Make your own tinned (canned) apricot preserves!

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I have a few things I can't resist to buy.  1.  A good handbag   2.  Cute cupcake papers   3.  Gorgeous fruit in season.  I went farmgating on the weekend and saw these apricots and I bought everything they had.  I asked if they had more.. unfortunately not.  I had 1.5 kilos from the farm and then asked hubby whilst he was at the supermarket to pick me up another kilo.  There's no point preserving anything under 2 kilos in my opinion.

The apricots that came from the supermarkets were of course about 50% more expensive and about 50% smaller... I'm sure they don't taste as good either but I think preserving them in syrup, I'm bound to get the best of out of them.   My Laura ADORES apricots so was bitterly disappointed I only let her have one before I preserved the rest - but I did reason, she'll get to eat them all throughout the year this way...

Of course, I had Eloise help me who isn't a huge lover of apricots, at least I knew I wouldn't lose as many to 'spoilage' aka Laura's mouth...

If you haven't preserved before and want to give it a try now is a really good time to start.. there's lots of good things in season - apricots, peaches, mangoes, cherries, plums... you can can them like this or make sauces, jams - all kinds of stuff.  I liken it to making up presents for you to open and enjoy throughout the year   You can buy jams and tinned fruit but it's never as nice as when you make it yourself.  They also make brilliant gifts....

Makes 5 x litre jars

Ingredients

2.5 kilos apricots

1.2 kilos sugar

2-3 vanilla pods

5 x 1 litre preserving jars

Method:

Cut your apricots in half, reserve 25 seeds.

Sterilise your jars.  I put mine in the dishwasher with no powder on a pot wash, and then I let them air dry.  You can also boil them (but you need to submerge them so you'll need a very big pot or do it in batches) for about 5 minutes under furious boil then take them out carefully with tongs and put them into an over over 100 degrees until they dry.

Start off by adding your sugar to 2.5 litres of water.   Bring to a furious boil for 10 minutes or until it reduces by 20%.

Turn off and allow to cool whilst you prepare your jars and fruit..

Put your apricots in the jar, add 5 of your seeds in the middle of each jar.

Add half a vanilla pod that's been split to expose the beans.

Don't they look beautiful?

Then fill your jars up to the top with your syrup.  You need to make sure that the fruit is completely submerged.  Put the lid on tightly.  My tip for you is to buy a wide funnel, you can buy it at the same place I get my jars from here

It looks like you're finished... but you're not.  You need to process your fruit, which means killing all the bacteria that could be in your jars... place your jars into large pot and fill with water, bring to the boil for 20 minutes, turn off and leave to cool.  Do this twice over two days.. and then store in a cool dark place until you're ready to eat them.!

Home made strawberry Jam

This is the best part of having strawberries at a good price and believe me, home made strawberry jam tastes a LOT better than the stuff you buy in the supermarket.  It doesn't take a lot of effort and I find it easy to do when I'm cooking other things. I can make it by sight now and love the smell of it bubbling away.

A few months ago I bought 21 punnets of strawberries for $21.   I hulled them and froze them in 1kg bags.  These are good for shakes or sauces - but I needed the room in my freezer again and we were getting low on jam - so this was an obvious next step.  You can also put other berries with strawberries in this one - frozen raspberries and blueberries are lovely to make a mixed berry jam.

This time of the year, this is a lovely home-made gift that will almost always be used by the recipient.  I mean, who doesn't love home-made strawberry jam!?

Ingredients:
1.5kg strawberries, at room temperature
1.25kg sugar (yes, I know, but remember you only use a tb at a time!)
1/2 lemon
2 tb vanilla extract

Method:
If you are using frozen berries, defrost first, and then place in a heavy large saucepan.

Add vanilla, sugar and cut up lemon.  Bring to the boil for about 5 minutes, then down to a simmer for 1 hour 30 minutes.

Don't worry if you have a 'scum' on the top.  This is normal, Just sweep as much of it off as you can with a spoon.  Place a ceramic plate in the freezer for testing later..

