More Cucumber Preserves

I made another batch of cucumber and apple chutney yesterday, but this time I followed the recipe more closely, so I used

2 lb cooking apples
1 lb shallots
2 lb cucumbers
1 pint malt vinegar
1 lb demerara sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cayenne pepper

I also used a food processor, so the ingredients were finely chopped rather than chunky.

I also pickled some more of them a week or so ago.

Cucumber production has slowed down considerably though, so I don't think I'll be preserving any more this year.

Cucumber & Apple Chutney (Spicy)

Cucumbers keep on coming, so I was back in the kitchen earlier in the week to make a chutney. This is what I used:

1lb cooking apples
1/2 lb shallots
1lb cucumbers
1/2 pint malt vinegar
1/2 lb sugar (was supposed to be demerara, but I didn't have enough so mixed it with granulated)
1 tsp salt (was supposed to be 1/2 tsp - doesn't seem to have affected it though)
1 tsp cayenne pepper (as with salt it was supposed to be 1/2 tsp as I was making half the quantity in the recipe - that's why I'm calling it spicy!)

This is what I did:

Peeled, cored and chopped the apples. Peeled and chopped the shallots (was supposed to be finely, but I'm not very good at fine chopping - maybe I should be calling this chunky & spicy chutney). Deseeded the cucumbers and chopped - once again, should have been finely!

Put it all into a pan with the vinegar and brought to the boil.

Simmered until soft (about 20 minutes)

Added the sugar, salt & cayenne pepper, and stirred to dissolve the sugar.

Left to simmer until it reached chutney consistency (about another hour), stirring every now and again to stop it sticking.

Decanted into warm sterilised jars while it was still hot, and sealed.

It does taste lovely... if you like it spicy!

Pickled Cucumbers

Cucumbers seem to be growing by the minute... I check them in the morning and they aren't ready, by lunch time they need to be picked!

So, pickling some of them seemed to be a good idea, and this has been the easiest recipe so far. All I needed was:

Cucumbers
Salt
Spiced Vinegar (I cheated a bit and used a ready made one)

This is what I did:

Washed and dried this many cucumbers

Cut them into chunks and placed them in a bowl, layering them with salt

Placed the bowl in the fridge for 24 hours.

Rinsed well and left to drain

Packed into sterilised jars and covered with vinegar

They should be ready to eat in about 4 weeks.

Gooseberry Jam

I stripped the gooseberry bush of fruit this morning with the intention of making jam. I filled a colander which surprised me as there didn't seem to be that many on the bush.

I found a recipe, and had to adjust the quantities to match the weight after I had topped and tailed them, so this is what I used:

2 1/2 lbs gooseberries
1 1/4 pints of water
1 1/4 lbs granulated sugar
1 1/4 lbs jam sugar (with added pectin)

I did half and half of the sugar because by all accounts gooseberries have enough natural pectin in them so you don't need to add any... I still thought it best to supplement it though.

This is what I did:

Placed the gooseberries in a pan with the water

Simmered until soft, which took about 20 minutes

Although, I thought there was far too much water in the pan, so decanted out about 3/4 pint. I took it off the heat, added the sugar and stirred to dissolve it

Then placed it back on the heat to boil rapidly

Apparently it should only take about 5 minutes to set, but mine took about 30 minutes to get a jam consistency. I stirred it periodically and also removed the scum that settles on the top. It also changed colour from green to red.

I potted up into it into warm sterilised jars while it was still hot, using my recently purchased jam funnel

and sealed them.

This was how it looked on a scone, when still warm... yummy!

Marrow & Ginger Jam (with a hint of chilli)

I wasn't expecting to be posting on here so early in the year, but it just goes to show, you never know what you might find yourself doing on a Wednesday morning?!

My freezer has been stocked with a jumbo marrow that I grew last year and had absolutely no idea what to do with. I don't even like marrow... it was more of an experiment to see how big it would get.

This was it in all it's glory:

So, a quick search on the internet discovered a couple of recipes for marrow jam with varying quantities of ginger & chilli, so I decided to have a go. This is what I used:

3lbs (approx.) frozen marrow
4 apples (empire)
juice of 2 lemons
large piece of root ginger
4lbs jam sugar (with added pectin)
2 large red chillies

and this is what I did:

Peeled, cored and cubed the apples, placed in the pan with the already cubed frozen marrow.

Cooked without adding any extra liquid until tender, crushed everything together and added the lemon juice.

Peeled the ginger, chopped it in half and threw it in the pan along with the whole chillies.

Brought the mixture back up to simmering point, removed from the heat and stirred in the sugar until it dissolved.

Returned to the heat and brought it back up to boiling point, gave it a stir and let it simmer...

simmer some more...

and simmer some more...

... until it finally thickened up (about 2ish hours) and it actually looks and tastes like jam. Then removed the ginger and chillies.

I shouldn't really be surprised because I did pretty much follow a recipe or two, but I suppose because I used frozen marrow and have never made jam before I was expecting it to go wrong.

I decanted it into warm sterilised jars while it was still hot, and sealed them. I think it looks quite impressive if I do say so myself.

The kitchen needs a good clean though... mental note, must get a funnel; attempting to spoon hot jam into hot jars is a dangerous and messy business!