Rhubarb and Apple Jam

 



Ever since me and my husband started growing our own food, over 13 years ago, we've always grown rhubarb. I wanted to grow it as I remember my Dad growing it in our garden in Chester when I was a little girl. My cat Sooty used to sleep amongst the stalks on a warm summers day.

 

Our rhubarb patch this year has been really good, I knew with such a good crop that I had enough to make one of my husbands favourite jams-rhubarb and apple.

 



 



The recipe book I use for this jam is a Sue Ashworth book called Traditional Jams, Jellies and Preserves. I've used this book for several jam recipes including Plum Jam, Damson Jam and Blackberry and Apple Jam. All have been successful.





 

 

The recipe is so easy to follow, only 4 steps in the whole recipe. I didn't have any fresh ginger so used ground ginger. The addition of the ginger and cinnamon to the final jam just gives it a little bit of 'bite' but it's very subtle so if you aren't a lover of ginger I would still add it. 

 

 

I roped my 18 year old son into peeling the apples with me, mainly by challenging him to an apple peeling competition-the longest length of apple skin wins! I won :)

 

 

The rhubarb is first softened in the water for 10-15 minutes before the apple is added. This is then softened for a further 30 minutes.

 

 

Once the fruit is softened the sugar is added away from the heat and when this has all dissolved the jam is returned to the heat to be hard boiled.

 

The jam takes quite a lot of hard boiling before the setting point is reached, mainly because the rhubarb and apple are quite watery fruit. The jam also produces quite a lot of 'skum' which needs to be skimmed off as the jam boils.

 

Once the setting point is reached the ginger and cinnamon are stirred into the jam.

 

 

Once the ginger and cinnamon are added the jam is poured into sterilised jars and sealed straight away.

 

I always use recycled jars for my jam, although I have some Kilner Jars too. So most of the jars I use have been recycled several times and are perfectly good, as long as they are sterilised before they are reused.

 

 I used these pretty labels to label my jam, which my daughter bought for me for Mother's Day. I always date my jams too so that I can use the oldest stock first.

 

 

The Rhubarb and Apple Jam is lovely spread on homemade bread and is a lovely reminder of my Dads rhubarb patch from many years ago. Not to mention my cat Sooty!

 



Leeks

We grow leeks every year but this year has been a really good year for them, possibly because of the long cold winter we have had, which leeks seem to like. At one point during the winter the snow completely covered the leeks and we thought the leeks probably wouldn't survive but once the snow cleared the leeks were still there, looking a bit bedraggled but still growing!

We use the Thompson and Morgan leeks seeds called 'Musselburgh' (Allium porrum). We sow these in the potting shed during March or April in a peat free compost and then pot them on into larger pots. We usually keep them in the potting shed during the early summer months and then plant them out in a veggie bed that we use for our early potatoes once these potatoes are harvested.

Once the leeks are in the ground they pretty much take care of themselves, apart from trying to keep weeds down in between the plants we don't do much else to them, as it's usually late summer or early autumn by the time we plant them out there is little need to water them as the great British weather takes care of that!

One year we tried growing them in staggered batches but this added to the work load and once the leeks were in the ground they all seemed to grow at the same rate, with the later batches soon catching up with the earlier batches.

We harvest them as and when we need them as the best way to store them is in the ground.

We use them to make Leek and Potato Soup (see below for recipe) or Leek and Potato Bake. Or sometimes we just have them as a vegetable! They have a lovely subtle flavour, much 'gentler' than onions.

Leek and Potato Soup

Ingredients

 

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 onion, sliced

8oz potatoes, cubed

2 medium leeks,sliced

2 pints vegetable stock

5fl oz double cream or crème fraîche

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preparation method

Heat the oil in a large pan and add the onions, potatoes and leeks. Cook for 3-4 minutes until starting to soften.

 

Add the vegetable stock and bring to the boil. Season well and simmer until the vegetables are tender.

 

Whizz with a hand blender or in a blender until smooth. Reheat in a clean pan, stir in the cream or crème fraîche, heat through and serve.

Delicious Fruit Loaf

When I bought Paul Hollywood's book 'How to Bake' I thought this recipe for Fruit Loaf looked lovely. I have a sweet tooth too so sweet bread with fruit in it sounded like my kind of bread!

 

The recipe says that you should use a food mixer for this recipe with a dough hook, as the dough is 'rich and sticky' but I haven't got a dough hook so I just used my food processor with the ordinary 'blade' attached, and this seemed to work okay.



 

 

The flour, salt, instant yeast, butter, sugar, warmed milk and water are all placed into the mixer and mixed together. The recipe says to mix this for 7 minutes in total which seemed a long time but I ended up doing it for that length of time to help to get the correct elasticity in the dough. Once you reach this elasticity you add the fruit and cinnamon and mix again for 2 more minutes. I added sultanas, raisins and apricots but left out the mixed peel which I don't like! 

 

This is the dough once mixed; its really soft, almost runny. And as you can see from this photograph the yeast is very active! 

 

I only left my dough to rise for an hour before I checked it and it had already doubled in size (the recipe says 2-3 hours). The dough was still very soft and runny, so much so that I thought I'd done it wrong!! So don't be worried if yours is the same too!

 

I hadn't realised when I started the recipe that this recipe actually makes 2 loaves, as once the dough has risen you divide it into 2 portions. So if you like you could do half the recipe quantities and make just one loaf.

 

When I was knocking the dough back I was still a little worried that the dough was too soft and runny but I formed it into the two loaves and left it to prove, as the recipe stated, and hoped for the best!