As per my Nan's  marmalade recipe, test to see if the jam is ready by placing a small amount of the jam on the plate.  If it spreads, it's not ready.  Bring the jam up to the boil again for 5 minutes and test again, repeat until it doesn't spread and it gel-like.

Pour into your sterilised jars (again, I do this by putting on a hot rinse in the microwave) and fill up your jars!

If you end up with 5.5 jars like me, that's a good excuse to put that one straight in the fridge!

Yum!  Jam on scones time!

My Nan's famous marmalade recipe

Last couple of weeks have been particularly sad ones in our house, my Nan after a long battle with her health passed away peacefully.  If you're a regular reader of this blog or know me in in real life, you'll know what a special relationship I shared with my Nan, what a big part of our lives she was and how much she meant to me and my frills.   Some of my most favourite times with Nan were in the kitchen, as so many in my family.  Nanny was always a good sharer of recipes - including this one - which she shared with a family friend who passed it on to me.  Her handwriting is un-mistakeable.  I've always loved it.

It's no surprise this was written on a blank TAB card, because Nan would never waste the back of an envelope or back of blank junk mail to jot down reminders to herself, phone numbers and of course the lotto numbers each week etc.  The TAB cards were free of course and there were a stash of them for when she wanted to put on a bet here and there -  she did love to put a bet on every now and then and would review the form and then discuss/swap tips with my uncle when she felt like having a flutter.

Now mine made 800ml of marmalade, but I used pretty big navel oranges and big lemons, I added a bit more water to compensate.

Make sure you have airtight sterilised jars - I sterilised mine in the dishwasher - no tablet/powder on a hot rinse.  If you don't have a dishwasher - preheat your oven to 110 degrees, wash and rinse your jars, boil them for 10 minutes (make sure they are submerged) then pop them in the oven for 15 minutes to dry.

Ingredients:
4 oranges
2 lemons
5 cups of water
1.5 kg sugar

Method:
Slice your oranges and lemons thinly

Then you (Or, your assistant! Love that my girls want to learn Nanny's recipes too) put them into a stockpot and add your water.  Use the 5 cups as directed if you're using regular sized oranges or lemon, a bit more if you are using larger ones.  I used 6.5 cups.

Pop the lid on (to keep away fruit fly etc.) and leave overnight.

Next day, bring the pot to the boil then turn down to a simmer, total time 40 minutes.

I'm going to tell you now, your house is going to smell wonderful.  Pop a side plate into the freezer.

Then add the sugar. Mix in and then bring to a furious boil for another 45 minutes.

This is the time the peel begins to soften and caramelise... then your house is smelling like marmalade!

After the 45 minutes is up, take your plate out of the freezer and spoon a little of your marmalade onto the plate.  If it spreads, it's not ready..Put it back on furious boil and check it every 5 minutes.  If it is ready, it won't spread and when you touch it, it feels gel-like.  For me the difference between not ready and ready was about 10 minutes more on furious boil.

Now you can pour into your sterilised jars.  (I bought my jars from here) Would thoroughly recommend getting a wide funnel too, I think you can buy it at the same place.

Nan would always deliver her annual batch of marmalade to us since my hubby came on the scene because he loves his marmalade.  He used to have one jar at home and one jar at work so he could have marmalade toast at work for breakfast each morning.  Hubby couldn't even wait til I had the lids on, he was making himself some marmalade toast!

Place your lids on and give each jar a bit of a shake to ensure it's airtight.

Serve!

These are nice to eat, a lovely gift or something to donate to the school fete.

But maybe just share them with the ones you love, like my Nan did.

Hot chilli sauce - made in the thermomix (and not)

Now if you don't have a thermomix, don't worry.  It just makes this a lot easier.  I usually take something that's easy to keep warm to Carols by Candlelight - last couple of years by demand I've taken jazzed up snags but after we watched Ree on her show make buffalo wings I thought 'bingo'!.

