...we are the self preservation society..

Ah half term! Time for teachers to stop and take stock (or in my case make stock). Firstly I must apologise to anybody who is reading my blog about the lack of posts lately. Life at school has been a bit fraught and my blog was relegated to the "I'll do that later" pile.
So Sunday was the day I dealt with the great big bag of windfall apples which was given to me by a colleague of my wife's. As most of the apples were cookers I decided to make a spiced apple Jelly (see recipe below) This recipe was inspired by one in a marvelous book published on behalf of the Women's Institute as part of their "Best-kept Secrets" series. This book's recipes have never let me down, its full title is "Best-kept secrets of the Women's institute. Jams, pickles and chutneys" by Midge Thomas.
Further to this I pickled some spiced poached pears (from the organic veggie box) which should prove delicious with some blue cheese around the shortest days of the year.
Finally I re-boiled some marmalade which failed to set in January when I first made it (this was even further down my list). It now has a slightly thicker consistency though still not where I would like it to be.
A photo was taken by the Beautiful Wife at the end of this mammoth preserving session - I'll post it soon!

Spiced Apple Jelly

Apples (preferably cookers) - any amount, chopped up chunky (keeping their skins and cores)
2 or 3 lemons, sliced up
1 long stick of Cinnamon
Tablespoon of cloves
Thumb of root ginger - sliced thinly
Sugar - see method for volume

Place all the ingredients except the sugar in a large pan or preserving pan, add enough water so that the fruit is just all floating. Bring to the boil and, stirring occasionally, simmer for somewhere between 45 minutes and an hour - everything should be very mushy and your house should smell like heaven!
Strain the gloup through a muslin jelly bag (see notes) and allow to drip for a good 4 hours. The liquid in the basin under the the bag should feel slimy when rubbed between thumb and forefinger.
Once it has all drained measure the volume of liquid and return it to the preserving pan. Add sugar in the quantity of one imperial lb for every pint of sugar. Boil until the setting point is reached (see notes) pot in sterilized jars (see notes).
Serve with cold cuts, roast pork, duck or goose or stir into a gravy for any roast; its even great with cheese and biscuits.

Notes
A sheet of muslin can be used if you like, just make sure you can suspend it to hold all the pulp
Setting point occurs when sugar, acid and pectin have all worked their magic and the preserve will set. I use the "cold plate" method for this: Place a couple of cold plates in the freezer for 10 minutes. Pop a small dollop of the preserve on the middle of the cold plate and wait a few seconds. If it wrinkles when pushed with a finger then its ready. With this recipe you will get a feel for setting by looking at the side of the preserving pan.
Sterilizing jars is vital to the storage of your preserve - I wash jars and thoroughly rinse them. I then pop them in a low oven for about 20 minutes and pot up whilst they are still quite warm but not roasting. Strictly speaking one should not re-use the lids but I occasionally sin in this area, but they must be spotlessly clean.


Pickled, poached spiced pears.

Pears
Red wine vinegar
Sugar
Spices (I used cinnamon, cloves and whole allspice)

Peel, core and quarter the pears. (at this point it sometimes helps to pop the quarters in water with a solid glug of lemon juice in it whilst you peeling the rest)
Add all the pears to a pan of simmering water with a couple of tablespoons of sugar in it. Poach them till a knife feels little resistance. Strain the pears, reserving the liquid. Pop the vinegar in a pan adding a few ladles of the poaching liquid and all the spices you fancy. Simmer gently for 20 minutes. Pot the pears in a pretty pattern and add the cooling vinegar and spice mix. Keep to serve as a starter with goats cheese or at the other end of the meal with a robust Blue Stilton.

Further to these I now have a many jars of Pickled Onions all of which will be ready for early December. These are very simple to make but time is required.

Picked Onions

Peel your onions (no fun let me tell you!). Brine them for 24 hours (this is why so many shop bought onions are soft and pulpy). Pop the onions in sterilized jars and pop in spices (I like chili, cloves and seed coriander). Pour in vinegar, seal and wait 6 weeks.

A few years ago I used some dried chillies from an Asian supermarket - they should've come with a health warning. Don't get me wrong I love food with a chili hit but these made the pickled onions inedible, they became known as the "Killer onions." It wasn't a case of the sort of thing one would use in a macho competition, more a case of what you would use to kill somebody - I'm a little more cautious these days. This time I used my homegrown fresh chillies.

Wednesday - eggs again!

Last night I planned to make a traditional Toad in the Hole, with some of Newitts' wonderful Gloucester sausages. (Believe it or not, this dish was originally made using lamb cutlets). However, I found that we had no eggs left to make a batter so we went with Bangers and Mash instead. I put some spring onions and cabbage through the mash and served it with carrots and onion gravy - proper autumnal comfort food.
As we pick up our eggs on a Wednesday, there will regularly be an egg based recipe on Wednesdays. So here we go - this is my recipe for Mexican eggs. A colleague described this as Huevos Rancheros, though my understanding is that this dish involves a tortilla and salsa.
This makes a great weekend breakfast though it would be equally suited for lunch or supper.

