Rocket Pesto

A fiery summer pesto, and a solution to all that rocket going to too quickly to seed.

My preferred pesto is one that both catches the flavours and textures of each separate ingredient, and at the same time appears as a whole, an entity unto its own.  Hmmmm.  The only guide to making it therefore is your own tastebuds.  I go about it something like this :

Fill a colander with Rocket.  Toast a handful of Sunflower Seeds. Grate some Parmesan (miss out if vegan).  Chop the Rocket by hand. [A Pesto made in a blender does not hold the beauty, the texture of a hand chopped pesto, and it really is no more efficient.]  Chop Garlic (fresh if available) with a pinch of coarse Salt.  Cover the Rocket in Olive Oil (and/or mixed with Sunflower Oil according to taste). 

Now add the other ingredients, tasting as you go, until you come to a powerful medley of the green, the nutty, the punch of Garlic, body given by the Cheese, the lot doused in Oil.  Finally, add a touch more Salt to taste.  Remembering the Parmesan is salty, but its saltiness is of a different nature to that of seasalt, you should be able to taste both.

This pesto can be eaten on bread, pasta, in potato salad, on carrots, in Vinaigrette, or in Courgette Soup ...oh the options are endless.

To preserve the pesto cover in oil, and close in a jar.  The layer of oil makes an airtight seal.  It will last about six months thus.  Or, simply freeze it.

Other Pestos :
Garden Pesto
Nettle Pesto
Wild Garlic Pesto

Blackberries - wi' Beetroot Relish, wi' Cinnamon Whisky, in Vinegar et cetera

Beetroot, Blackberry and Walnut Relish


Apparently nonsensical, it is often colours that define choices of food combinations.   Not quite for this reason alone, I decided to give a touch of the wild to a conventional Beetroot Relish, with the addition of Blackberries and Apples.   More likely, I based my choice on an only-part-forgotten Beetroot and Blackcurrant Relish espied once in the Riverford Cookbook, but the colour, as well as the gluts of berries nearing their end on plentiful briars outside the house, were certainly influential factors in the concoction of this recipe.


On cooking, my head was chiming with shouts of Chilli! Horseradish! Ginger!  But I forestalled such fervour, deciding that the addition of Blackberry was quite quirky enough. Indeed, on bringing a pot to dinner that evening,  there was already a raised eyebrow, a giggle, a sneer...


1/2lb Blackberries, 4 medium Beetroot, 1 Apple, 1 Onion, 100ml Apple Juice, 100ml Cider Vinegar, 100ml Balsamic Vinegar, 1tbsp Blackberry Jam (optional), 100g Sugar, Port (optional), handful Walnuts (optional).


Heat half the Blackberries in the Apple Juice, till cooked, strain and keep the juice.  Grate the apple into this juice, bring to simmer, stir in Jam, set aside.  Heat Vinegars with Sugar and add grated raw Beetroot and chopped Onion, turning so that all the ingredients are covered.  Add Apple and Blackberry Juice.  Stir.  Add slosh of Port rest of Blackberries and Walnuts, simmer a minute longer.  Press into hot sterilised jars, seal.  Leave for a month (although it is lovely immediately) and serve as a sweet/sharp addition to rich wintry meats.

Unlike the Bullace, Port and Walnut Jam, which is given edge by the tartness of the fruit, this is incredibly sweet.  In the future I would indeed add something fiery to lift it.  If making this yourself, why not slice in a Chilli with the Onion, or grate in some Horseradish...

Despite my convincing myself this is a Relish, it has turned out not unlike my Beetroot Pickle, I rather thought the Sugar and Jam would make it more of a spread - I understand a Relish to be something between a Pickle and a Chutney.  In future to make it more Relish-like I shall try cooking it for longer.

