Tipsy Lady Marmalade

Seville oranges are in season (less than 2 euros per kilo in the market) and the weather is uninspiring and grey outside- so, a good time to get out the preserving pan again and brighten things up with some home made marmalade.

I am actually a novice marmalade maker- so this was a bit of an adventure.
I looked for an easy recipe- and here it is:







Easy Marmalade

Makes 2.5 kilos

7 Seville oranges (scrubbed)
2 sweet oranges (scrubbed)
1 lemon (scrubbed)
1.3 kilos sugar

1. Put the whole fruits and 1.7 litres of water into a large pan and simmer for an hour until soft.

Boiled and softened fruit

2. Allow to cool (preferably overnight), then take out the fruit and cut it in half. Squeeze out the juice and put it back into the pan and pick out the pips.
3. Put these into a square of muslin and tie with string.

Pips all bundled up

4. Put the peel and flesh into a food processor and pulse coarsely
5. Make the liquid in the pan back up to 1.4 litres
6. Dissolve the sugar slowly in the cooking liquid and add the bag of pips, tied to the side of the pan.
7. Stir in the chopped fruit and bring up to a rolling boil.
8. Boil for 25-30 minutes until the marmalade reaches setting point (105 degrees) or when a spoonful of it placed on a cold saucer wrinkles and 'sets'.

I was lucky enough to be given a jam thermometer at Christmas- which took a lot of the guesswork out of reaching setting point. However, I read that adding two tablespoons of whisky to the cooled marmalade will help with a stubborn set- and enhance the flavour somewhat too!

Ready to set and go!

Talking of whisky, I don't really drink the stuff (except on Burns Night of course)- but it can add a certain je ne sais quoi to various dishes. I use it to bring my Scottish Shortbread together and it adds a lovely smooth, toffee-like flavour to the biscuits:

Whisky Shortbread

Whisky Shortbread

The best shortbread is made with a ratio of 3:2:1 (eg. 300g flour, 200g butter, 100g sugar). I like to replace 1 tbsp of the flour with cornflour to lighten it a little.

Just put all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until fine. Add two caps of whisky and pulse until it comes together in a soft dough.

Turn out into a greased baking tin, press evenly to fill the space and bake at 150 degrees for 15 minutes or so until lightly golden. (Keep an eye on it, as you don't want it to overcook).

Once out of the oven, prick with a fork all over and mark into slices.

Sprinkle with vanilla sugar et voila!

I am looking forward to tasting my marmalade with fresh French bread or croissants- but it will go well in either of these dishes too. (Better still, if you want to use up leftover shop bought stuff before luxuriating in your homemade preserve.)

Sticky Marmalade Cake:

http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.fr/search?q=marmalade

Souffled Marmalade Pud:

http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.fr/search/label/marmalade

Cookery Club was interesting this week too, from a fruity point of view. We made 'Pommes au Four au Porto' (Baked Apples in Port Wine). Thanks to Michelle for the recipe and demonstration.

Les Pommes Au Porto de Michelle

Ingredients: (for 4)

4 dessert apples
4 dessertspoons raisins blonds or sultanas
15g butter
4 tsp golden caster sugar
white port or dry sherry

1. The day before, soak the raisins in port
2. Wash and then hollow out the apples, but don't completely core- you don't want to go all the way through

Hollow out the apples

3. Put a knob of butter in each apple

Butter in!

4. Then a spoonful of raisins

Raisins in!

5. Pour over some more port and sprinkle on the sugar

Pour on the port generously!

6. Bake at 180 degrees for 45 minutes, basting occasionally with the syrup.

Pommes Au Porto

They look a little like I feel after all this boozy cooking!

Time for a little siesta now.

There are a few more cooking events coming up before I set sail for England again. I don't want to spoil the surprise but here is a little hint of what is to come:

Jam tomorrow

Well. maybe I'm exaggerating a bit..

My jam-making exploits of late summer have been well documented on this blog- and I've returned home to the UK with a good selection to take us through Christmas. However, there were quite a few jars of shop bought jam and chutney in my cupboards that I discovered on my return.

But obviously they need to be used up- and as quickly as possible! Who wants to spread those on their bread when they can have the real thing?

I began with a quick jammy fruit crumble- frozen red berries mixed with 2 tbsp bramble jelly and a little fruit juice and topped with a sweet crumble topping:

Stir jam into frozen berries..

The remaining bramble jelly I used up in jam tarts- here used as part of an autumn cafe gourmand with creme anglaise, mini crumble and blackberries.