Only problem is the recipe called for buffalo wing sauce/hot chilli sauce.  The type she refers too is not in the supermarkets here.   So I went hunting and found this recipe (non-thermomixers can use it easily) which is very similar to one I already had and use in this recipe.

This is so easy for the thermomix, it's crazy.

Ingredients:
500ml white vinegar
12-15 chillies (the original recipe calls for cayenne, but I got a mix of those plus a few thai, I like it a bit hot ;) )
3-4 cloves garlic
2 tb tomato paste
lashings of black pepper
good pinch sea salt.

Method:
Cut the stems off your chillies, and chop them roughly.  Add those with the garlic, tomato paste, salt, pepper and 100ml of your vinegar into your thermomix.  Blitz for 1 minute, starting at speed one and gradually getting up to speed 7.

 Add the rest of the vinegar and set to 100 degrees,  8 minutes speed 4.

When it's done, strain it through a sieve - push any pulp through so you are left with mostly seeds.

Pour into sterilised jars or bottles and keep sealed for up to 2 years in a dark place or if opened to use, place in the fridge for up to 2 months.

Great gift for the chilli-lover in your life this Christmas perhaps?

Christmas presents or your own private stash - DIY Vanilla Extract

I'm sure most of your would have seen this or be aware of it - with the amount of vanilla extract I've been using lately and the great source of madagascar vanilla beans I found I thought it best to start making my own Vanilla extract.  It really couldn't get any easier than this.

When I think that 100ml of quality vanilla extract is anywhere from $9-12 - that is $90 - $120 a litre.  YIKES.

So I've made 3 litres of vanilla extract:

$15 vanilla beans
$72 vodka
$12 bottles (I'm guestimating, I've had them for ages and re-use them)

$99 for 3 litres.  Beautiful.   I also plan on dispensing some of these into little bottles to give to family and friends over Christmas. Cheap homemade pressie - and USEFUL!  If I give just over half of my stash away and give away 200ml bottles of vanilla extract (x8) that makes them even with $1.50 bottles and printing of labels of around $5 each.

If you want to make these for Christmas - get onto it this week - it's best if it steeps for 6 months or so, though 5 months should be fine to decant it.

All you need to do is:

Clean and dry your airtight bottle.

Split 12 vanilla beans for each litre of vodka

Put the vanilla beans in the bottle.

Fill up with vodka.

Put somewhere dark and dry for it to steep.   Don't worry if it's not brown yet a few hours later I dropped in on mine and they were already looking like weak tea.. given them a gentle shake every couple of weeks or whenever you remember.

Banana Ketchup - in the thermomix (and not)

I know it sounds weird right?  Believe me it's delicious and a great addition to a snag - beef or pork it wouldn't really matter.. so if you have some bananas on the turn it might be a good way of using them!  I made them to go in a dish that's coming up tomorrow on the blog.

I've adapted mine for the thermomix but you can make it the conventional way from this site - that's what I adapted this recipe from.  Alternatively you can just buy it from here.. it's cheap!


Ingredients:
60g sultanas
75g onion
3 large cloves garlic
90g tomato paste
375ml/g apple cider vinegar
4 large ripe bananas, peeled
750g water
100g brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
60g golden syrup
3 tsp allspice


Method:
Place sultanas, onion, garlic, tomato paste and 125g of vinegar in thermomix and hold on tight whilst you place it for 5 minutes at 60 degrees speed 4.

Hello thermomix! Thank you for doing the stirring for me!

Then you have a rich paste.

Add your bananas and another 125g vinegar, plus water and place 2 minutes, 60 degrees on speed 4.

Now it's starting to look like ketchup!

Lastly add the golden syrup, remaining 125g vinegar, brown sugar, salt and allspice.

Cook for 10 minutes on veroma temp speed 2.  I put the steamer basket on top and steamed one of my jars and lids to sterilise. (The rest I was using straight away)

Hello banana ketchup! Store in the fridge for up to 2 months.