 

The loaf once it has proven.

 

Once the loaves had baked for about 20 minutes I iced them straight away while the loaves were still warm. The icing is simply icing sugar, water and the zest of a lemon.

 

And I needn't have worried about the softness of the dough as the loaves turned out perfectly okay! Here are the completed loaves!

 

The loaf is really sweet and the fruit swells up really well in the baking so is soft too. I ate my bread with nothing on it as the bread is sweet enough without the need to spread butter, and with the sweet icing on top there is no need for any further flavour. Beware though, its very moorish so one slice is never enough!

 

Cooking Bread on an Aga

When we were booking a holiday in Scotland for an Easter break I noticed that the only oven at the cottage was an Aga. I've never cooked on an Aga before so thought it would be a great opportunity to have a go!

 

I don't really know much about Aga's but a friend on Twitter informs me that the Aga we had on holiday is a two oven Aga with a roasting oven and simmering oven.  

 

I found it really easy to cook on and the warmth it generates so homely. I used the roasting oven the most but the simmering oven was great to use to keep things warm in.

 



 

 

I decided to bake a simple white cob loaf on the Aga while I was on holiday and had taken the ingredients I needed with me for this purpose. I've baked this bread before so know I can do it okay and thought it would be a good loaf to try out.

I used the Paul Hollywood recipe for my loaf

500g Strong White Flour
10g Salt
10g Instant Yeast
30g Butter
320ml Water
Oil for Kneading

I combined all the ingredients together in a bowl (making sure not to let the yeast come into contact with the salt) and then kneaded the dough for 10 minutes until it formed a smooth dough. This is my favourite part of bread making!

Once it was kneaded I left it to rise in a bowl over the Aga for 2 hours.

 

Once it had risen I knocked it back and then formed it into a cob shape. Once it was in this shape I left it to prove next to the Aga which was a lovely warm spot. The loaf proved really well in this warm atomsphere.

 

Once the loaf had proved for an hour I cooked it in the roasting oven of the Aga. It cooked much quicker than in the gas oven I have at home, and the base of the loaf cooked really well, which I've had a problem with in my gas cooker.

 

The resulting loaf was well risen and very crispy on the outside.

 



 

This is the loaf structure on the inside. It has a dense structure with no large air bubbles inside and a uniform rise throughout the whole loaf.

 

Because we had the use of the Aga I decided to use the Aga's roasting oven to make some lovely crusty toast from my cob loaf-it makes the best toast I've ever tasted!

Having had a chance to use the Aga I'm now convinced I need one of my own!

Marmalade

I've made this marmalade a few times before. Its a recipe from the Home Cookbook by Monty and Sarah Don. It's (apparently) the original Keiller recipe from the famous Keiller family from Dundee, Scotland, who is a relative of Monty Don.

 

Recipe

 

900g Seville oranges

1 lemon

1.8 kg sugar

2 litres water

 

I decided to cut the oranges (and lemon) very finely this time so that the marmalade has fine pieces of orange in it. This is time consuming but I like doing it so don't mind!

 



 

Once this is done the oranges and lemon are cooked for about 3 hours until the rind is soft and the water reduced to one half of the original 2 litres

 

The sugar is added next and once this has dissolved the marmalade is hard boiled. At this stage do not stir the marmalade. I did this once and the sugar crystallized and the marmalade was inedible!

 

Once the marmalade has thickened and rested for 10 minutes you can pour it in to warmed sterilised jars. It stores for 2 years but never lasts that long in my house!

 

It has a lovely rich orangey flavour but the addition of a lemon means it isn't cloyingly sweet.

Hot Cross Buns

This is the first time that I've made Hot Cross Buns and I must admit that I found them time consuming and a bit 'faffy'. Don't think I left myself enough time really as I didn't finish them till 10 o clock at night.

I didn't realise they needed to be proved twice (I should have read the recipe better!). With a two hour rise and 2 one hour proves, it makes for a long recipe time, especially given the 'cross' being added at the end before baking and the glaze being added as soon as the buns come out of the oven.

I think my oven thermostat needs checking too, I left them in the oven for 15 minutes at the temperature in the recipe, before I checked them and they were already very well done!! If I had left them for the full 20 minute the recipe stated they would have been very burnt!!

I amended the recipe a little, I excluded the mixed peel as I don't like that and added a few more sultanas instead, which I love!

Despite being a bit well done they taste lovely! You can taste the orange in them and the sultanas are lovely and plump.

I will definitely make these again but next time will do it on a day when I have more time to dedicate to them!

The dough at the beginning

The dough rising

The dough proving for the first time

The buns proving for the second time

The buns with their crosses on

The finished glazed Hot Cross Buns!

 

The proof of the pudding is in the eating-toasted Hot Cross Bun with butter. Delicious!

 

My first attempt at Maneesh

I made a Maneesh today for supper. I got the recipe from Paul Hollywood's How to Bake, which is primarily about how to make yeast based breads and desserts.

The book says it should look like this

I decided to use just half of the quantity described in the book as the recipe made more than I need.

I used 250 g of Strong White Flour and started off with the dough like this.

 



After 2 hours rising the dough had expanded to this

 

I then knocked the dough back and divided it in 2 and rolled each half into a round flat disc. I then left it to prove for 20 minutes

 

I then added the za'atar made up of olive oil, thyme, marjoram and sesame seeds

Before I cooked it for 15 minutes in a really hot oven (Gas Mark 9)

It's a lovely flavoured bread, not too spicy but lovely and 'herby'. It went perfectly with Potato and Pea Curry I made for supper!