Autumn Cafe Gourmand

And in 'Apples in Dressing Gowns'- a German dish:

Apples in Dressing Gowns

Peel and core a dessert apple and lay out on some leftover shortcrust pastry

Fill with chopped dates, sultanas and a good squirt of golden syrup

Paint with jam all over

Wrap up well in the pastry and bake at 180 degrees

Marmalade went into a Sticky Marmalade Cake

Sticky Seville Cake

http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/marmalade%20cake

and into Rum Punch sauce for ice cream.

http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=rum+punch+sauce

Next, I used some leftover mango chutney and fruit chutney (half a jar each) to make Chicken and Chutney Tagine. Here is the recipe:

You will need a selection of chicken quarters ( drumsticks and thighs), 1 lemon, 4 tsp tagine spice (I buy mine from a spice seller in the market but you can get it anywhere- or make your own combination), 1 tsp chilli, 1 tin chopped tomatoes, half a jar each of mango chutney and other fruit chutney, 1 onion, 1 fat clove of garlic (crushed) and any of the following that you like or have in the store cupboard- 1 tin chick peas, handful green olives, handful dried apricots or dates, handful sultanas....you choose.

Skin the chicken quarters and marinade overnight in the juice and grated rind of the lemon mixed with the tagine spice.

Marinade the chicken

The next day, fry the chopped onion and garlic and place in a slow cooker or tagine pot. Then fry the chicken quarters to brown them

Brown quickly

Add these to the pot, then deglaze the pan with the chutney and a cup of water

Deglaze the pan with the chutney

Pour over the chicken, add the chilli, tomatoes, and your chosen extra ingredients.

Cook in the slow cooker for 4-6 hours on low, or in the oven at 160 degrees for 2 hours or so.

Chicken and Chutney Tagine

Leftovers can be wrapped in filo or feuilles de brick, sprinkled with sesame seeds and baked at 180 degrees to make Chicken Pastillas.

Chicken and Chutney Pastillas

And finally- if you need some ideas for using up honey, there is a whole blogpost here for you to peruse featuring some of my favourites like Sticky Sausages and Caviare of Aubergines,

http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/honey

So, contrary to the popular saying, we did have jam yesterday, jam today and- yes- probably
tomorrow!

                             

Says who?

Each Peach, Pear, Plum...

All this, and apples too.







It gives me huge pleasure to look out on my French fruit trees in my little corner of the Auvergne and see them all laden.

The view this morning

Despite a heatwave, I have been happily boiling, potting and labelling up jars of jam, chutney and jelly and making cakes, pies and compotes with it all.

For each of the recipes in this blog post, you can substitute peaches, pears or plums for the apple.

The peaches will be ready in a couple of weeks

Maybe another week on the pears

But the apples are plentiful!

When we drove up, the fireworks to celebrate Assumption Day lit up the path and showed bucketfuls of windfall apples already lying on the ground. Swift action was required.

I made my first batch of Apple and Thyme Jelly the next day.

You need 3lbs of windfall or cooking apples, 3 lbs of sugar,  a litre of water, 1 tbsp fresh chopped thyme and half a bottle of liquid pectin.

Wash and trim the apples of any bad bits, chop and core them but leave the peel on.
Put the fruit in the pan with the water, cover and simmer until the fruit is soft enough to mash with a potato masher.

Spoon the mixture into a clean jelly bag and leave overnight to drip into a bowl. You will collect a surprising amount of juice.

Drain through a jelly bag

Make the juice up to a litre again if necessary and put back in the pan with the sugar.

Bring to a rolling boil and boil rapidly for 2 minutes.

Add the thyme and boil for another 2 minutes.

Add the pectin and boil for another minute.

Place a spoonful of the mixture on a cold saucer and test for a set. It should part easily when you run a finger through it, without running back, and the surface should wrinkle. If not, keep boiling and testing until you are satisfied.

When ready to set, skim the surface and strain once again to remove the thyme. It will have worked its magic.

Pour into sterilised jars ( a hot wash in the dishwasher does the trick) and label.

Pour into sterilised jars

It will be set and ready to eat even by the following morning.

This recipe makes 5 lbs of jelly.

A huge thunderstorm brought down another bucket full of apples-

and these I made into compote (stewed with ginger, cinnamon and sugar and then mashed ) for the freezer.

Apple Compote

I also made chutney.