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Blackberry and Cinnanmon Whisky

I have had to turn my thoughts from simply: preserving, to: preserving in the most practical manner... So, despite enjoying the flamboyant, the flippant and the fun, I have started questioning what is really necessary.  It might seem odd that I am talking about practicality under the seemingly superfluous heading of Blackberry Whisky.  But, I am headily conscious of living in a chilly house, am predicting another icy winter, and know well that a nip of something sweet and strong is not only pleasant, but vital on those winter eves...

My recipe went thus:  Fill a very large bottle (1.5lt) to a third with Blackberries (about 250g), cover these in Sugar (about 250g), add 1 bottle cheap Whisky (1lt) and a splash of very good single malt.  I also added a Cinnamon stick.  Shake the lot, and leave in bottle, shaking on occasion, for three months. Strain through muslin, drink when necessary.  The addition of the Single Malt ( a tip for any impoverished Whisky-lover) is said, in a mere drop, to transfer the flavour of the malt to the cheaper stuff.

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Blackberry and Elderberry Vinegars

Another practicality is how can we make what we tend to buy.  So, vinegar-phile that I am, I was delighted when Carl Legge shared Sandor Ellix Katz's recipe for DIY Vinegar.  Having a so-far-successful Apple/Crabapple Vinegar on the go, I decided yesterday to try Blackberry Vinegar, Elderberry Vinegar and Quince Vinegar.  Rather than using the whole fruits, I have used the Apple and Quince skins and cores, potting and pasteurising the fruits themselves (see pic below).

Briefly: Fill a 2pt Mason Bowl with washed cores and skins of Apples and about 100g of Berries.  Cover with 1pt of 10% Sugar Solution at room temperature.  Place plate on top to keep fruit under liquid and cover with tea-towel.  Leave until starts fermenting, stirring on ocassion if deemed necessary.  After about a week of fermentation remove fruit.  Continue as before, when convincingly vinegar-like, strain and bottle - there's your Vinegar!  


For the Quince, I took the skins and cores of a pile of windfalls, fallen during last week's storms, and did as per Carl's recipe.  

Of course, I'm only at stage one, so will relate whether this method is succesful or not once I can confirm.  For further information, please refer to Carl's blog and Sandor's website.

Quince in Syrup - Elderberry and Apple Compote

Pickled Crab Apples - a flamboyant addition to the winter table

Fed up of endless yearly Jelly-Making…Indeed, does it not seem a pity to see the fruits thrown, only the liquid kept, not to mention the vast amounts of sugar demanded?  I was delighted to come across a recipe for pickling Crab Apples.  The idea came from quite one of my favourite forage books: Suzanne Beedell’s Pick Cook and Brew… I picked it up second-hand on the Charing Cross Road years ago, the name alone won me over, and at the time I thought it a gift suited to my father.  It has since been relinquished, and found a home in the cottage here as if meant to be. It's particularly appropriate, as the forager herself lived in North Norfolk - what she found in the seventies can likely still be found locally today.

So, amidst recipes and illustrations for Crab Apple Pudding, Crab Apple Wine…there I read: Crab Apple Pickle.  An incorrigible pickler, this could not fail to whet the appetite.

I altered her recipe to suit me, and pickled as follows:

Heat 750ml Cider Vinegar, 250ml Apple Juice, 600g Sugar in a pan stirring until sugar dissolves.  Add 1kg Crab Apples, washed, the blossom end removed, I chose to keep the stalks on an aesthetic whim.  The liquid should cover the Crab Apples.  Add 2in. grated Root Ginger, a few Cloves and Peppercorns, 3 All Spice, 3 Star Anise, 2 Cinnamon Sticks,1tbsp Mustard Seed, and her recipe also calls for garlic cloves wrapped in muslin, to be removed at the end.  (The terrible stench of pickled garlic made me think I would choose onions on another occasion).  Simmer until Crab Apples are tender.  Pot fruit in sterilised jars and reduce syrup if necessary.  Pour syrup over Apples, making sure they are well covered.  Seal immediately.  Leave a few months to mature before eating.

