Just putting it here for reference another year
750ml cheap gin
500g frozen sloes
250g sugar
Stir every week till Christmas.
Showing posts with label plums & damsons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label plums & damsons. Show all posts
Monday, 7 November 2022
Sunday, 25 February 2018
Simple Plum Chutney
Makes 4x 450g jars
750g plums
2 tsp ground ginger (optional)
2 onions, peeled and finely chopped
1 clove garlic, peeled and finely chopped
125g sultanas
400g sugar
450ml pickling vinegar
Remove the stones from the plums and chop into 1 cm cubes, particularly if firm. Put everything in a saucepan. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 40 minutes. Stir frequently and the mixture will become thick and glossy.
Transfer to sterilised jars and seal with new or sterilised lids immediately
Sterilising jars and lids - Use clean, dry jars. Either wash in the dishwasher or place clean jam jars in cold oven and heat to 150C, then leave in the hot oven for 10 minutes. If re-using lids, put through the dishwasher and place in a bowl of boiling water as you start to bottle the chutney.
Monday, 11 September 2017
Greengage Jam
Makes 3x 340g jars + 1x 180g jar
1kg greengages
850g granulated sugar, approximately
Juice of 1 lemon
Stone the greengages, weighing the greengage flesh as you want the same amount of sugar as the weight of the stoned fruit.
Chop the fruit fairly small (the skins don't break up during the cooking so bear this in mind with the size of fruit chunks you settle on). Simmer the diced fruit with an expresso cup (50ml) of water with the lid on for 20 minutes, stirring from time to time until the fruit pulp has broken down.
Add the sugar and lemon juice and bring to a rapid boil. Boil for 5 minutes whilst you sterilise the jars in the oven. Test for a set on a cold saucer. If not set continue boiling for another 5 minutes then test again. Having made two batches of this jam in as many weeks I find it tends to reach setting point after about 5-10 minutes of boiling. If you leave it too long you risk the jam becoming positively rubbery!
Pour into sterilised jars and seal with sterilised lids.
Facebook: Sun Hill Makes & Bakes
Tuesday, 29 August 2017
Sloe Gin Jelly
My recipe below has 1 shot of gin in. I'm not sure I can taste it. But it is a wonderfully tart jelly that would go well in a gravy, with red meat, game, strong cheddar, as much as on toast. Apparently I have a long wait until my new damson tree fruits, but sloes turn out to be a good alternative.
500g sloes
500ml water
1kg bramley apples
500g sugar
1 shot gin (optional)
Simmer the sloes in the water, covered for about 20 minutes until the fruit is all pulpy. Roughly chop the apples and add to the sloes, skin, cores and all. Simmer for another 20 minutes until the apple has disintegrated.
Strain the fruit pulp through a jelly bag overnight.
Measure the collected fruit juice (mine came to 500g/500ml) and add the same weight in sugar to a clean pan. Bring to the boil and boil rapidly for 10 minutes before checking to see if the jam is set. Seal in sterilised jars.
Tuesday, 29 September 2015
Chinese Plum Sauce - Mark 2
The first time I made up a recipe, but this time I thought I'd trust the web. I turned up a recipe by Thane Prince, but unfortunately I didn't bother to get rice wine vinegar and used pickling vinegar instead. The sauce is only 20 minutes old, but I do have to say it tastes more like a chutney as it has considerably more vinegar than my original recipe. Hopefully it will all mellow out as I store it away for a couple of months.
1kg plums, any colour
500ml rice wine vinegar
300g white onions
4 large cloves of garlic
5cm ginger
125ml soy sauce
500g sugar
3 star anise
1/2tsp hot chilli flakes
Stone and halve the plums. Add all the other ingredients (onions & garlic peeled and roughly chopped, ginger roughly chopped) to a large heavy based saucepan. Simmer for 20 minutes until the onions are soft. Remove the star anise and blend with a stick blender. Return the heat and simmer until it is a loose ketchup consistency. Pour into hot sterilised jars and seal with sterilised lids immediately.
As with most chutneys, leave for at least 2 months before using, so that the vinegar mellows. Unopened this will keep for a few years.
