A great recipe for green tomatoes
It’s beginning to feel quite chilly here so I harvested the remnants of the outdoor tomatoes this afternoon. Gentle warmth on this south west facing windowsill will gradually ripen the green ones that I don’t want to use now. I’ve bottled (canned) masses of tomatoes, pickled some and made passata to last us through the winter. A lot of our harvest has been dehydrated for use throughout the year. I know that I should be developing a green tomato chutney recipe but I’m indulging myself and am going to make Rozanne Hall’s green...
read moreThe slow cooker chef: Apple and Orange butter recipe
“Taste this.” “What kind of fruit is that? It’s gorgeous. It would be great with the duck legs.” With 25 kilos of apples to turn into something delicious that would not put us off apples for life, I was experimenting with orange and apple butter. Simmered for hours in the slow cooker to increase the depth of flavour. The end result tastes tropical, almost like mangoes and apricots and has a wonderful deep orangey colour. Fabulous to use as a sauce for chops, chicken or even fish. A tablespoon would lift the apples in a pie. It’s...
read moreThe slow cooker chef: Spiced apple butter recipe
“Why this is delicious.” Seraphina licked the spoon and examined the tasting pot. “You could add some to an ordinary apple pie and really make it special.” After the success of the pear butter I thought I’d try my hand at apple butter. Fruit butter contains no butter. It has a spreadable saucelike consistency and is lighter than a fruit cheese. Fruit butter is a great way of preserving a glut as it seems to concentrate the flavour and a big bag of apples is turned into just a few jars – this recipe filled 5 x450ml jars. We...
read morePear butter recipe
Having pointed you in the direction of Chickens in the Road and Suzanne’s tale of making pear butter with Georgia, I just had to try this delicacy for myself. I bought some American cups at TKMaxx last year and they are handy when trying recipes from North America. We are lucky. We have a young pear tree that is planted over the grave of a very special pug. Titus lived with my sister and was a great companion to my first Min Pin, Fly. In fact he gave solace to many people who offered an ample lap to this small black being. He...
read moreHot crabapple chilli cheese
I only discovered how delicious fruit cheeses are a few years ago. Until then I had rejected them out of hand – using the left over pulp from jelly making seemed skinflint behaviour to me. And anyway would this pulp have any flavour at all? I didn’t even bother to taste the pulp when jelly making which was a big mistake as I missed out on this treat. Fruit cheese can be sliced and served with starters, chops, roasts, cheese and even with fruit desserts. Crabapples, particularly when they first start to ripen often produce very little...
read moreMy best easy recipe for delicious Mango Chutney
Growing up there were a handful of meals that I really liked my mum to cook. One of these was curry. Back in those days curry powder was the norm, with the remains of the Sunday roast diced into the mix. I loved the exotic colour of the sauce but it was the way that she served each plate that intrigued me. Curry on a bed of rice in the middle of the plate and around the edge of loads of little piles of things too cool the curry down. Thinly sliced banana jostled with desiccated coconut, dried fruit, sliced cucumbers, diced onion and glorious...
read morePlum and Tamarind Chutney Recipe
This can also be made with damsons – cut the tamarind amount by half and add more sugar to taste. Anyone who owns Oded Schwartz’s superb book Preserving is very lucky indeed. Published in 1996 it is now sadly out of print. Danny found a copy on Australian Ebay for me one Christmas and I’ve used it endlessly since then. It is packed full of mouth watering photographs and inspirational recipes. Last week I spotted that he adds tamarind to a plum chutney, as this is one of my favourite ingredients at the moment my mind began to whir. How...
read moreOrnamental quince, Chaenomeles or Japonica quince recipes
Every one loves the look of a quince from a tree. The large size, the slight fuzziness on the skin. The smell of a bowl of quinces can scent a room if they are allowed to ripen. A quince plucked from a tree can keep for months properly stored but windfalls need to be used pretty quickly. We were given a quince tree a few years ago. This summer it hasn’t been happy – losing a lot of leaves during July and generally looking peaky. I gave it lots of extra water and it rallied a bit but the quinces are scant and undersized. So the prospect...
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