Marmalade 2 - the revisit....

Batch no.2.
After research, discussion, tips from here :) i made a second batch of Marmalde. Please don't make the assumption that i *think* about anything before i go ahead and try it - the Marmalade being a prime example.... so i tried a completely different method. This is alot cleaner and clearer than before. Sunshiney and bright with some peel included and the odd Star Anise in each jar. The little black specs are vanilla pod seeds....

I boiled up about 7 Seville Oranges and 1 normal in a big ole chutney pan.

Covered the fruit with about 2 litres of water and simmer for 1.5 hours or there-on.

I ADDED to the water, with the fruit, before boiling:

1 Vanilla Pod

A large cube chopped ginger

3 Star Anise

1 Broken Cinnamon Stick

10 - 15 Cloves

Then - i strained the liquid and only put the items BACK into the mix, that i wanted to keep, so:

Scraped out flesh of the oranges to put back in.

Chopped some peel - so nice and soft now they had been boiled and placed back in the pan.

Star Anise back in the pan.


It was a quicker and easier method by far and retained so much of the flavour of my little extras - especially the vanilla. I was scared the soft vanilla taste would get drowned in Seville Orange bittreness but it warms through sensationally.

All the liquid was then boiled up for 20 mins or so? i kept a Jam thermometer in the pan to check. I boiled it up with 1kg of sugar - granulated, as the added pectin in Jam Sugar was uneneccasry for these fruits.

TASTE - done

LOOK - happy with

CONSISTENCY - still a little runny and more sugar would have helped make this thicker but i didn't want the flavour any sweeter.

Friends and family decided they could live with the runnier consistency as opposed to a wobbly jelly type. I caught someone spooning the stuff into their mouth direct from the fridge... i think that was a seal of approval?

Thanks for all your help peoples xxx

The bigger questions of existence and chocolate....

Spoon? or finger?

Beetroot and Orange Preserve x

As in the previous post - it was the fat, muddy bulbs of Beetroot that inspired the making of this. I wanted to pickle them but i came across the recipe in Lakelands Book. I wasn't sure about the orange to begin with, but the recipe wanted 3 and i happend to have 3 oranges sat in my fruit bowl that needed to be used up.... thrifty cookery is the best x 300ml of Malt Vinegar
200g Granulated Sugar ..... heated gently in a large pickling pan.
I added a little less Malt Vinegar and substituted with some Raspberry Vinegar and White Wine Vinegar so i had 400ml i think, all in.


350g/ 3 Raw Beetroot (from the Veg Box)
350g/3 Cooking Apples (scrumped from a neighbour if possible)
225g/ 3 Red Onions (Man sent to the shops to fetch)
Chop them all as small or big as is your preference. I like mine as small as i can, 1cm cubed on average. Add them to the liquid in the pan.

3 oranges - the rind and juice of (i just re-read the recipe and it says only 2, oop, i added 3)
1 garlic clove crushed
1tsp ground Allspice
1tsp Salt
... i added to the mix also: 1tsp Mustard seeds / 1tsp Corriander seeds / Celery Salt / 1tsp GROUND Peppercrons. Add whatever you like... oh and some fresh tiny cut Rosemary! (love that stuff)


Bring it the boil - just - then put it on a low setting and simmer away for 40mins. I put a lid on mine but you don't need to....

Give yourself a pat on the back and feel rather pleased with yourself :)

After 40mins - whack i gave mine a good mulch with a big potato masher as i don't like anything too chunky. Then whack the heat right up again and boil away the last of any liquids you dont want. I kept a bit of liquid in mine.

Oh IF ONLY this screen was scratch and sniff! This kitchen smells amazing x i am in love with my own culinary genius... or i love chutney / presrves / pickles x

This ingredients list made 2 FULL 1/2Litre Kilner Jars - so you are looking at 4 standard jam jars? or even 5 if you want to give away / sell jars that aren't too big?