Friday, 25 September 2015
Richly Spiced Plum Chutney
Richly spiced plum chutney
Ingredients
1kg plums, halved, stoned and finely chopped
3 onions, finely chopped
100g dried cranberries or raisins, roughly chopped with an oiled knife
1 tbsp finely grated ginger
1 tbsp black mustard seed
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp paprika
1 tsp chilli flakes
400ml red wine vinegar
500g light muscovado sugar
Method
1. Put all the ingredients, except the sugar, into a large pan and stir well. Bring slowly to the boil, then reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 10 mins, until the plums are tender.
2. Stir in the sugar plus 2 tsp salt and keep stirring until it has dissolved. Boil the chutney for 20-30 mins, uncovered, stirring occasionally to prevent it catching on the bottom, until it is thick and pulpy.
3. Pot into sterilised jars (see Know-how, below), seal, label and store for at least 2 weeks before eating. Will keep for up to 6 months in a cool dark place.
Friday, 18 September 2015
Spiced Plum Jam
tesco.com has a very simple recipe and the jam has a lovely autumny/wintery spice taste to it.
900g stoned and chopped plums
900g granulated sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp butter (to clarify)
Place a saucer in the freezer.
Put the stoned and chopped plums in a wide stainless steel pan or preserving pan with 150ml water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 20-30 minutes until the fruit is soft. As I had frozen my plums, they were soft enough to skip this step.
Wash and sterilise your jars and lids as soon as the jam goes on. I reuse the ‘pop up’ style lids as these help seal the jam and allow you to keep it in a dark place for 1+ years. Wash jars and lids in hot soapy water, rinse well and drain. Place the jars in a cold oven, let it heat up to 140C and then leave for 10 minutes at this heat or until your ready to pot up. Place the lids in a pan with boiling water and boil for 10 minutes to sterilise.
Add the sugar and stir over a low heat until all the sugar has dissolved. Stir in the cinnamon and ginger and bring to a rolling boil. Boil rapidly for 10 minutes without stirring. With a spoon, pour a little onto the chilled saucer. After a few seconds push the jam with your finger. If it wrinkles, it is ready. If not, return to the boil for another 5 minutes and test again, stirring from time to time. It took about 20 minutes when I made this jam this afternoon, and I did have to stir it to stop it catching on the bottom of the pan especially towards the end of cooking.
When ready remove from the heat. Stir in the butter which should make any scum ‘vanish’. Take your jars out of the oven and fill right to the brim. Seal immediately with your sterilised lids and leave to cool.
Monday, 22 September 2014
Retro Damson Chutney
The recipe, as ever when it comes to jams and chutneys, is from Marguerite Patten's 500 Recipes - Jams Pickles Chutneys
3lb damsons
2 pints vinegar
1.5lbs cooking apples (after peeling and coring), chopped
1lb onions, peeled and chopped
2 tsp ground ginger
3 tsp salt NB I found this too much so start with 1 tsp
1lb sugar
1oz pickling spices
1. Simmer damsons in 1 pint vinegar until tender enough to remove the stones.
2. Add chopped apples, onions, ginger, pickling spices (tied in a piece of muslin), and salt
3. Continue cooking until the fruit is completely soft.
4. Add the rest of the vinegar and sugar.
5. Boil steadily until thick (NB take care it does not catch on the bottom of the pan)
6. Put into hot jars and seal down.
Leave for 6-8 weeks to mature.
Sunday, 7 September 2014
Damson Brandy
Having had a bad experience with gin in my youth, I usually make Sloe Brandy at this time of year. But my secret sloe hunting ground seems a bit bare this year so I decided to make Damson Brandy.
The recipe I use is from Richard Mabey's Food for Free, and is the sketchiest of recipes. I simply take one bottle of cheap/value brandy and pour it over about 1lb of fruit (I slit the damsons with a sharp knife) and 1/2lb of sugar in a large kilner jar. Store the jar in a dark cupboard and turn from time to time to dissolve the sugar. Richard Mabey then says this will be ready by Christmas. But I'll be starting it as soon as the liquid has turned ruby red and the sugar appears to be dissolved.
In a similar vein, I made Blackberry Whiskey last year...