Mexican Eggs
Serves 2

4 Free range eggs (from an ethically responsible farm)
Left over cooked potatoes (New or old)
One medium onion
Half a red pepper
A few chillies (how hot do you like?)
A little oil
A sprinkling of mature cheddar

Pre heat your grill. Chop up the onion, pepper and chili and sweat off in the oil till soft and just taking colour. Add the chopped potatoes to the pan and mix. (If you use old potato it will be a bit "bubble and squeaky", if you use new it will be a bit "hash browny") Once the spud is mixed, press it down into the pan and leave to brown on the bottom.
Make four wells in the mix and break an egg into each, sprinkle over the cheese and pop under the grill till the eggs are just setting. Serve with a cup of "Hot Joe."

Special Tip 1 - If you are buying cheese for cooking it is a false economy to buy mild cheddar. You will use much more of it to add flavour and your dish will go fatty.

The weekend - and how it seemed to carry on.

I am planning what the Beautiful Wife and I eat much more these days. I have become almost manic about not wasting food. I am no theologian but if there is such a thing a "sin" then it is a sin to waste good food. The "Love food, hate waste" guys have been raving about this for ages and celebrity chefs have recently got on board with the adaptation of the Great British Menu where all the ingredients were sourced from food which had been discarded.
I think a change is slowly happening. Years and years ago there used to be an American TV show called "The Frugal Gourmet" - a middle aged chef with a calm voice and a gentle manner would show the audience how banquets could be produced for pennies and high cost ingredients could be substituted for much cheaper alternatives. At the end of every programme he would lay out everything he had cooked and finish with the line, " I bid you peace" ; there was more than a little of the aging hippy about this fellow.
The word "frugal" has come to mean something negative almost miserly in recent times and this is a shame. If people do not view you as a tightfisted individual then they look at you with pity as if you are suffering for some religious cause or can't afford good food. This is idiotic. To be frugal or thrifty with food is to the advantage of us all, just as we should be eating all of the animals we kill for food, we should also not throw out carrots because they're cheap and look a little beyond their best.
This weekend just gone was one where I cooked more than normal. After shopping on Saturday our evening meal was a carved piece of lamb chump over creamed spinach with roasted onion squash, served with a redcurrant jus and a "kinda" salsa verde. This was inspired by what was in my veggie box and "Saturday Kitchen" a week before.
On Sunday I braised a belly of pork in soy sauce and stock with various Asian spices (inspired by a recipe in Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Secrets). This I served with broccoli and carrots on a bed of creamy mash. I removed the skin before I rolled and tied the pork and roasted it to produce the most wonderful crackling.
During Sunday I did all the chopping (giving myself a blister on my finger!!) for another batch of green tomato chutney (see recipe from a few days ago). This time I added some chili, root ginger and garlic. I finished this all last night with the boiling and potting.
The leftovers from my weekend's cooking made the most amazing bubble and squeak which I served wit a little bacon and a poached egg - sometimes being frugal is no hardship at all Saturday and Sunday's meals fed us well on Monday. Now my veg box has arrived, I can plan another week....

The great tomato crisis of 2010

My tomatoes have been a joy this year. I have a tiny garden but do manage to grow the odd plant and I started the year by planting far to many tomato seeds - I ended up giving away over 50 plants in the spring. I kept 12 Golden Sunrise and 3 Hundreds and Thousands. The Beautiful Wife and I have not needed to buy a tomato since mid July and have often faced a glut. Last weekend I "took down" the garden for autumn. This meant dismantling the 12 plants that had been wrapping themselves around each other on the wall of the house. This left me with about 5lbs (2.5 Kg) of ripe tomatoes and about 6lbs (3 KG) of green toms.
Talking to colleagues at school, it appears that everyone has had a good year with their tomatoes apart from those few unlucky people whose caught some blight. For those who now have a mass of toms and don't really know what to do with them here are a couple of recipes. I will write more about chutneys later.

Green tomato chutney

3lb (1.3kg) green tomatoes
1.5lb (675gms) cooking apples
1.5lb (675gms) onions
2tbsp salt
12oz (350gms) sugar
2tsp ground mixed spice
8oz (225gms) Sultanas
1pint (575gms) malt vinegar

Chop or mince onions, apples and toms finely. Place in a large bowl, cover and leave overnight.
Pour off the liquid that has been drawn from the fruit and veg. Transfer the three ingredients to a large pan. Add the vinegar and bring to the boil. Add the spice, dried fruit and sugar.
Bring back to the boil and simmer until everything is pulpy and soft. This can take up
to 90 minutes. Spoon into sterilised jars and allow to mature for a couple of months.Serve with cold cuts salads, bangers and mash or just in sandwiches.

Fresh Tomato Sauce

Ripe tomatoes (any type)
Olive oil
Salt

Cut the tomatoes in half through the middle so that one end has the whole of the stalk point. Lay the on a baking sheet which has been lightly oiled. Sprinkle over a little salt (quality is important here) and put in an oven at a low heat and leave then for about an hour or until the are still holding shape but very gooey and jelly like.
Place then in a sieve over a bowl and force the pulp through the sieve into the bowl. Don’t forget to scrape the bottom of the sieve when all you have left is a dry pulp of skin and seeds left. Jar up the sauce and use over pasta or to enrich a minestrone.
With my yellow, Golden Sunrise tomatoes this sauce is an amazing colour.