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

Jam again!

 Another day, another unusual batch of jam...

....this time rhubarb with raspberries and redcurrants.

Usually my spare rhubarb goes into a marmalade-style conserve with oranges or lemons

but as I have raspberries and redcurrants in abundance, and last week's experiment adding them to gooseberries worked so well, I decided to try mixing them with it instead.

I could find recipes for rhubarb with strawberries so decided to loosely follow one of them - putting fruit and sugar in the jam pan and leaving to stand over night till the juices run, and boiling it up the next day.

 It's a very pretty pink while boiling, but rather 'scummy' despite my best efforts at straining it off and very 'seedy'. Sampling it while cleaning up, as you do, it tastes ok but next time I'll make the effort to sieve the raspberries and currants.

Sunday Baking

It's been acold miserable day,so what better way to warm things up than by baking, especially as I have spare rhubarb from the allotment to use up?

I had to make two cakes as not everyone here loves rhubarb - both start, in the same mixing bowl, as a basic muffin mixture, using light olive oil though instead of sunflower, flavoured with vanilla and lemon essences. Then I pour a third of the batter into a small cake tin and add rhubarb and oats to the remaining mixture fora slightly larger cake.

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.

More rhubarb...

 We've more rhubarb plants this year, so more rhubarb to eat. I haven't made this recipe in quite a while but it's a lovely shortbread variation. I'm not sure where the recipe came from as it's one of many that I've cut out of magazines - possibly from Sainsbury's magazine or Country Living.



Basically it's a shortbread base with gooey caramel topping. The base is cooked briefly, then the rhubarb and sugar mix poured over, and it all cooked some more.

It doesn't look spectacular - and it does have a tendency to fall apart - but tastes wonderful!

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.

Back to baking...

Earlier this week we went to a book store event for the Clandestine Cake Club The club members meet regularly to share home-made cake and now their recipes have been collected into a book. Unfortunately, tempting as the book looked, it isn't really suitable for us as not many cake recipes are low-fat. It made me realise though that it's a while since I've made any cake so on a wet and windy day, with leftover rhubarb in the fridge, I got out the mixing bowls and cake tins and got baking. Rhubarb loaf cake for the adults, choc chip cookies for the not-grown-up-yet.

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.

Rhubarb jam - or is it marmalade?

The rhubarb is spreading so it's time to chop it back a bit

and put it to good use.

I debated between making jam and just freezing it -  jam won, obviously.

It's a rather lazy sort of jam to make. I'm not sure where the recipe came from as I've hand-written it in the margin of one of my cookbooks.

Basically  - take equal amounts of chopped up rhubarb and sugar and dump them in a jam pan.

 I normally add some orange peel but could only find half-squeezed lemons in the freezer so used those instead - one lemon per pound of rhubarb, chopped into strips once defrosted.

Leave for 24 hours and it will look like this

Bring to the boil and simmer till the rhubarb is soft, then boil rapidly till setting point is reached.

Done.

Simples.

And very lemony.

Is it jam or marmalade? I'm not sure and will probably eat it with yogurt anyway.

Clearing out the fridge

 Look what I found in the fridge!

Just what I (don't) need for a cup of tea or on my cornflakes.

Actually, I knew all about it - if you take a bottle of milk away for a holiday and leave it in the car boot for a few days what can you expect?

I don't like to throw food away but could never find a lot of uses for gone-off milk till I started using it in cake and muffins.

Time for baking! 

 Rhubarb Cake.

I use a  recipe I made by adapting one for Bara Brith, the main appeal being that there is no butter, margarine or oil in it. There is a certain amount of fat from the milk, but not too much with semi or skimmed.

Instead of dried fruit I use whichever fresh fruit I happen to have around - in this case rhubarb, with oats and oatmeal added to make it extra healthy!

Any funny smell from the milk disappears in baking - well, I assume it does, I barely got to test the finished results!

Half and half muffins

 I pulled the first of our rhubarb today - about 8oz - and decided to make muffins. Unfortunately, not everyone in the house likes rhubarb, so I had to make choc-chip ones as well.

I made up a standard muffin base - an egg, 4 tblspn oil, 4oz sugar, splash of vanilla essance, teaspoon bakingpowder, 10oz SRflour - then halved it into two bowls.

 Into one half, I put oats and chopped up rhubarb with a sprinkling of ginger

In the other, 1teaspoon cocoa and chopped up chocolate (no choc chips in the house!)

Ta da!

Muffins for all!!

(though one has mysteriously disappeared already.....)

Preserving summer

I've had an extremely busy fortnight making jams and chutneys to make the most of a sudden glut of fruit and veg. We came back from holiday to realise that we'd not told the garden-minding neighbour to keep an eye on the courgette plants - so there were several marrows waiting for us.

The first of them was turned into chutney - a recipe cut from a magazine at some point in time but with a difference - I had a couple of pints of maroon coloured vinegar left after eating pickled cabbage. Having already been used for pickling I don't think it works a second time but I used it for the initial boiling down of the marrow and ended up with a lovely plum coloured chutney.

marrow and tomatoes boiling in the red cabbage vinegar

Then a friend offered us some - as many as we could carry - of his plums
- so I made jam

my parents offered blackberries

and someone local offered pick your own apples on Freecycle and we couldn't say 'No', so I made an autumn mixed fruit jam with apples, blackberries and a few plums

autumn mixed fruit jam

Meanwhile there were still some marrows left and some rhubarb in the garden needing to be picked

soaking marrow and rhubarb in sugar overnight turns the sugar to liquid!

So with some strips of orange peel and a chunk of ginger, they were turned into marmalade, basically the same flavour as rhubarb, ginger and orange preserve I'd made earlier in summer. I'm hoping not all of this ends up on toast as it goes very well with yogurt as a desert.

marrow and rhubarb marmalade

Jam

a busy week of jam making.

started with 3lb of gooseberries from parents' garden with lemons and a dash of elderflower cordial.

rhubarb, lemon and ginger preserve yesterday - not really to be used as a spread but to add to plain greek yogurt with maybe ginger nuts sprinkled on top

and lastly - and certainly the 'pinkest' - apple and blackcurrant made with 3 1/2 lb of thinnings from the apple trees and about 8oz home grown blackcurrants to add flavour and turn it such a gorgeous colour.

jam again and chutney

turned the last of the rhubarb into jam with ginger and some candied orange peel.
having a glut of cucumber at the moment so have boiled some up with tomatoes to make chutney - think I may have over-done the chillies a bit though, it is very hot.
have made apple,lemon and ginger marmalade with windfall apples before they rot.