These beautiful pickled yellow fruits would look glorious adorning Beast and Fowl in winter months.  Try also on a Cheese Plate, with Pork, even Suckling Pig.  A sharp bite they make a statement both in taste and looks, cutting through fats and rich flavours… I cannot recommend enough for adding a touch of the ostentatious, the extraordinary, the medieval to a winter banquet.

For other alternate Crab Apple uses, see: Hedgerow Syrup and Carl Legge’s Blackberry Chutney.  Carl also has a recipe for DIY Cider Vinegar, hope maybe to get to that this afternoon..

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I also pickled some beautiful tiny Epicurean Apples.  These were windfalls, and have a great flavour, but are small enough to fit whole in pots.  I used this Recipe, which I used for the Pear windfalls of last year, only replacing the distilled vinegar with White Wine Vinegar and adding some All Spice.

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Follow this link for all the Chutney and Pickle Recipes on this blog.

Potted Figs, Bullace Jam, Pumpkin Chutney...perpetual preserving

Halved Figs to be macerated in Honey, Lemon and Vanilla.

The Figs have been wondrous this year, and indeed, it seems a pity to cook them at all, when, despite an impoverished summer they are sweet, soft and nearly-not-quite comparable with memories of those bursting, bulbous falling from the trees of the Andalusian countryside.  If your tree hasn't produced same sumptuous crop, do bear in mind, as far as I understand, that Fig Trees like stress and sun.  They are often put in pots or planted in amongst builders' rubble against a South-facing wall to encourage fruiting and ripeness.

But, we are unable to eat them all, and besides piling them into a Tagine, as I did last week, potting is an excellent way of preserving them.  That said, drying now comes to mind.  A solar-dehydrator would do the trick, as would a hot no-too-damp greenhouse, or strung up inside the car.  Whether our Figs are sweet enough to preserve successfully dried, and whether Autumnal Norfolk has enough heat, I don't know. (Do let me know of any of your own experiements...)

Potted Figs.  I posted the recipe here when enjoying last-years potted figs, and simply mention it again as it's the season and I've been taking great pleasure in doing so at the cottage.  On this occasion I replaced the Whisky with Brandy and for lack of Vanilla Pod I used good quality (Nielsen-Massey) Vanilla Extract.

As, it seems to be the season of perpetual preserving, do bear in mind that you can also pot Pears, Peaches, Apples along these lines.  In most cases I would take the precaution of pasteurising as well.  On another note, the tradition of Rumtopf offers a great way of preserving fruits for pudding.

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Bullace, Port and Walnut Jam

This recipe was shared by Jules Jackson of De-lish (@dehyphenlish).  It's so good that I was near' pouring scalding hot spoonfuls of the stuff down my throat...only some last hold on reason prevented me.

Place about 2kg of stoned Bullace (Plums, Damsons etc will do equally as well) in a bowl.  Cover with Port and leave to macerate overnight.  The following day bring to the boil.  Take off the heat and add 2kg of Sugar, stirring until dissolved.  Add 400g of Walnuts, halved or quartered as desired.  I also added a good slosh of Balsamic vinegar (red-wine vinegar would do equally) to give the jam a slightly sharp edge.  Bring to heat again and simmer hard until setting-point is reached.  Pot in warmed, sterilised jars.

Despite being called a "Jam", a touch tart, this is really more of a confiture, to be served with savouries, such as Cheeses, Pork and Game.  Mr Jackson resolutely sticks to the term "Jam" merely, I suspect, due to a certain pleasure in the mundanity of the word... Or, indeed, he simply prefers to spick with the Anglicised version. Either way, I am sure this would be quite as dreamy on toast, but, truth told, I'm not really one for spreading jam on toast, and much prefer the savoury combinations...

