold saucers. Put it back in the fridge for 2 minutes and, if a skin has formed, the jam is ready.
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