A glass of chilled white wine to celebrate the fact it was now 5pm on a Friday and i had survived another week as an amazing Mum! tee hee (i have to keep saying it as one day, i'll believe it)

Decorate the jar a bit, of course! And i always put the dates on each jar as i will never remember, come Nov / Dec when they were made or how long they will keep:

"Made in beg. August 2009 - use in Nov 2009 - once opened, keep refridgerated and use within one Month"

So there you have it - open it mid November and you'll have a sweet and spicy preserve to accompany meats and cheeses and it will take you right through Christmas festivities from Mid November into the New Year x

Do i sound like Nigella yet? I hope I am a little more real than that x

Love.... Roast Chicken!

Ah roast chicken! What does it mean to you?
Sundays at home, warmth, comfort, family....perfect left overs (MrB loves a buttie!)
This recipe is simply perfect! Lemons, thyme, garlic and melting butter! Just the ingredients make me smile!
Buy yourself a good chicken. Of course we all know this by now and most people I know would hide their baskets in shame if they were to buy a miserable, battery raised, skinny, anaemic looking bird. But I am all too aware that there is a lot of equally miserable, skinny, anaemic bank accounts out there! I do believe however that it is better to have slightly less meat and fill your plate with the delicious potatoes, that go with this dish and lots of veggies, than to eat something that will just leave your taste buds and conscience feeling cheated!
I bought this wee chicken, who was corn fed and free range and delicious, for only £4.88! My husband joked he looked more like a sparrow, when cooked, but what he lacked in size he made up for in flavour. We were all amply fed and I will use the carcass for soup today.  Two meals for under a fiver!

So children are being entertained, classic fm is on....happy chef, happy tummies!

Separate the skin from the breast of the chicken, by wiggling your fingers up through the neck skin, just pushing with your fingers (is it wrong that I actually enjoy this process??). Take a good couple of teaspoons of butter and push into the space you have made under the skin, flatten out, over the breast of the chicken. Next thinly slice your lemons and place as many as will cover the butter and fit in a single layer. Take three or four, stems of thyme and strip the leaves, push these under the skin. Next place, a small bunch of thyme, two or three peeled (but unchopped) garlic cloves and half a lemon (slightly squeezed) into the cavity. This is your chicken finished! Place this breast side down in a roasting tin.
Now for the most perfect potatoes! I used charlotte potatoes, the little waxy, new potatoey ones! I leave them unpeeled. Cut them into halves, bite size. Scatter them round the chicken. I use the whole bag, as I have a carbo fiend to feed, but you decide how many (just let it be re stated, they are amazing!!) Place blobs of butter all over the potatoes, using about 1tbs. Scatter four or five stems of thyme round the chicken and bury three peeled garlic cloves in the potatoes.

Finally pour about 400ml of water over the potatoes or as much to come half way up the potatoes.

Cook in a moderate, 180 oven for about an hour. The water helps cook your chicken quickly but keeps it moist.  Turn your chicken at this point and give it a further 2o minutes to crisp up the skin.

Remove the chicken and let it rest, covered with a clean tea towel.

In a saucepan, melt a tsp of butter. Remove from the heat, mix in a tsp of plain flour. Pour the juices from the roasting pan, into the saucepan, whisking as you go. Leave on a medium heat. This will make the gravy, the like you never get out of a tub! It is chickeny, garlicky, lemony.......blissfully yummy! While this is happening leave your potatoes in the now dry roasting tin to crisp up slightly.
There you have it, perfect potatoes, perfect chicken, perfect gravy!
Serve with greens, a glass of cheer and good company!

Lick your plate clean!
Hope for some left overs (fat chance in our house!)

x

The First of the Five Major Food Groups...

I feel it only proper to start my contribution to this food blog, by demonstrating the very first and very important of the five major food groups, essential for living... I couldn't possibly begin dinner tonight without Mummy's 'Little Helper' - the Gin bottle.
"Sloe Gin" yum yum - not even made by me, but my fantasy lover 'Gordon' (more about him at a later date).
Gin + Tonic + Garden Mint + Lemon + Lime + Ice = happy me :)

The Other 4 major food groups you ask?
- alcohol (as shown)
- chocolate (of course)
- cake (the food of gods)
- lemons (to prevent scurvy, obviously)
- and water (to prevent dying)

Cheers Darlinks x A toast to you all.
P.s. I do genuinely want a good recipe for SLOE GIN - anyone point me in the direction of a tried and tested method?