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Pumpkin and Apple Chutney

Again, it seems a pity to put a Pumpkin in chutney as they store so well as they are.  This chutney was really a result of half a Pumpkin sitting around not being eaten and the eternal Apple glut.  I have quite a variety of Apple Chutney recipes up my sleeve, but this is a blend of the quirky and the traditional.

Chop 2 Onions, half a small Pumpkin (Uchiki Kuri), 8 large Apples (peeled, cored), oh, I see, a handful of green tomatoes (optional!),  1 Chilli (more or less depending on heat) into small pieces.  Grate 2 in. Root Ginger.  Put the lot in a pan with 1lt Cider vinegar.  Bring to the boil then take off heat and add 400g Demarara Sugar, 1 tbsp Corinader Seed, 1 tbsp. black Peppercorns, 1tbsp Brown Mustard Seed, a handful yellow Sultanas, a pinch of salt.  Stir and bring once again to the boil.  Simmer gently for several hours, stirring to prevent sticking.  Once the mixture is considerably reduced and of a thick, sludgy consistency which holds a wooden-spoon upright, it is ready to be potted.  Pot in warmed, sterilised jars.
Leave several months to mature before eating.

Lacto-Fermentation, what's bubbling now...

I won't extrapolate once again about the whys and how-tos of Lacto-Fermentation, I do so all-too-often, and the chat can be found on this blog:  here and particularly in this article that appeared in Permaculture Magazine last year, and also of course on Sandor Ellix Katz's fab Wild Fermentation website.

I thought simply, as I chopped green and purple French beans this afternoon, to share what's fermenting at home now, to show what a range of vegetables can be preserved using this method.  As well as the sauerkraut that I made at the end of July and am eating away - for lunch today with beef carpaccio, raw baby yellow courgettes, cucumber and brown rice with toasted pumpkin seeds...

In the pots fermenting are the following:

Lacto-Fermented Cauliflower (1/2 lt jar)
And, in that jar:  1 Cauli head; 5g Salt; 1tsp whole Cumin; Blackcurrant Leaves; Parsley; Spring Onions; Water.

For those that can't stomach cauliflower this is a great alternative to the cheese sauce disguise, it really peps up the cauliflower, and makes of something dull a spritely veg, excellent too in curries and stir-frys.

Lacto-Fermented Courgettes (1lt jar)
In the jar: Sliced Courgette; Fennel Seedheads; Spring Onions; Fennel Leaves; 10g Salt; Blackcurrant Leaves; Water.

Lacto-fermented Cucumbers and Radishes
3 Whole Cucumbers (pricked); 5 Radishes; Blackcurrant Leaves; fennel Seedheads; Landcress; Rocket; Red Mustard; 10g Salt; Water.

Lacto-Fermented Beans
And this afternoon I made these beans, chopped with Fennel Leaves, 5g of Salt and 3tbsp of Cow's Whey (left over from home-made Cheese), squashed down and covered with water.  The Whey is thick with lactobacilli and works as an alternative catalyst to blackcurrant leaves.  I'll also be doing Lacto-fermented Beetroot, a real favourite, in the next few days.

Hedgerow Syrup and A Line Made by Walking

A chesty cold and sore throat on waking took me to the fields for some dawn air and to gather some of those Elderberries hanging bulbous, big as Blackcurrants, before the birds did.  Wellybooted over pyjamas - for the Elder grows in patches of nettles high as my hips - I stepped out.  The fields dewladen, my steps marked the grass invoking Richard Long's beautiful artwork - A Line Made by Walking.

A Line Made by Walking - Richard Long

The hedgerows brimming with fruits, as well as the Elderberries, I grabbed handfuls of Haws and Rosehips, Blackberries and Wild Apples... a few Crabapples, some wild Plums all to go in the syruppy concoction.  Chopped up the hard fruit, just covered with water in a pan and brought to simmer, then adding the soft fruits (remove the elderberries from their very bitter and cyanide rich stalks using a fork).  Pummel the lot adding a few Cloves, some grated Ginger and half a stick of Cinnamon.   Simmer gently for up to an hour, so the liquid is rich gloopy purple.

