Jam, jam khazam

Yeah yeah I made them yesterday I've already started tucking into the one at the front. Whatevs.

Long live the pissing British summer. It may be raining every few moments, thus scuppering plans for long walks, barbecues, beach days and lots of general outdoor activities but it’s still pretty fun. On Sunday, we took a trip to the nearby Maynards Fruit Farm where we got thoroughly wet but it was worth it. Why? For the jam.

The fruit farm is a wonderful trip, for those of you in the area or even Londoners looking for something a bit different to do with a few hours. Hidden down a small lane in Ticehurst, the farm sprawls over acres and acres of land, belching out (at the moment) raspberries, blackberries, redcurrants, loganberries, blackcurrants and more. In less than an hour, Jon and I gathered an impressive amount of produce with one thing in mind – jam making day.



It’s been a while since Natalie and I have had one of our epic jam/chutney/pickle making days – so what better time to jump back on the wagon than in the middle of summer when the produce for experimentation is right at our fingertips?

Having tried my hand at the basics a few times now, I thought it was a good time to start making/ adapting recipes of my own... so the menu was spiced blackberry jam, blackberry and redcurrant jam, raspberry and gooseberry jam and redcurrant vodka jelly.


Redcurrant vodka jelly

I can’t even begin to say how much fun it was. Gossip and preserving go together like bees and honey... the one definitely runs smoother because of the other. Before we knew it, we were 30 jars down and sipping on the last of our daytime tipples. I think we’re finally at the stage where we may start selling some of the jams, pickles and other preserves that we make so if anyone has any advice or knows of any good farmers markets easily reachable/ in East Sussex I’d be delighted to hear from you.

Of course, one cannot have a jam making day without the odd bottle of wine or two consumed along the way. It was almost predictable that I was going to turn up for my first village WI meeting either in a mild state of inebriation or with the beginnings of a slight hangover. Having realised the error of my drinking ways, I stopped early enough to ensure that it was the latter. Still it was an interesting and enjoyable evening – the local ladies were lovely and many have been living in the village for over thirty years....vive le Rotherfield!


Raspberry and gooseberry jam
1.5kg raspberries
0.5 kg gooseberries
2kg preserving sugar
Juice of 4 lemons

Put the gooseberries into a preserving pan and cook on a low heat for 5 minutes, stirring to release their juices. Add the raspberries and cook for a further period until they are soft and quite mushy.

Add the lemon juice and sugar, stir on low heat until sugar has dissolved.

Bring to the boil and boil for 15 minutes or until setting point (105 degrees Celsius) is reached.



Skim any scum from the surface. Test for a set using a cold saucer from the fridge.

Put into sterilised jars, label.

Makes about 8 jars

Redcurrant vodka jelly
1800g redcurrants
600ml vodka
375 preserving sugar for every 500ml juice.

Put the redcurrants in a preserving pan with the vodka, bring to the boil, cover then continue to simmer for 25 minutes.




Put the redcurrant and vodka mash into a muslin sheet or a jelly bag and secure over a large bowl. Leave to drain for at least six hours.

Take the liquid from the bowl and measure. Measure the amount of sugar needed. Add the liquid and the sugar to the pan and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil and boil until setting point (around 105 degrees Celsius) is reached).

Jar up – making sure jars are sterilized first, cover and label.

Makes two large jars

Spiced blackberry jam
1 vanilla pod
1 stick cinnamon
3 cloves
1.8kg blackberries
1.8kg preserving sugar
Juice of 2 lemons
Water

Scrape the seeds from the vanilla pod into the pan. Tie the spices and the remains of the pod into a small muslin bag. Place into the pan with the blackberries, water and lemon juice, bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes.

Add the sugar, stir on a low heat until dissolved. Bring to the boil on a high heat until setting point is reached. Test for a set using a cold saucer.

Remove from the heat. Ladle into sterilized jars, cover and label.