Here is my Curried Apple and Sultana Chutney recipe:

You need 500g of sultanas, 1.5 kg of peeled and chopped apples, 2 large onions (chopped), 3-4 big garlic cloves (crushed), 1 -2 dessertspoons powdered ginger, 1 heaped tablespoon of curry powder, 675g of sugar, 2 tsp salt, 1 litre of cider vinegar.
Put all the ingredients in a heavy pan and mix thoroughly. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 45 minutes or until you have the right consistency ( a wooden spoon scraped through a dollop of the mixture should leave a gap which doesn't quickly refill with liquid ).
Pot up in sterilised jars, seal and label.

Curried Apple and Sultana Chutney

This will be repeated when the peches de vigne are ripe- same recipe but I will leave out the curry powder and add some chopped crystallized ginger.

Poaching pears with star anise

The pears I will poach with star anise and keep in the freezer for trifles, tarts and other desserts.

Chocolate and Pear Tartlets

Any good eating apples will go into a tatin or a cake- as will the pears.

Apple Cake

http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/week-11-cooking-for-crowd.html

Pear Trifle
http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.fr/search/label/Speculoos

Plum Tatin
http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.fr/search/label/tarte%20tatin

I am reminded of a French counting rhyme which used to delight my pupils- back in the mists of time when I was a teacher.

Pomme, peche, poire, abricot

Y'en a une, y'en a une

Pomme, peche, poire, abricot

Y'en a une qui est en trop.

Except in this household there is nothing ever en trop!

Happy fruit picking!

Windfalls

A kind friend gave me 3 sacks of windfall apples this week- hence this blog about using them up!

I also began my retirement last Wednesday- which feels like a windfall gift (even if I did have to work 35 long years as a teacher to earn it!)

What better way to spend the first day of my future life of leisure, than happily stewing apples and making chutney?




My chutney recipe used up 2-3 lbs (1 1/2 kilos) of the apples.

First I sterilised the jars by giving them a hot wash in the dishwasher and then dried them on a low heat in the oven until ready to use (about an hour and a half in all, which was just about the time it took to make the chutney.)

In a large saucepan, I softened 250g of sliced onions in some flavourless oil and added the peeled, cored and sliced apples (minus any bruises or worms of course). I mixed in 2 tsp mixed spice, 2 tsp ground ginger, 2 tsp salt, 400 ml of cider vinegar and 400g of sugar and brought that up to the boil.

I then added 150g of chopped dates and 150g of sultanas and left the whole lot to simmer away until the apples had broken down and the colour had changed to light golden.

I took a spoonful of the mixture and put it on a clean saucer. Using the handle of a wooden spoon, I drew a line through it -and the chutney remained parted like the Red Sea -so I knew it had reached the 'jammy' stage.

I bottled it up into the hot jars, using a jam funnel and topped each jar with a wax disc before sealing loosely. Once the jars had cooled, I tightened the lids and put them away in the store cupboard to mature. I'll open one in a few weeks time, to see it I got the whole process right.

Apple, Date and Sultana Chutney

Next, I stewed another 3 apples to make a crumble- including some mini ones which I served as part of a cafe gourmand: a cup of expresso coffee with a selection of mini desserts.
This one was autumn themed: afore mentioned mini crumble, a mini bottle of creme anglaise, some blackberries from the hedgerow and a bramble jam tart. Very pretty- and went well with a little glass of Calvados too.

Autumn cafe gourmand

Tonight I am baking two of the smaller Bramleys 'in their dressing gowns'. The apples are peeled and cored, filled with dates and sultanas and a good squirt of golden syrup, laid on shortcrust pastry rounds

 and painted with bramble jelly before being encased completely, brushed with a milk and sugar glaze and baked in a moderate oven for 20 minutes until golden brown ( and the apple tender within).

Apple in It's Dressing Gown

Other apple recipes on the blog include Normandy Apple Tart, Black Pudding and Apple Muffins, Apple Lattice, Toffee Apple Ice Cream, Apple and Sultana Battelmann and Spiced Apple Cake.

Apple Lattice

http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/who-ate-all-pies.

Spiced Apple Cake

http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/week-11-cooking-for-crowd.html

Toffee Apple Ice Cream

http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/week-37-halloween-recipes-for-grown-ups.html

Black Pudding and Apple Muffins

http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/remembering-normandy.html

Normandy Apple Tart
http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/remembering-normandy.html

Apple and Sultana Battelmann
http://lizsleftovers.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/buttery-biscuit-base.html

I am also going to add one cooking apple to a chicken curry to make A Very English Curry. Watch out for the recipe on a future blog.

I still have one whole bowlful of apples to go, so would appreciate any of your apple recipes and ideas.

In the meantime- I hope you find these recipes scrump-tious.