Strain for several hours or overnight through muslin.  Then, adding between 500g-750g of sugar per litre of liquid heat once again until the sugar is dissolved, the syrup just boiling.  Pour immediately into sterilised bottles and seal tightly.   The syrup keeps thus for several months, rich in Vitamin C and wild goodness it is somewhere between a cordial and a medicine.  Drink hot or cold, diluting with water, on those cold-ridden days, or wintry evenings by the fire, adding a splash of brandy when necessary.  Otherwise add to Crumbles, Pies and even stews for some late Summer Hedgerow Flavour.

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If you happen to have a steam juicer this concoction can be made without sugar, the steamer will pasteurise the juice and it can likewise be kept in sterilised bottles for several months.

Bullace Gin + Sloe Gin

The season is nigh', to rummage again in the hedgerows, concoct what preserves one might.  The next posts will surely be full of forage and preserving, as we hoard in preparation for the winter.  The weekend was spent on bikes foraging, and this evening a brief stint at Sloe and Bullace Gins.

I have already posted a foolhardy recipe for the Sloe Gin... Here's a brew made with something of our rampant garden hedge - we suspect it is Bullace.

The same recipe applies for Bullace as for Sloe -  about 4pts Gin to 3lb Fruit and 1lb Sugar.
(I notice however the River Cottage handbook suggests equiv: 1.2 pt : 1lb :1lb , so perhaps one should say each to their own, depending (always) on what is to hand, and what feels right)
Shake/stir regularly and allow to mature over several months (at least two).  Then strain through muslin, bottle, and age further in bottles.  My father prides himself on drinking his ancient vintages of the stuff, here in the cottage we have trouble keeping it 'til Summer.  Indeed, my father is so abstemious, he would ne'er pick a Sloe before the first frost.... here, we couldn't wait.  There will surely be a post-frost batch to follow.

Drink these wintry Gins in the depths of the season, huddled by the fire, fill a hip-flask on a blustery walk, or use for a farmhouse Kir aperitif, mixing it with home brewed Elderflower Champagne.  Right now however we're drinking a more sober homemade Blackberry + Lemonade with Water Mint.  (Juice of 3 Lemons, 100g Sugar, a few squashed Blackberries and some Water Mint leaves, topped up with Sparkling Water and Ice if you have.)

Plum Chutney, worth more than a song...

Sunday morning, lain in bed, nursing toothache with an array of Cloves, Whisky, Ice-cubes, Painkillers, anything to hand… and quite draped in the fumes of vinegar rising from the kitchen.

I will sing and sing again for a Chutney, that Anglo-Indian concoction, accompaniment to many a meal.  Yet, Amelia’s Plum Chutney deserves more than a song:  

Rich, magenta, thick with Plumchunks, it somehow retains an almost rawfruit texture whilst being quite the most gloopy Chutney one could dream of.  Smother it on cheese, offer to friends at breakfast, spread on toast when alone or slather over rich meats for a medieval feel… 

She produced a remaining jar in Spring and we’d quite finished it in a day… so, this year, nudging over a box of Early Rivers Plums.  I left her too it:

Stone and halve or quarter 1.5 kilos Plums.  Chop three Apples and Two Onions.  Place the lot in a Jam Pan with a couple of Star Anise, a stick of Cinnamon, Peppercorns and coarse Salt.  Add 750ml Cider-Vinegar and 500g Raw Cane (or Demerara) Sugar.  Bring, stirring, to the boil, then simmer steadily for several hours, stirring to prevent sticking.  The chutney is ready when dark and sludgy, a wooden spoon will stand-up in it unaided.  Pot in sterilised jars and leave at least a month to mature.

