Tag Archives: preserving

In a bit of pickle

#NABLOMPOMO: Preserving pan playing

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I learned some valuable preserving lessons today.

And by the way, there wasn’t anything in the goodies that I had actually sown and grown. Just putting that out there.

We’ve had the jelly disaster, of a sort, before. With that rhubarb jelly that didn’t set. Well, I was adamant that I would learn to set it. Rhubarb, I learn, has little pectin. Explains why it didn’t set, plus I probably didn’t boil it long enough.

So we set ourself another challenge. How about yellow plum jelly, as we try to get the jelly to set.

Plums contain pectin, I wanted to make sure that this was the truth. As variable as they are, I want this jelly to well…gel.

We would follow the same process. Boil up the fruit, with a lemon, in water. Till it went squishy, and then we dripped it over the night time. That was okay, I did that. This morning, we boiled up the solution. It had a kick, i had thrown in a scotch bonnet.

Boiling up, there was the jam thermometer positioned on the edge. Ma and I were watching it get to setting temp, 104. We kept it there, and made sure it was at a rolling boil. A rolling boil, for a while, til the solution had reduced, and was harder to stir, and the liquid was gloopy and on the turn as it were.

I learned that this was important, the rolling boil, the turning to gloop. I had clearly missed a trick. This is to be retained for later.

There was lot preserving today, I was in the mood for experimentation and getting things right. I just need to work out how to stop sugar crystals forming.

In a bit of pickle

#NABLOPOMO: That Rhubarb jelly

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Well, yesterday, with good intentions, we extracted the juice from the rhubarb. It was left in the jelly bag over night, and we ended up with a fair bit of liquid. I awoke this morning, earlier that I would on a normal Sunday, to finish the job.

And tried to finish the job. Using sugar, weighed in relation to the liquid, and adding pectin powder, Ma and I set the pan boiling. We got it to 104 degrees C. We both watched the pan boil and the sugar thermometer hit the temperature.

That was boil one. We left it, hoping that it would set.

And we waited. We hoped.

Cue reboil two.

We thought about the pectin, perhaps we should add some more. The liquid-which tastes quite nice actually, was boiled once more. It even had the skin-like miniscus setting across the top.

But it’s gloopy. Syrupy pudding or porridge topper. A bit disappointed, but it’s still edible!

In a bit of pickle

#NABLOPOMO: Jam pan Jelly time

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At Christmas, Santa Claus delivered me a jelly bag and stand. Til now, I have not had any clear idea as what to do with it, or any fruit for that matter. However, rhubarb has started making an appearance on the plot. Whilst mine is still small and in it’s infancy, a plot neighbour has loads that he is more than happy to share.

So I asked if I could possibly scrump some for an experiment.  “Oh, sure she can take some, she came and asked like a lady,” he told my mum, who had already told me off anyway.

Harvested just over three pounds, I needed that much anyway as I also had some plums to add. All in all, I have used four pounds of fruit today.

The recipe was simple, provided to me by the lovely Preesall Preserves. Stew the rhubarb, water and ginger until the fruit was soft. Put all into a jelly bag, Then do the boil and setting point thing later with the sugar being measured in relation ot the liquid volume. I haven’t got that far yet. I am leaving this over night, and will attempt to boil and set tomorrow. I am using normal sugar, and for the first time ever, using powdered pectin. The fruits were stewed with a lemon, just to see if there was any pectin in the plums.

Hopefully, tomorrow, we might have a jelly. Or to give it it’s proper name, ‘Watson’s right hook’ zingy rhubarb and Plum  jelly. Cross your fingers!

NaBloPoMo, success, Taking stock

#NABLOPOMO: Preserving with the plot

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It’s lovely to reduce the air miles, and have homegrown produce. However, you do get to a point, where if you have another courgette, you might get a bit twitchy. Plus people start to avoid you as you are likelyt to foist squashes on them and they don’t want to see another courgette either.

