Thursday 27 September 2012

Baking and making

The recent snap of cooler weather has seen me, like Dan, in the kitchen making things. It not only keeps me warm but is usually very productive.

We found a small container at the back of the freezer and after opening and sniffing, decided it contained quite old loganberries.

They were thawed, put in the bottom of a dish with some sugar and topped with sponge. The slightly pink tone happened when I added the thawed loganberry juice to the sponge!


I forgot to take an 'after' photograph, but it was very nice over two days with evaporated milk, then custard. It came out a mucky brown colour due to the addition of berry juice but the flavour was unaffected.

Piccalilli came next. I have many recipes for this but last year tried the one entitled Pam's Piccalilli courtesy of this page: Pams Piccalilli

I did amend it this year by adding slightly more honey (60g rather than 50g) and next year it will be amended again to reduce the turmeric to 7g and increase the mustard powder to get it a slightly lighter colour. Overall though, it is nice tasting and all the vegetables have a lovely crunch.

Here are the vegetables being steeped in salt overnight. I used green tomatoes, radish, carrots, green beans and pepper, courgette, cauliflower and celery.



All my other recipes call for the vegetables to be boiled in the sauce for anywhere between 10 and 15 minutes. This one doesn't. 

However, I always worry about botulism or some such thing, especially when it is being given as a gift. With that in mind, this year instead of boiling the sauce on its own for 4-5 minutes, I added the vegetables to the sauce for this length of time.


I had washed and sterilized the jars in the oven,  and managed to make 5 medium sized jars from her recipe. I just need to label them before storing for 6 weeks. After that, it will be ready to eat.


7 comments:

  1. We had never had loganberries until we traveled to Copenhagen. We ate a sauce that reminded me of the cranberry sauce we serve here. My husband loved it. I've not found any in our area, but someone suggested I try Ikea....only problem is Ikea is more than 5 hours from here...lol.

    The Piccalilli looks great. I pickled mixed veggies this year and I'm waiting the few months the recipe says to wait before we try them. They should be ready around November.

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  2. I wonder if it is lingonberry sauce you might be thinking of. Lingonberries are similar to cranberries whereas loganberries are a cross between a raspberry and blackberry. Either way, I bet it was lovely to eat.

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  3. That made me laugh, I can just imagine you poking and sniffing at a bag of something in the freezer. I do that. Mostly with sauces or stocks that I didn't label properly while muttering, what is it? The piccalilli looks lovely.

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    1. We too have a couple of sauces in the freezer unlabelled for some reason. Once they are thawed, if we can identify them and they smell okay, they get used.

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  4. It may have been. I'm not sure. He loved to eat it on toast...lol.

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  5. Hello, Pattypan here. This is the recipe that I have used ever since the Preserves book came out; its the best one to date.(I too used to use a recipe where the vegetables were cooked and at least with this recipe the vegetables remain crisp. The brining, and the vinegar should kill off any nasties. I haven't had any problems yet - the only thing I do do is that I keep an eye on the contents of each jar and once opened they are fridged. I used marrow, tomatoes, red pepper, courgettes, shallots, red onion, white onion, cauliflower, green beans, and carrots. I always make at least four times the recipe (I obtain about 16/18 jars depending on what sized jar used. When I first started making it I was nervous about the spicing and did not use the full quota; but as I have gone on I have added the full spicing. My OH absolutely loves this recipe. The only thing I tend not to use is the cucumber because it tends to go mushy. It then has a warning on it with "hands off" for at least six weeks for it to mature before he is even allowed to open a jar of it. Bit mean, but I like the preserves to be right and I know what he is like with picallili he would eat me out of house and home.

    Take care

    Pattypan

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    1. Hi Pattypan, I too think it is the best one as far as crunchiness of the vegetables goes. We do like a lighter looking one though so will fiddle with the turmeric and mustard next year.

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