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For other Chutney and Pickle recipes and posts see: Chutneys n Pickles

Sauerkraut and Cabbage Kimchi

Besides beautiful 'Slaws, Pot-au-Feu and stir-frying in vinegar, Sauerkraut is quite the best way of rescuing Cabbage from the confined notions we have about the vegetable: insipid, slovenly, "cabbagey" Sauerkraut is not, but sharp, sparky, sexy even, a super accompaniment to meats, cheeses, grains... it will zaz up even the most drear' of dishes.

Make sauerkraut in times of glut as it may require several, using white or red cabbage, very thinly sliced, and adulterate as you wish with favourites leaves, fruit or spices.

For a classic Sauerkraut:
Slice White Cabbage very thinly, layer with Salt (10g per 1lt Jar), Caraway Seeds and Sliced Apple, pushing down as you go.  Eventually the liquid form the cabbage will rise to cover the leaves. Weigh down so the Cabbage remains covered by the water.  Leave thus at room-temperature for about three days, the start of fermentation is marked by bubbling, then move to a cooler place and allow to ferment slowly for at least a month, not being afraid to taste regularly.

(You can also use Rocket, Red-Mustard Leaves, Land Cress, Horseradish Leaves, Fennel, Mustard Seeds or preferred Herbs with the Cabbage in the above recipe.  Blackcurrant Leaves, rife with Lactobacilli might speed up fermentation, Salt keeps it in check.)

For a zestier version, based on the Korean fermented dish, Kimchi:

Chop cabbage with Chillies; grated Horseradish; White, Black or French Radishes, chopped; grated Root Ginger; Spring Onions.  Use your own judgement to measure amounts of each.  Squeeze into jar or crock, layering with Salt (10g to 1lt Jar), until liquid rises. Weigh down and leave to ferment as above.

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For more in-detail information about Lacto-Fermentation, please refer to earlier posts:  The Art of Lacto-Fermentation, Purge!, Fermentation Fervour, Wild Fermentation (review)      
or Sandor Ellix Katz's Wild Fermentation website.
See also Carl Legge's posts on Fermenting and particularly this one about Kimchi.

On that Gooseberry Theme... Here's a Gin

With the gooseberries still fruiting, I couldn't (of course) refrain from making a bottle of the Gin.  The Juniper bitterness of Gin seems to combine with many a fruit:  in Summer it's Gooseberries and Whitecurrants (here I've combined the two), in Winter Damsons (drool) and that ol' hip-flask filler: Sloe Gin.

I ad-libbed, but let's say:  300g Fruit to 150g Sugar and 600ml Gin.

Top, tail and prick the Gooseberries, slightly squish the Whitecurrants, cover with the Sugar and Gin. Put in a lidded bottle and shake regularly over the next two months.  Then strain and bottle for sumptuous height-of-summer-filled Gin and Tonics...

Elderflower Champagne, Elderflower and Gooseberry Vodka, Pickled Gooseberries.

In an expression of culinary nous, the Elderflower and Gooseberry Seasons just overlap, offering myriad excuses to combine the tart berries with the diaphanous sweet-scented flowers.  Be it in an Elderflower and Gooseberry Fool, a Champagne, a Marmalade, or as here in Vodka.

Elderflowers are best picked on a bright early morning when the volatile oils are rising.  Choose unblemished flowers in blossom.  ‘tis the season, and the season is short, with the current heat and winds the flowers will soon be over.  So, on a spritely Sunday morning - to pick! 

A simple recipe for Elderflower Champagne, using the wild yeasts gathered on the blossom, tried and tested in several gallon quantities, by Christophe, brewer extraordinaire on Macalla Ecofarm, Clare Island, is the following:

5 heads of Elderflower (shaken for bugs) ; 1 Lemon (very finely sliced); 500g Sugar, 1 tbsp Cider Vinegar (White Wine if to hand), 5lt Water.

