Jelly set too hard
I had promised Margaret a jar of our Sloe and Bramley Jelly – great for adding to casseroles, brilliant with game. The sloey edge gives it more bite than a conventional jelly. I gave her a large jar of our Apple Chilli Jelly instead. She looked flummoxed and examined the label. I explained in one embarrassed word. “Iwasmakingthesloeandbramleyjellyanditfailedit’slikerubber.” It was probably a mistake to ring my mother when I was making sloe and Bramley apple jelly. She likes to chat and muse about life. Usually I am...
read morePiquant Apple chilli Jelly Recipe
My friend Margaret has a glut of apples. Mainly cooking apples. She has given me loads and the cottage has that sweet smell of ripe apples when I open the front door. I have been simmering great vats of apples – 3 kilos fit just nicely into our marmite and makes about six pints/3.5litres of strained juice. Perfect for experimenting with apple jellies. This juice keeps well in the fridge for a week or so and also will live happily in the freezer until I feel in the mood for making jelly. I plan to try mint and apple, scented geranium and...
read moreHot crab apple and chilli jelly recipe
Everyone seems to be talking about chillies. They are said to trigger “feel good” endorphins and are packed with vitamin A, an immune system boosting antioxidant. Chillies improve the digestive process too as they stimulate the action of the intestine and stomach. This year I was determined to make crab apple and chilli jelly. My first attempt was so so. There was a chilli tingle when I tasted the juice. I chucked it away. My recipe from Oded Schwartz’s Preserving added 3-4 medium heat chillis. Are these desseded? I’d...
read moreEasy quince cheese recipe (membrillo)
I’m back at the helm and it’s marvellous to be feeling well and chirpy and slimmer. Forget Champneys. A week in bed with a bug does wonders for the figure. Danny put on his sensible parent hat this morning. He instructed me not to go to work, reasoning that more recuperation was required. He was right. I did feel weak. This afternoon, he relented slightly. “Why not go out foraging for an hour. You could do with some fresh air.” He passed me the foraging stick, tossed me his car keys and disappeared upstairs. I found...
read moreQuince jelly and other quince recipes revisited
I decided last week to turn some of the quinces from Anna’s garden into something delicious. I rubbed off the fluff, cut them into chunks and covered them with water and the zest of a lemon. They were simmering on the gentlest setting (lid on) for about four hours until they softened and the juice took on that deep pink hue. I strained the juice through a jelly bag overnight and popped both the juice and the strained flesh into the fridge. I was delighted to discover that both keep happily in the fridge for a couple of weeks. 800g of...
read moreBlackberry and apple jam recipe
It was Anne Mary that pointed out that apple and blackberry jam would be full of blackberry pips. “They’d get stuck in your teeth and drive you mad. Stick to bramble jelly.” I love jelly. We make loads of jelly every year. More often than not it is used as a base for a sauce rather than dolloped on a plate of roast lamb or pork. Imagine my delight when I found this recipe for Blackberry and Apple Jam in my aunt’s ancient handwritten cookbook. As it is sieved there are no seeds and the jam is delicious, spread on hot...
read morePerfect Seville orange marmalade recipe
As the topping for the best slice of toast of the day, good marmalade is a joy. We like it dark, chunky, hand cut and never in moderation. Marmalade was the first preserve that we made. We were so proud of it that we could hardly bear to move it from the worktop to the larder, let alone eat it. Eventually we opened the first jar and lavished it on slice after slice of hot buttered toast. We immediately christened it Intellectual Marmalade as so much ground work, research and care had gone into its manufacture. Visitors who spotted the label...
read moreQuince Jelly recipe (also works with Japonica quinces)
Our friend Bunty gave us a Portuguese quince tree three years ago. Besides being very decorative, with dark branches and lazy, floppy leaves it produces the large firm fruit that make the tastiest jelly. Mature quince jelly (over six months old) turns a gorgeous amber colour. The first year our tree produced one small quince. It bore three last year and this year suddenly came into its own. The crop would be at least ten. The fruit are quite big so there would be enough to make more than jelly. Anne Mary and I poured over her old recipe books....
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