Preserving presents you with an opportunity to do something else with your crops when you have an excess. A glut can be rather frustrating, when you have all this beautiful produce and you don’t want it here and now. It did take me a while to get into preserving. I just didn’t think that there was anything else to be done, bar my mum cooking with things that grew on the allotment. It was only when I stumbled across a recipe for a courgette chutney recipe that had Indian undertones, that the penny dropped. I had courgettes, Ma’s pantry, and spices. The three could go together. I had already tried to pickle garlic and shallots. Got it wrong, and the things are stil in ma’s pantry. Edible, but forgotten.

The point being, that you didn’t have to wander around trying to give your crops away. You can keep them, just change the form that they take.

Just like growing, I have found the process of preserving to be experimental. There are lots recipes out there to help, from jams, jellies, chutneys and relishes. You only have to take a quick look into a search engine, and also share with other allotment neighbours and folks who GYO.  Recipes are good starting points, and open to a spot of deviation when you work out what you do and don’t like.

It is wonderfully rewarding,  if and when the jams set, and you don’t burn the bottom of your pan. Then there is the jam thermometre that you might bash a little too much.

There there is cordials and homebrews. I have yet to embark of wine making. But infusions are rather interesting to do. Relatively low maintenance too, once you put all the ingredients in, the jars of alcohol and fruit can be left and you come back later to check.

 

In a bit of pickle

Inaugral Aubergine and Mint Chutney

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aubchut

The jam pan has been sat idle since the summer, I’ve not done anything since then in terms of maslin pan preserving. Until now. Woke up today with the intention of avoiding all school work, quite a bit of that’s been done over the last few weeks. Today, we were going to make a variation on aubergine and mint chutney that I experimented with last year. Rummaged in the shed to retrieve the jars to be used. Washed them out, sterilised them. Today, we were to chutney.

I had to go find aubergines, I’m not growing any and not at this time of year anyway. Ma wouldn’t let me pinch the ones that she and Dad were going to have for their dinner. Four medium aubergines took a while to chop. Not to mention the red onions and fleshy tomatoes. The red pepper was simple enough. As well a few spices from Ma’s pantry and red wine vinegar. Did I mention the dozen or so dried chillies? It’s a good thing that chutney changes flavour with time. At the moment, chillies and red wine vinegar make for an interesting combination.

This started out as a me thing. I will make chutney today.

chutneymama

I was wrong, the ‘production manager’, namely my mum was going to  help. She’d help me, if she could carry out her own seed sowing experiment, She has saved some indian baby pumpkin seeds, and wants to sow them into pellets. Plus, if the two of us chop, then it doesn’t take too long. She’d also, dragged along the stool before I could occupy the hob. I was not going to get a look in, and this is, after all, her kitchen. I spent a lot of the process by her elbow as she tended over the jam pan. Plus, the mint in question, is her home grown mint. Harvested and dried, it’s in there somewhere.

In a bit of pickle

Preserving Prep: stashing jars

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jars

Since last year’s preserving and pickling experiments, I have been on the scrounge for empty jam and sauce jars. I have been collecting them from the house kitchen, friends and colleagues. Not knowing, how many I had actually stuffed into Dad’s shed. Ma has been telling me that there were quite a few that were stashed, and I should probably want to check how many. I have been very fortunate, that a dear friend of my is currently weaning one of her lovely kids. So this has meant that I have been able to freecycle her baby food jars. Some of them have lids, some don’t. Not too worried about that, as I have been using cling film to seal in contents. Tidied up Dad’s shed and stashed nearly hundred of the baby food jars. There are about thirty other miscellaneous jars also stored there. Turns out I have quite a few, and I still want to collect more. To get me started last year, I did buy some ‘proper’ jars and these were used quite well. Even had labels on, with the figure holding carrots-you know the one, the avatar on the blog. That is my brand! Have had a look into trade marking it, so the is a firm idea of what the blog and allotment experiments are all about. (And yes, that is apparently what I look like too). A perfectly unique image, created by the same artist in residence who last year planted potatoes and tulips, remember him?

It’s not quite you know, the Del Boy traders thing yet. I know that using baby food jars is okay for small scale preserving that might be for home, family and colleagues. Less so, If this was all a small business enterprise and I was selling commercially. I know that there are rules and regulations about packaging too. All will be looked into, should this ever get off the ground as it were.

That is the dream though, to marry up Psychology, counselling, allotmenteering with preserving and pickling. One day!