Put the lot in a fermenting bucket, stir, cover with a tea-towel, and leave to ferment stirring regularly to dissolve the sugar, for three to four days, depending on the rate of fermentation. Then bottle in sterilised screw-top bottles and keep for a month at least before drinking.

Put the lot in a fermenting bucket

A momentary panic set in here, when my own batch failed to start fermenting. Perhaps due to the temperature of this house, where even my Sourdough takes a full twenty-four hours as opposed to the usual ten.

The unsettling time is now over, a flash of sunshine had the brew in burgeoning effervescence.  And yesterday afternoon, smartly, for over fermenting in air can turn the drink acrid, the Champagne was strained through muslin and bottled using a siphon.  Already a glorious, if slightly sweet, sparkling Elderflower wine, the in-bottle fermentation will allow the flavour to mature and, I believe, ferment the remaining sugars.

A couple of litres was kept aside to ferment for Wine in an airlocked Demijohn... As I stacked the many bottles into the Shed, alongside the other pickles and preserves, and saw the Garden Shed/Pantry 'plenishing I was reminded of a Macalla Farm adage:   We may have holes in our clothes, but we are rich... 

 

Inspired by With Knife and Fork’s “Elderflower Rush”, and having picked a lot of gooseberries to encourage better fruiting, I decided to attempt Elderflower and Gooseberry Rush:

Elderflower and Gooseberry Vodka

Top and tail 200g Gooseberries and pierce.  Add these, 5 heads of Elderflower, 250g of Sugar and 70cl Vodka to a Demijohn.  Shake well to help dissolve sugar.  Store in a cool dark place, shaking regularly for the first month.  Strain and Bottle.  Mature in bottle for a further month.

Pickled Gooseberries

The River Cottage Preserves Handbook, a handy-sized guide to the multitudinous means of preserving, lured me, and with it in hand I soon found myself pickling the remaining Gooseberries.  Sadly, as is perhaps painfully evident as I write, I am far from adept at following recipes.  The Pickled Gooseberries turned out quite other to the gleaming tender pink/green berries I had envisaged bedecked in a rich gloopy coating of cinnamon-spiced vinegary syrup – No!  Mine were a rather watery hotchpotch of Gooseberry seeds and skin in various merging pallid tones.

"a rather watery hotchpotch of Gooseberry seeds and skin in various merging pallid tones"

From this description, I know you cannot but wish to get hold of my own variation on the recipe.  I thus include it herewith:

Top and tail 200g Gooseberries (pert, green).

Put 150ml Cider Vinegar and 150ml Cider, Cinnamon, Cloves, Root Ginger in a pan.  Boil. Simmer for 5 mins.  Leave to cool.  Once cool, strain and place Gooseberries and ¼ Red onion thinly sliced in the mixture, 2tsp Mustard Seeds and a Chilli.  Heat slowly without bringing to the boil (I fear I cooked my own too quick, encouraging the Gooseberries to fall to pieces). Simmer very very slowly until Gooseberries tender.  Strain, keeping liquid.  Pack fruits into warm, sterilised jars. Meanwhile add 200g sugar to liquid and reduce to a thick syrup. Cover the Gooseberries in Syrup.  Seal and keep for a month before eating, allowing the Gooseberries to fully pickle.

Prior to making, I had imagined the berries served with a Camembert or a Pyrenean Ewes Cheese. However, at the result, I think this would be more appropriate served with Mackerel in a pickled variation on the Maquereau aux Groseilles theme.

Pickled Beetroot, The Frugal Meal

This is a house of pickles.  Our breakfast, a poached local egg, (be it Chicken, Duck or even Turkey), a slice of Rye Sourdough and a Pickle of sorts, perhaps a spicy home-made Sauerkraut, Sweet Pickled Cucumbers, a briny Green Chilli… whatever sits beckoning on the dedicated shelf… an apparently frugal meal is in fact a feast.

