When life gives you courgettes ... make marmalade

If there's one surplus from the allotment that I hate, it's courgettes. There's only so many of them that you can eat (and to be honest I having been cooking much with the heat), and they don't freeze well.


 The only options left are chutney and marmalade - and we eat more marmalade.











It's weird, but simple, and does actually taste like marmalade once cooked. Basically, peel and chop the courgettes, getting rid of any seeds. Weigh them and put them in a jam pan with their weight in sugar, and leave overnight.
 For each pound of courgettes, add a lemon or two (I save squeezed out ones in the freezer) and a handful of frozen leftover orange rind. I boil these separately to soften, then cut up finely and add to the courgettes.



 




Next day it all just needs boiling up - gently at first to be sure the courgettes are soft (sometimes I mash them to avoid lumps) then quickly to set.

Weird marmalade

 In a combination of pursuing my New Year resolutions and avoiding a horrible mess in the fridge, I decided in was time to make marmalade. I've been using bits of this huge home-grown pumpkin in various chillis, soups and goulashes, but not really using it up quickly enough and it's starting to show signs of rotting.






I don't have a very precise recipe for this marmalade. The original recipe came, I think, from Farmhouse Fare, a compilation of recipes sent in to Farmers Weekly but I've altered it here and there, and I just rather throw in what I've got available.








This time I've used 3lb pumpkin, several frozen lemon husks and a lime previously 'juiced' for mojitos.

So, five jars of marmalade, and I still have at least 2lbs of pumpkin left!

Jam time

5 lbs of rhubarb from the allotment means it's time to get out the jam pan and jars, and make marmalade. As always I had plenty of leftover bits of lemons in the freezer, so I went for a batch of rhubarb and lemon marmalade - which is also lovely with greek yogurt

Panic stations!

 I was shocked at the weekend to discover most of the pumpkins and squashes stored from last year were starting to rot - some just a little, some past hope of salvaging!

I then decided I ought to use up some of the remaining good bits - quickly!

So, time for some marmalade making.

 It's possibly simpler than traditional marmalade - cube the pumpkin/squash, add some chopped up lemons (all from the freezer where I keep the bits leftover after squeezing for juice or grating the rind) simmer till cooked and squashy. Add sugar and stand over night. Then boil till set.

Lovely orange-coloured, lemon-flavoured marmalade.

Using up some of the glut

It's been another good week at the allotment -which means far too many cucumbers again.

Time to get out the preserving pan!

First my standard cucumber preserve - jam, or marmalade, maybe, as it's heavily flavoured

with lemon bits and pieces hoarded in the freezer after using the juice or zest (I hate to throw anything away!)

 

That didn't use up enough of the cucumbers though, so I decided to try something new, that would also help me use up other bits and pieces from the allotment - piccalilli.

This didn't go according to plan though...

I got all the veg prepared and ready; small onions not big enough for anything else, runner beans (I already seem to have a freezer-full), cucumber of course, some surplus courgette and a tiny cauliflower barely bigger than a piece of sprouting broccoli.



 All the veg has to soak in brine for 24 hours.....so while it did that, I popped to the shop to get some turmeric, a necessary ingredient for the next bit.




When the time was up, I drained the veg and started making the mustardy sauce - at which point I discovered there wasn't enough mustard powder in the cupboard!!!
Off to the shop again, only to find they didn't sell mustard powder - all I could buy was the ready-made paste. To hopefully get round this, I made the sauce with the full amount of turmeric and about half the mustard, and when it was cooked added a couple of teaspoons of the mustard paste. I've no idea whether this will work, only tasting will tell.

For now, it looks ok though there does seem to be a lot of sauce to comparatively few vegetables. Now it needs to stand for three weeks before the great taste test.....

Post-holiday glut

I've only been away for a few days, but things carried on growing and growing for those few days so I found a surplus of tomatoes and cucumbers waiting for me.


I often deal with tomatoes by just throwing them in the freezer and hoping I find time to do something with them later, but as the freezer is full to over-flowing, I decided to plunge straight in and make my 'lazy passata'. It's lazy because I don't bother to sieve it all - just skin the tomatoes, chop them up and cook them before bottling. It takes a lot less time!

Cucumbers are trickier to deal with - no popping them in the freezer!
As I already have a stock-pile of frozen lemon pieces (left from recipes which require only juice or zest), I went for my unusual cucumber and lemon jam/marmalade. Basically the cucumbers stretch the lemons and add bulk to the preserve so it's a good way to use them.

After boiling, an over-night soak is best to soften up the lemon peel - and this time, due to other things happening, it ended up with 2 nights soaking!








The finished preserve tastes rather sharp and marmalade-like, and looks a far better colour than in this pic.

Time for jam-making

 With masses of rhubarb down at the allotment this year, I thought I'd bring a couple of pounds home and start jam-making season.