I’m not going to put in the recipe for the blackberry and redcurrant jam as it’s very similar to the one above. Omit the spices and replace half the blackberries with redcurrants for a tangy but delicious jam.

The Perfect Weekend

Those of you following me on Twitter will have figured out that I had a bit of an intense week with exams and revising and coursework and other fun tidbits. So it’s an understatement to say that it was a relief to finally make it to the weekend… it was well worth the wait. In fact, I might go so far as saying that it was one of the best weekends I’ve had in a very long time.

It started with quince cheese. A few weeks ago, my partner in chutney/pickle/jam/supperclub crime, Natalie and I were browsing through our local Turkish shop picking up ingredients for what was to evolve into the lime pickle.

Happily browsing through the vegetable section, we came across what I would describe as one of the ugliest fruits I have ever seen in my life. After a bit of rooting around the labels section we saw that the rather unfortunate looking fruit were quinces.

Tick tock went the brain. I have always loved quince jam, and, on my jaunts to Spain, the dusky membrillo (a form of quince cheese). For a long time too, fruit cheeses had rather appealed. 1+1= 2. And that was how the idea of the quince cheese came into being.

Brilliant as things are in theory, sometimes they are a bit trickier to execute in real life, as we found out on Friday night. The rudimentaries of making quince cheese are not that hard to get your head around. Essentially you peel and wash the fruit, deseed it, boil the hell out of it for a few hours, push it through a sieve, add sugar and boil the hell out of it a bit more before putting it into your containers of choice.

If only it was that simple. I’m never a fan of peeling things, however, it was the coring that proved to be a bit of a bitch, to put it politely. Somehow, it was only once that was done, we were a few glasses of bubbly down each and it was past 10pm that we realised that the rest of the recipe was going to take at least 4 hours.


Bubble bubble toil and trouble

What better reason to put on a soundtrack of eighties tracks and err air guitar to Toto – Hold The Line? None that I can think of. It totted up to around 5 hours in total. And at one point it looked like, well, like vomit...



But my goodness, I had a slice yesterday on a slice of Black bomber and it was heavenly.

That alone doesn’t a perfect weekend make. Those who have been reading for a while will know how forthcoming I can be about BAD dates. However, to balance the table a bit, for once I am going to tell you a bit about a good date (two to be precise, in one weekend).

The first involved True Grit and dinner at a local Spanish restaurant Galicia. Those that live within striking distance of Croydon would do well to make a beeline for this empire-sized restaurant who somehow manage to consistently serve up gorgeous tapas time after time in a convivial and friendly setting.

269-275 High St
Croydon CR0 1QH
020 8686 0043

The second involved (hold your breath)…. Leaving London. Well to get to Sussex, which isn’t that far but sadly, is a lot further away from the big smoke than I get most weekends. We went to an absolutely gorgeous place called The Hatch…..

It was delightful. Small, cosy and deservedly popular – you’d do well to reserve a table if you head down on a Sunday, as it was, we bagged the last available table arriving bang on the dot of opening. Though there’s quite a large menu involving quite a few fishy dishes that looked rather tempting, we’d come for the roast and that’s what we got…

The beef was tender, rare, juicy and saucily accompanied as you can see by the usual trimmings and lashings of gravy.



I did not take a picture of the sticky toffee pudding that rolled out for dessert but safe to say, the moment it ended was one of those moments. You know the ones where you honestly wish you could order the same thing right away and relive the unadulterated pleasure without a) feeling sick from being so gluttonous b) your stomach popping open and spraying everyone with the contents of your gut.

Colmans Hatch
East Sussex TN7 4EJ
01342 822 363
http://www.hatchinn.co.uk/

The rest of the day was spent tramping around Ashdown Forest, visiting Pooh Bear’s haunts and generally realising how overrated growing up is and how fun jumping in the mud with your wellies is. Maybe not quite enough exercise to burn off the luncheon calories but dammit, a pretty good way to start anyway.



And there we have it, the perfect weekend. Lets hope there are many more to come.