The recipe I use is from Richard Mabey's Food for Free, and is the sketchiest of recipes. I simply take one bottle of cheap/value brandy and pour it over about 1lb of fruit (I slit the damsons with a sharp knife) and 1/2lb of sugar in a large kilner jar. Store the jar in a dark cupboard and turn from time to time to dissolve the sugar. Richard Mabey then says this will be ready by Christmas. But I'll be starting it as soon as the liquid has turned ruby red and the sugar appears to be dissolved.
In a similar vein, I made Blackberry Whiskey last year...
Damson & Apple Jam
 |
| Homemade Damson & Apple Jam on homemade bread |
Everyone seems to be going on about how many plums they have this year, so I was hopeful that I might be able to forage some long sought after damsons. But after a couple of years of asking, no such luck and I had to resort to buy some - 5lbs to be exact.
First I have made some Damson & Apple Jam. I made this 10 years ago from some foraged damsons and a recipe from Marguerite Patten's 500 Recipe series for Jams, Pickles, & Chutneys priced 2/6 published in 1963. To this day I can still taste the fruity taste of this jam and am thrilled to be able to make it again.
1 1/2lb damsons
1lb cooking apples, peeled & quartered
1/2 pint water
2 1/4lb sugar
The recipe says cook all the fruit together, having stated you need 1.5lb of stoned damsons, and then tells you to remove the stones from the stewed fruit mixture. I thought it would be easier to stew the damsons with the water first, and remove the stones from this smaller volume. I would do this again but would be even more OCD and count how many damsons to ensure I get all the stones out, as try as I might some seem to have ended up in the jam!
Once you have stewed and stoned the damsons, add the apple and simmer gently with a lid on until the apple has turned to mush. Add the sugar and boil rapidly (don't worry about any scum - this can either be stirred away with or without a knob of butter at the end of cooking.
This jam reaches setting point quite quickly in my experience so test the jam after 5 minutes. If it is not ready test again in 5 minutes.
NB If you've never made jam before take a look at this BBC Good Food guide to making jam. The key things are knowing how to sterilise the jars and lids properly to prevent the jam going mouldy, and knowing when the boiling hot jam has reached setting point.
First I have made some Damson & Apple Jam. I made this 10 years ago from some foraged damsons and a recipe from Marguerite Patten's 500 Recipe series for Jams, Pickles, & Chutneys priced 2/6 published in 1963. To this day I can still taste the fruity taste of this jam and am thrilled to be able to make it again.
1 1/2lb damsons
1lb cooking apples, peeled & quartered
1/2 pint water
2 1/4lb sugar
The recipe says cook all the fruit together, having stated you need 1.5lb of stoned damsons, and then tells you to remove the stones from the stewed fruit mixture. I thought it would be easier to stew the damsons with the water first, and remove the stones from this smaller volume. I would do this again but would be even more OCD and count how many damsons to ensure I get all the stones out, as try as I might some seem to have ended up in the jam!
Once you have stewed and stoned the damsons, add the apple and simmer gently with a lid on until the apple has turned to mush. Add the sugar and boil rapidly (don't worry about any scum - this can either be stirred away with or without a knob of butter at the end of cooking.
This jam reaches setting point quite quickly in my experience so test the jam after 5 minutes. If it is not ready test again in 5 minutes.
NB If you've never made jam before take a look at this BBC Good Food guide to making jam. The key things are knowing how to sterilise the jars and lids properly to prevent the jam going mouldy, and knowing when the boiling hot jam has reached setting point.
Monday, 18 July 2011
Chinese Plum Sauce
Most of my haul is now sitting in a bucket stewing in water en route to becoming Plum Port, but I thought I'd try a Chinese style plum sauce with the remainder.
As the recipe is being made up as I go I thought it best to write it down in case it is success!
500g plums, weighed out before pitting
1/2 small onion, roughly chopped
1 large garlic clove, roughly chopped
2cm ginger, roughly chopped
2 tbsp shaoshing rice wine
1/8th tsp hot chilli flakes
200g brown sugar
I have bottled this in between writing. It is tart, sweet, and spicy in that order. I would be curious to follow a jam recipe next time ie 1:1 fruit to sugar and then add just the chilli and maybe the garlic.
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