Poached Turkey Egg on Sourdough with various Pickles

Gifted or gleaned the veg box is also often brimming. And fed up with several weeks of watching some once very fetching beetroot shrivelling, I decided yesterday to pickle them… in a month’s time these will provide a welcome variation on the breakfast table. 

Boil up: 50ml Apple Juice, 100ml Cider Vinegar, 100ml Balsamic Vinegar, 1/2tbsp Demerara Sugar, 6 peppercorns, 6 cloves, 1 tsp brown mustard seeds, I tsp coriander seed.

Add grated remains of 5 shrunken beets and ½ in. grated Root Ginger.  Bring to the boil again, then pot rapidly in sterilised jar with a pair of bay leaves, covered in the vinegar mix.  Allow at least a month to mature.

Eat Pickled Beetroot with: Goat's Cheese, serve with Mackerel to cut through the oil, with Pates and Rich Meats to give some bite or, simply, with a spoonful of yogurt on a bowl of Lentils.

This pickling Recipe can be used as a basis for pickling many a vegetable.  You might want to replace the Apple Juice with Orange or skip it all together, and although the Balsamic goes well with Beetroot, in a conventional pickle I would use a simpler Vinegar, such as Cider.

Other Pickle Recipes:  A Pickled Pear ; Pickled Gooseberries

 Le repas frugal, Pablo Picasso

Tomato Chilli Cinnamon Chutney, a note on experimentation.

With experimental preserving, the tendency is to concoct a certain food on one inspired day, to eat it several months later and in the mean time to have forgotten what impulsion gave rise to said concoction.

There is but one way:  A very meticulous method of noting down experiments and recipes (step 1) is imperative, to be  followed by a taking down of results: tasting notes/success or otherwise (step 2) in order that processes may be repeated, altered, improved etc…

All too oft’ I find myself wondering yet another time how on earth I had preserved a certain jar of tomatoes, or what quantities of salt I had used in that perfect sauerkraut.

There are many methods and each to his own, I love to write the recipe on the label of the jar, but 'tis utterly impractical, tending to have faded or run when eventually the preserve is tasted.

All this to say: 

On Clare Island, in the depths of the stores:  a small jar of last year’s Tomato Chilli Cinnamon Chutney.  An eccentric experiment, that had now had time to mature.

And what a chutney!  The sweetness of the Summer-ripened tomatoes was picked up by the Cinnamon and then, all at once, a sharp chilli bite… it spread thick like butter and deep rusty red, it was quite the marvel of the crowd.

For once, I had written the recipe down, and still had to hand the little book I had inscribed it in, here it is:

Tomato Chilli Cinnamon Chutney, an experiment.

3lb of the Tomato glut (eat your best and ripest raw and sweet, use the rest for chutney)

1 lb Onions

1 lb Demarara

1 pt Vinegar

3-6 Chillies (according to strength)

2-3 Sticks of Cinnamon (ground)

Bring the lot to the boil.

Reduce, simmering and stirring till thick and sludgy. (a spoon should stand up in it)

Pot in Sterilised Jars.

Allow to mature several months, then gorge with friends.

Chillies on Clare Island

An 'elpful 'int from 'Arry

oho, I have tales to tell... a week away in the West of Ireland and I am brimming... tales of such ebullient gastronomy I can bare withhold... but first, a note from Harry's pantry: 

 

POMEGRANATE and ORANGE BLOSSOM VINEGAR

 

i thought you might be interested in the attached and wonder if you've come across it before? i bought it at a lebanese stall the other day, and it's truly delicious. the ingredients look pretty straightforward, so no doubt you could make your own - white wine vinegar, pomegranate molasses, sugar and orange blossom water - and i'm having fun experimenting with it in salads, with oils, dressing grilled meats and sometimes just a nip from the bottle. complex and sprightly, it's magic stuff. and of course a little goes a long way.

p.s. and have you ever had a spoonful of madeira in your porridge for breakfast? if not, do!