It was great to welcome our friends from Gateway to Nature again today, for a session on preserving. It also meant an outing for Tracey's fabulous "apple slinky maker". These were first made in the 1880s, (see here for details), but if you want one today, you can just nip down to Lakeland and buy one - pretty much exactly like the original design!
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| The famous apple slinky maker |
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| Apple slinky! |
We love making jams and chutneys at Windmill, as well as drying, fermenting and making cordials, so we like to share the knowledge when we can. Today we covered green tomato chutney, sauerkraut, plum jam and apple butter. We also did a Mexican themed lunch, to take advantage of all the lovely beans we've just podded at the end of the season. Everyone enjoyed refried beans with fresh tomato salsa and quesadillas (i.e. flour tortillas with melted cheese in between them - to easy to post a recipe!).
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| Stirring up the chutney |
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| Potting up - a jam funnel really helps |
Whilst we were chopping and stirring, Hassan, Chris and Andrea got on with the job of preparing the garden for the end of the season, taking out weeds and removing the last of the Shark's Fin Melons - we've had a huge crop this year, so if anyone would like some, let us know. We were also delighted to be joined by Mac, from Kimberley and by Brian who managed to come along for a little while to have a think about how he will improve the wood shed.
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| Hassan shows why Shark's Fin Melons do so well. Look at that root! |
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| Shark's Fin Melons from the harvest - these are the small ones! |
All the recipes we did are below. We hope you will enjoy making them as much as we did!
Green Tomato Chutney
Ingredients
3lb green
tomatoes
1lb onions
2.5lbs
apples - peel and chop into 1cm cubes or smaller
1lb
demerara sugar (can add a small amount of dark brown sugar to ordinary white to
get the same effect more cheaply).
1 pint
vinegar (I prefer cider vinegar, but almost any vinegar will work).
½ lb
sultanas or raisins (rinse in hot water to remove any taste of rancid oil).
1tsp
cayenne (this can be reduced or increased to taste)
1 tsp
ground ginger
(can also
add coriander seed to add a lemony kick).
Method
Chop
tomatoes and onions into roughly 1cm cubes. Sprinkle with salt and leave
overnight then drain and rinse in morning. (I usually leave this step out, with
good results, but it will make the chutney sweeter if that is what you prefer).
Put in a
large preserving pan with a heavy base. Add the chopped apples, sugar, vinegar,
raisins and the spices.
Bring to
the boil and simmer for 2 hours.
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| Cooking up the chutney - stir regularly to prevent it sticking |
Pot up in
jars with screw-top lids with a rubber seal, for the longest life, put a wax
disk on top of the chutney before sealing it.
Plum or Damson Jam
Ingredients
5lbs damson or plum flesh
5lbs sugar
1/2 pint water
knob of butter
Method
Wash and stone the fruit. Put 1/2 pint
of water and fruit into a jam pan or other large heavy-based saucepan.
Bring to the boil and simmer until the
fruit breaks up and makes lots of liquid (takes about 1/2 an hour as long as
you keep the pot out of the wind!). Don't worry if there are a few lumps left.
If you don't have much time or hand problems, it's ok to just boil up the whole
fruit, though you will need to skim off the stones. In that case, take off
about ½ lb in your calculation of the weight of fruit.
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| Fishing for stones - actually quite a fun job if you make it a competition! |
Add the sugar and a knob of butter -
this helps stop a build up of foam on top of the jam. Stir until you can't feel
the sugar on the bottom any more, then taste it, because the fruit can vary a lot
in acidity depending on how ripe it is. You can add up to another pound of
sugar if necessary. Now bring it back to the boil and boil hard for about 10-15
minutes.
Then test for a set - put a few drops of
jam onto a china plate, let it cool slightly then push it with your finger. If
the surface forms wrinkles, the jam is ready. Turn off the heat and ladle the
jam into sterilized jars. Keep some bread ready to wipe the last scrapings of
jam off the pan and make sure to eat it!
NB - If your saucepan is smaller than a
jam pan, make sure you don't overload it, or the jam may boil over. The pan
shouldn't really be more than 2/3rds full once the fruit and sugar are added.
Boiling jam can cause severe burns and should be handled with care.
Refried beans
Ingredients
1lb / 450g fresh podded beans, 1 mug
dried or 2 cans of beans
1 large onion
ground cumin to taste
Method
Prepare the beans as necessary – for
fresh, just add water to cover, bring to the boil and simmer until soft. For
dried, soak the beans overnight then boil and simmer as above. Or just open the
tins and drain the beans. Once soft,
mash the beans with a potato masher.
(NB. Don’t add salt as it makes the
skins tough).
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| Mashing the beans |
Finely chop the onion and sweat in
around 1 tablespoon of olive oil until soft. Add around 2 teaspoons cumin and
stir in (you can add more if liked). Add the mashed beans and a little salt to
taste. Stir in and heat through.
Tomato Salsa
Ingredients
1lb / 450g tomatoes
1 mild onion
Juice of 1 lemon or lime
Small bunch coriander leaves
Salt to taste
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Method
Juice the lemon or lime. Chop all other
ingredients and mix. Add juice and salt to taste. Serve with refried beans and
cheesy tortillas for a hearty lunch.
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| Adding lemon juice to taste |