I usually add orange and perhaps some ginger but, as I have a lot of left-over lemons in the freezer, I thought I'd try using them. It may turn out a little nearer to marmalade than jam but hopefully will still be tasty.

Cucumber jam

This week's glut is.....cucumbers! 

The weather's turned cooler, no one wants to eat salad and I can hardly freeze them, so it's back to my weird jam making.

Having tried this recipe before I don't think cucumber jam (or marmalade) is so very odd.

The cucumber just gives bulk and picks up the flavour of whatever is added, in this case lemons.

It looks quite marmalade-like but I don't think I was generous enough with the lemons this time as the flavour isn't very strong - in future I'll add more.

Still, it's ok and has saved the surplus from being wasted.

Two very different preserves with green tomatoes

I'm starting to pick green tomatoes from our plants at the allotment because the fruit is so heavy that the plants are breaking! This just ends up though with green tomatoes balanced precariously in a variety of bowls on the kitchen work-surfaces, so I thought I'd get busy and turn them into something.
First up, was a hot Green Tomato Chutney from Sensational Preserves by Hilaire Walden. This is recipe I've made up many times though it's a little hot due to the chillies in it.
Then, following the success of last week's Green Tomato and Lemon Marmalade, I thought I'd have a go at something similar but with a slight variation - Green Tomato and Orange Marmalade. The main difference was that, not having the same amount of orange peel to hand in the freezer, I started by boiling the tomatoes and peel in 1/4 pint of orange juice. Other than that the recipe was the same. It has a much sweeter taste than the lemon variety, being a little like apricot jam, though with bits of peel giving it a 'proper' marmalade texture.
So, two very useful additions to my store cupboard - the only snag is, without labels, can you spot which is marmalade and which chutney in the photo above?
 

Something totally different....

 I've tried making jams and marmalades with unusual vegetables before - pumpkins, courgettes and cucumber - but this year's surplus crop is green tomatoes. I can't leave them on the plants to ripen as they are too heavy and the stems are breaking.

I could make chutney.

But we eat more marmalade than chutney....

So....

 I found this recipe in Farmhouse Fare - a collection of recipes sent in to Farmers Weekly, so there are all sorts of useful ways of using up odd gluts of fruit and veg.

The only adaptation I've made is to add more lemon - about 4 in total from my hoard of leftover frozen lemons, instead of  'some lemon peel'.

 It's all boiled up and set much as any other jam and although it isn't the most appealing colour, it does taste of lemons rather than tomatoes and

the chopped up lemon rind gives it the appearance and texture of marmalade.

And the sugar all turns to....?

Well, not alcohol in this case but syrup.
This is the rhubarb and sugar left standing overnight before boiling up for jam/conserve. Presumably a chemical reaction takes place between the sugar and  the rhubarb - I've no idea but the same thing happens with sugar and courgettes or pumpkins.

Weird jam time - again!

Is it a jam? Is it a marmalade? 

Whichever, there's a surplus of rhubarb so it's time for rhubarb, ginger and orange conserve.

3lb rhubarb

1 1/2 oz stem ginger

1/2 pint orange juice

3lb sugar.

I've managed yet again to not quite have the right ingredients so I've replaced orange peel with juice from a carton. Hopefully it will be ok.

It now sits till tomorrow, the sugar will turn to syrup and then it's all boiled up to set.

Simples.

Marmalade and fizz

 It's been a busy, lemon-scented sort of day in the kitchen - making rhubarb and lemon marmalade (again!!)

 and another couple of bottles of elderflower fizz. I now need to find some more nice clean bottles before the elderflowers finish flowering.

Marmalade making again!

 I picked lots of rhubarb last week in a bit of a panic about a possible overnight frost. Some was stewed to go on breakfast cereals, some was eaten raw dipped in sugar and I still had about 4lbs left!
Time for jamming - well, nearer to marmalade making because I added some of the freezer hoard of leftover lemon bits.

Having tested a little of it, it's very lemony but quite sweet, not as sharp as a marmalade.

While the snow falls outside...

....I've been busy (and warm) in the kitchen. First using up a home-grown pumpkin that was starting to rot by making marmalade and then using up gooseberries from the freezer to make some chutney.

Another Pumpkin.....

This pumpkin has been hiding in the cupboard under the stairs since Halloween and I only got it out now because I needed to make some marmalade.

That took a big 4lb chunk out of it so then on to using some for dinners ....

    chilli....


bacon and pumpkin inauthentic  goulash .....

curried bean and pumpkin soup

'leftovers' soup - basically cooked, mashed pumpkin with leftover spicy tomato sauce.







another chilli - with cannellini beans as I couldn't find kidney beans!

 ...and on to the very last piece for another 'leftover' soup, this time with a small amount of lamb stock, potatoes, baked beans and a generous spoonful of curry powder.

Last but not least - the seeds roasted with peri peri sauce. A tongue-tingling snack.