Category: preserves

Vegetable gluts!

by Hecichera, posted in chutney, preserves, preserves & pickles

It’s that time of year isn’t it? Either you have your own glut of apples, courgettes, marrows, pears, tomatoes, chillis etc. Or someone else has a glut and wants to offload some of it onto you!

My latest glut – having dealt with blackberries, apples, tomatoes, chillis…….. is marrow. I didn’t grow any but the courgettes manifested themselves as marrows overnight. TBH there are only so many courgettes one can eat!

So here’s a recipe to use up a marrow or two. All proportions are approximate, depending on what you have to hand. Chutney is very forgiving!

The proportions below made six jars.

I medium sized marrow (about 35cm long) peeled, de-seeded and chopped into small dice
2 large onions, chopped
1 piece of fresh ginger about 5cm long, grated – add more if you love ginger
6 cloves of garlic, grated
500g chopped windfall apples – I used unpeeled Coxes Orange Pippin – just take the cores out
One sweet potato – peeled and diced
One whole fresh chilli about 10cm long including pips (mine were hot, so use your judgement depending how much chilli you like) and remove the seeds if you don’t like it too hot (then wash your hands, dont touch your eyes or go to the loo till doing that otherwise there will be dire and painful consequences)
2 tbs nigella seeds
2 tbs cumin seed
3 tbs turmeric powder
2 tbs sea salt (less if you prefer)
150g golden demerara sugar
750ml apple cider vinegar
1 whole lemon, de-rinded and chopped

Put everything in a preserving pan or large saucepan and stir it round to incorporate all the ingredients.
Place on the hob, bring slowly to the boil stirring whilst you wait.
When it’s bubbling away merrily, keep taking a look every five minutes and stir carefully to make sure it isn’t sticking to the bottom.
After 10 minutes, turn the heat down till it gently burbles away for another 30 minutes.
By then the liquid will have reduced and the mixture will be thicker.
Carefully check that the vegetables are cooked through and if they are not, cook for another 10 minutes.
The consistency you are seeking is an unctuous rolling mixture where the liquid has reduced to coat the vegetables.
If it is still runny, simply keep cooking it till more of the liquid evaporates.

Sterilise your jars either by putting a small amount of water in each jar and microwave on medium for 3 minutes. Or pour some vodka into the first jar, swirl it round then transfer to the next jar and so on. At the end, drink the vodka!

When your chutney has cooled, transfer it to the jars and leave to cool. Then top with greaseproof circles (not too soon or condensation will form – so be patient!). When completely cold, lid and label.

Chutney is very easy to make and doesn’t really need you to be precise about ‘setting times’ as you would with jam. My only tip is to take your time to reduce the liquid content, be adventurous with the ingredients.
and enjoy experimenting.

You can find lots of preserving ideas on my website, so take a look either use the search bar on the landing page or follow this link.

autumn vegetable overproduction

Hedgerow gleaning and garden overproduction

by Hecichera, posted in Autumn, hedgerow, preserves

This month has seen an unseasonable amount of blackberries, wild plums, sloes and blackcurrants. Not to mention runner beans, beets, onions, squash, garlic, lettuce, peppers and chilli.

Not only do we have to manage our own over-production, we also try to resist (and in my case, fail) the produce at the end of other peoples’ drives and tracks. It’s all too much! This is why my shelves are groaning with jams and chutneys and the freezer is full of berries and vegetables! Here are a few ideas of what to do with the glut (and it frequently strikes me as obscene, compared with what we are watching in Gaza and other parts of the world).

I’ve picked loads of sloes and wild damsons. Later in the year (when I have accumulated a few large bottles) I will make sloe gin and damson vodka. Putting the fruit in the freezer now really helps to break down the fruit when macerated with sugar and spirits, which I usually do in late October.

Apple and Blackberry Muffins

Heat oven to 210C
300g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda, 1 tsp salt
130g butter
100g sugar of your choice
50g honey or maple syrup
2 eggs – beaten
130g plain live yogurt
80ml milk of your choice
chopped fruit – I used apples and blackberries – about 210g

Beat the butter till soft and creamy then add the sugar and maple syrup, then the beaten eggs then the yogurt and milk. Then fold in all the dry ingredients. Finally, add the chopped fruit and mix till evenly distributed. Then add a dessert-spoon full into muffin cases. Sprinkle a mixture of brown sugar, oats and flaked almonds on top if you wish. Put in the hot oven and bake for 7 minutes to help them rise beautifully, then turn oven down to 190 and bake for another 10 minutes or so. Use your discretion when you take them out.

This is the best recipe I’ve found for muffins – it uses a ‘batter’ base which makes them incredibly light and gorgeous.

Picalilli

Chop whatever vegetables you like into small-ish dice. I used courgette, onion, carrot, runner beans, corn-on-the-cob, apple, chilli pepper, green tomatoes
For every 500g of vegetables, combine 2tbsp dry English mustard, 30g ground turmeric, 750ml vinegar (preferably not the brown malted stuff), 100g sugar. Then to your own taste, add mustard seed, onion seed, cumin seed, chilli flakes.
Put the vegetables in a large deep saucepan, add the dry ingredients that are mixed with the vinegar then add the sugar. Mix thoroughly then bring to a slow boil and cook for 10 minutes stirring regularly. Take off the heat and allow to cool before bottling and securing with waxed paper circles and a lid when cold. (do it before and condensation will form inside the lid and the tops are more likely to go mouldy when storing).
There really is no exact measurement required, just ensure you have vegetables that are mixed in colour but chopped in a uniform size. Then mix the spices, sugar and liquid together – sufficient to just cover the vegetables once they are in the saucepan. Remember more juice will form as the vegetables cook so don’t put in too much liquid at the start. You can always add more later.

Aubergine pickle (Brinjal)

You can find my recipe for Brinjal via this link to another page on this blog

You can find other recipes for preserving, fermenting etc here