Blackberry jam

Despite warnings of heavy rain, yesterday was a beautiful sunny autumnal day with only a small shower. I went out picking blackberries, which were perfect, if a little on the small side. This does mean though that they have even less pectin than slightly under-ripe blackberries which are best for making jam.

I based my jam recipe on the one in delicious. magazine but made a few tweaks. This, it turns out, was a mistake - my jam is more of a thick paste. Here is the recipe I used:

Blackberry jam ingredients

• Just under 2kg blackberries
• 2kg preserving sugar
• Juice and rind of 6 lemons

How to make blackberry jam

1. Remove any stalks and dirt from the blackberries but do not wash them or they will become soggy.
2. Place in a preserving pan.
3. Grate the zest from the lemon and squeeze out the juice - add both of these to the pan.
4.  Put on a low heat and stir regularly for about 5 minutes, till the blackberries have released their juice.
5. Add the sugar to the pan and stir for about 10 minutes until the sugar has dissolved. 
6. Increase the heat and boil for about 15 minutes.

 

I actually took out a teeny tiny pots' worth of blackberries to have with my breakfast cereal but since the blackberries were so ripe I thought the slight discrepancy in the blackberry/sugar ratio would help the jam set. Having dropped my sugar thermometer into the jam I couldn't tell whether it had reached the setting point, but since it looked far too runny,  I continued to boil for about 15 minutes. I potted the jam while warm as directed. 

The next day I checked the jam and it was practically solid, with a slight hint of toffee flavour. I unpotted it all back into the pan (resulting in a bent spoon) and added a little water. After cooking gently for about 10 minutes I repotted the jam into resterilized jars. Clearly it still had a slight burnt sugar taste but was slightly runny so at least can be spread on toast. But it's not right, and I feel I have wasted nature's bounty. 

Just back from holiday spaghetti

O is obsessed with spaghetti. On a recent trip to Bruges he claimed it was 'the Venice of the North', famous for its spaghetti. Sadly, he didn't manage to have any spaghetti while in Bruges, so I made some for him the day we got back from holiday.

Spaghetti with sundriend tomatoies

Since we'd only been away for a couple of days I had some parsley and an onion to hand. The beauty of this recipe, though, is that you can still make it using only store cupboard/freezer ingredients in a matter of about 20 minutes from start to finish. 

 Easy, speedy spaghetti ingedients

• 6 sundried tomatoes in oil
• A handful flatleaf parsley, finely chopped
• A handful toasted pine nuts
• 1/3 pack low fat feta cheese
• 1 onion
• 1 garlic clove
• 3 rashers streaky smoked bacon 
• Enough spaghetti for 2 people

How to make easy, speedy spaghetti

1. Heat a large frying pan over a medium heat.
2. Fill the kettle and switch it on to boil. 
3. Add the bacon to the frying pan and cook till crisp then remove from the pan.
4. Chop the onion in half, peel, then slice each half into thin slices.
5. Turn down the heat under the frying pan and add the onion. 
6. Fill a large pan with the boiled water from the kettle, add a little salt, then add the spaghetti.
7. Refill the kettle and put it on to boil. 
8. Cook the onion till slightly caramelised, ie do not move around too much. Add a little olive oil if there is insufficient fat from the bacon left in the pan.
9. Finely chop the garlic or crush using a garlic crusher and add to the pan.
10. Continue to cook for a few minutes taking care not to let the garlic burn. 
11. Using kitchen scissors cut the sundried tomatoes into small pieces then add to the frying pan.
12. Drain the pasta once it it al dente - this will probably be about 3 minutes before the cooking time specified on the packet.
13. Rinse the cooked pasta with just boiled water from the kettle and shake the colander to remove most of the water. 
14. Return the pasta to the pan you cooked it in and tip in the contents of the frying pan. 
15. Add the feta, crumbled, the chopped parsley and the pine nuts.
16. Toss together with the spaghetti and serve.

Apple chutney x2

I have almost given up blogging, it's been so long since I posted anything. Yesterday, I almost gave up cooking, having experienced several culinary disasters:

1. Over-set chutney. Yes, let me just say that again: over-set chutney. How on earth did that happen? I have never, ever over-set chutney before in my life. And, according to Google, neither has anyone who has ever published anything on the web. But the apple, chilli and ginger batch I made on 1st October has over-set, bearing an striking reseblance to jam.

2. Over-set crab apple jelly. Crab apple jelly seems like more faff than its worth. Cleaning, boiling, straining then cooking. Never again. Jams are not for me. I am sticking to chutney from now on (which I will NOT over-set again).


3. Mutton curry without the mutton. I left the mutton in the fridge instead of the freezer for too long and had to throw it out (it went to the foxes, not the bin). But by this time I'd made the curry sauce, so I ended up with a sauce-only curry sauce

On a more positive note, here's a chutney recipe that does appear to have worked. The apples for this one were courtesy of Tanya's friend Diana. 

Apple chutney #2 ingredients

• 2kg peeled and cored apples, cut into smallish chunks
• 5 medium onions, roughly chopped
• 1 litre cider vinegar
• 500g sultanas
• 1kg soft brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon mustard seeds
• 1 chilli, chopped finely
• 1 double thumb-sized piece root ginger, grated
• 1 teaspoon peppercorns
• 1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
• 1 teaspoon cloves
• 1 tablespoon allspice berries
• 2 teaspoons salt
• Juice 1/2 lemon

How to make apple chutney

1. Put everything in a preserving pan, bring to the boil and then reduce to a simmer. 
2. Continue to cook until thick, but not too thick.
3. Turn off the heat and leave to cool down a little.
4. Pot into warm sterilized jars.
5. Label before you forget what it is.

Apple chutney #3 ingredients

• 2.5Kg apples
• 7 onions (just under 1kg)
• 800g raisins
• Approx 1.25 litres malt vinegar
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 1 tablespoon ground coriander
• 1 tablespoon hot paprika
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon brown mustard seeds 

Make the chutney as for Apple chutney #2