...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.