Rose Hip & Apple Jelly

I tried making rose hip syrup a few years ago and found it pretty ‘woody’ tasting, but an enticing photo on a Facebook post from BBC Good Food for Rose Hip & Apple Jelly together with a bumper rose hip harvest had me trying this.

Unlike last time, the smell of the rose hips stewing on their own was fruity and appetising.  The taste too of the final product makes me realise I probably was dosed on rose hip syrup as a child in the 1970s.

500g rose hips
500g apples (crab, eating, cooking)
1 small lemon
About 500g sugar
Small knob of butter

Wash then simmer your rosehips in 1 pint of water for 40 minutes with the lid on until soft.  Leave to cool and then mash as best you can or chop in a food processor.

Roughly chop the apples.  There is no need to peel or core as you will be straining the cooked fruit through a jelly bag.  I simply added mine to the food processor with the rosehips.

Add 1 more pint of water to the pan together with the chopped rosehips and apple and bring to the boil with wide strips of lemon peel.  Simmer for about 15 minutes until the apple is soft.

Strain through a jelly bag overnight.  The strained liquid will look worryingly cloudy, and more like cream of prawn soup.  Don’t worry! This clears once the sugar is added.

Measure out the strained juice, adding 400g of sugar to every 500ml of liquid.  Bring to the boil gently to dissolve the sugar then turn up the heat and boil rapidly for 10 minutes.  Check to see if the jam has reached setting point by placing a teaspoonworth on a saucer that’s been in the freezer.  If still runny after cooling for a minute or so, boil the jelly for another 10 minutes then check again.  I took mine off the heat too soon because I was in a hurry and ended up with a quite lovely rosehip syrup like maple syrup! So based on this experience, it could take 20 minutes plus to reach setting point!

Take off the heat and stir in a small knob of butter to clarify the jelly.  Pour into sterilised jars and seal with lids that have been boiled to sterilise.

If you do end up with a syrup like I did, just use it with pancakes, porridge, ice cream etc.

Homemade Tomato Ketchup

A tomato glut is something I never had, but when a friend posted on Facebook that she had too many beef tomatoes so the idea of trying to make ketchup came to mind. There are loads of recipes on the web, but this is the one from www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk was the one I settled on, partly because it coincided with the weight of tomatoes I was given.

Ingredients
2kg tomatoes, roughly chopped
2 onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
150ml red wine vinegar
100ml water
½ tsp black peppercorns
1 blade mace (I didn’t have any so I used 1/4tsp ground nutmeg instead)
4 allspice berries (Didn’t use any as ones I thought I had were juniper!)a
2 cloves
½ tsp crushed dried chillies (used only 1/4tsp as our chilli flakes are really hot, then saw the note about omitting this if making for children!)
2 bay leaves (forgot to add them!)
1 tbsp light brown sugar

Put tomatoes, garlic, 50ml of the vinegar and the water into a large saucepan and simmer gently for 40 minutes until the vegetables are soft and pulpy.

Whilst the tomatoes are cooking, put the rest of the vinegar into a little saucepan together with the  all the other ingredients apart from the sugar.  Simmer over a low heat for 10 minutes then turn off and leave to one side.

After 40 minutes, puree the tomato pulp with a stick blender then strain and rub the pulp through a sieve into a clean pan.  Make sure you get as much of the tomato pulp through the seive as possible, only leaving the seeds and skins behind.

Strain the vinegar and spices into the pan with the sieved tomato.  Add the sugar and simmer over a medium heat until thickened and reduced to a thick consistency, about 500ml.

Remove from the heat and season to taste. Pour the ketchup into a jug and use a funnel to transfer it into sterilised bottles or jars. Seal immediately and cool completely before labelling and storing.

Twitter: Leesa@sunhillcurry
Instagram: sunhillmakesbakes

Spiced Plum Jam

Joining a Facebook conversation about the amount of fruit falling unused on the pavements around our town, I ended up with 5lbs of free plums on my doorstep last week. I made Spiced Plum Chutney with half, and was so taken with the flavour I decided to make a sweet spiced jam with the other half.
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.

Twitter: Leesa@sunhillcurry

Rhubarb & Ginger Jam

11 years ago we bought a house with an all but abandoned veg patch.  There were three large rhubarb clumps.  When I made three distinct raised bed around the crudely dug earth, I divided the rhubarb and replanted it in several places in my revitalised veg patch presuming it would not all survive.  It did, and so now I have more rhubarb than I know what to do with.  Usually I chutney it, marmalade it.  But this year in addition to selling it for a pittance, I have made jam with it.  To be followed by rhubarb syrup to have with prosecco.

Rhubarb & Ginger Jam
Makes 4x 450g jars

1kg rhubarb (forced pink rhubarb would give this jam a nicer pink colour!)
1kg sugar
1 lemon
40g root ginger

Trim, wash and chop the rhubarb into 1cm wide pieces.  Place in a large plastic or ceramic mixing bowl, grate over the zest of the lemon and the ginger, or puree the ginger with the lemon juice and a little water.  Keep the lemon pips!  Add the sugar and mix well.  Leave for 2 hours, stirring from time to time, for the sugar to dissolve into the rhubarb juices.

After 2 hours place the contents of the bowl, together with the lemon pips tied inside a piece of muslin, into a large saucepan.  Bring to the boil then simmer quickly for 20-30 minutes until the jam as reached setting point.  Test this by placing a little jam on a saucer that has been in the freezer and seeing whether it wrinkles when you push it across the plate with your finger.

The recipe I based mine on said use jam making sugar, which has added pectin which helps jam set,  as rhubarb is low in pectin and only simmer for 10-15 minutes.  But I simply used white granulated sugar and setting point seemed to be after about 30 minutes of simmer, and the jam is still slightly runny.

Pour into sterlised jars when both the jars and jam are still hot and seal immediately.

Twitter: Leesa@sunhillcurry