Recipes

Apple Chutney
'Basic' Recipe
  • 900 g apples
  • 225 g onions
  • 225 g raisins/sultanas
  • 855 ml distilled malt vinegar
  • 55 g mixed pickling spice
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp ground ginger
  • 450 g soft brown sugar

Apple, Apricot & Peach
  • 675 g apples
  • 112 g tinned peaches
  • 112 g dried apricots
  • 55 g raisins/sultanas
  • 4–6 cloves garlic
  • 1 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 2 tsp ground ginger
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 430 ml white wine vinegar
  • 340 g soft brown sugar

Chop apples and onions finely. Other fruit (eg, apricots) chop to whatever size you fancy. Put everything in a big pan, and heat gently until the sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil, then simmer until it thickens. Pour into hot sterilized jars, and seal. Chutney should be left at least 3 months, and keeps indefinitely while sealed.


Bacon
Dry Cure
  • half a pork belly
  • 1 kg salt
  • 200 g sugar
  • 20 g saltpetre (potassium nitrate)
  • 1 tbsp black pepper (freshly ground)

Mix the ingredients together thoroughly. Prepare your pork belly: rinse it, fillet out any ribs left in, and score the skin. Rub the salt mix into the meat, making sure you cover the entire surface. Place into a non-metallic container (stack if more than one), and put somewhere cold. I use an old spare fridge, to ensure that the temperature stays low. Every day, remove the belly/bellies, drain off the liquid, and rub more cure into the meat. Replace them into the tub, reversing the stacking (so the same cut isn't always in the brine).

For unsmoked bacon that you'll slice and freeze, cure for a four-five days. (If the finished bacon is too salty, you can soak it while it defrosts.) Rinse the meat, and slice it (you need a properly sharp knife to do this well). I freeze it in air-tight packs sized for a cooked breakfast for two. There are inevitably ends of belly that you can't cut into neat rashers: I chop these roughly for use as bacon bits (quiches, risotto, etc).

Chicken Liver Pâté
  • 150 g chicken livers (trim to remove sinew and green bits)
  • 2 tbsp brandy
  • 150 g butter
  • 1 generous tsp mustard powder
  • ¼ tsp ground mace
  • 1 tsp fresh thyme
  • 2 small bay leaves to garnish
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • salt and pepper

Melt a knob of the butter in a saucepan, and gently cook the livers for about five minutes. Keep them moving during this time. Put the livers into a blender; add the mustard, mace, thyme, and garlic. Melt all but about 25&ndash50 g of the butter in the saucepan, and add to the blender. Deglaze the pan with the brandy, and then add that, too. Blend everything to a smooth paste, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Pour into ramekins, and place a bay leaf on top (or a sprig of fresh thyme, if preferred). Melt the remaining butter, and pour on top to seal. Refrigerate for a few hours to set (or up to three days), but remove to bring back to room temperature to serve (with toast, and red onion salad, if desired). Makes two ramekins, enough for 5—6 as a starter.

Christmas Cake
  • 225 g unsalted butter/Stork
  • 225 g soft brown sugar (I use half light, half dark)
  • 4 eggs
  • 250 g plain flour
  • 1 tsp mixed spice
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • pinch of salt
  • 50 g ground almonds
  • 50 g chopped/flaked almonds
  • juice & zest of a lemon
  • zest of an orange
  • 2 tbsp marmalade
  • 1 tbsp black treacle
  • 4 tbsp brandy (blackberry brandy or cherry brandy are good)
  • 500 g currants
  • 200 g sultanas
  • 200 g raisins
  • 75 g glacé cherries
  • 50 g mixed candied peel

Cream together the butter and sugar. Mix in the eggs, and then the flour, spices, salt, and ground almonds. Next, add the lemon juice, the zests, and the marmalade, treacle, and brandy. Lastly, mix in the dried fruits and flaked or chopped almonds.

Pour into a double-lined and greased 8" (20 cm) cake tin. Put into a preheated 140° oven. The recipe claims it needs 3–3.5 hours, but I've never known it to cook in less than 4.5–5. Cover the top with a double layer of greaseproof if it starts to over-brown.

Elderberry Wine
  • 1.5 kg elderberries
  • 4.5 l boiling water
  • 1 tsp citric acid
  • yeast and nutrient
  • 1.5 kg sugar

Put the berries into the fermenting bucket, add the citric acid, and pour the boiling water in. Crush the berries a bit (with a potato masher). Allow to cool to 21°C, then add the yeast and nutrient. Allow to stand for 3–4 days, then stir well, and pour into a demijohn on top of the sugar. Fermentation may be quite vigorous to start!

Allow to clear, then rack; give it another month or so, then bottle.

Elderberry wine is quite high in tannin. I think it blends really well with blackberry wine, which takes the edge off the tannin.

Elderflower Cordial
  • 25 elderflower heads
  • 3 lb sugar (white, granulated)
  • 3 pints water (boiled and cooled)
  • 4 oranges, thinly sliced
  • 1 lemon, thinly sliced
  • 2 oz citric acid
Simple enough: put everything in a large, sterile plastic container, and leave for 48 hours. Stir it a couple of times, if you want. I squeeze it through a muslin, and decant it into empty 1 pint milk bottles, and freeze it: it then keeps for a year in the freezer, and a week once defrosted. It might keep longer than a year, but we tend to run out...

If you don't want to freeze it, you could use campden tablets as a preservative.

Elderflower Wine
  • 100g/500ml uncompressed elderflowers, trimmed from their stalks
  • 4.5l boiling water
  • 1.5kg sugar
  • juice of 3 lemons
  • 250g chopped raisins
  • 10ml strong black tea (source of tannin)
  • yeast nutrient (I have Brewicon mineral nutrient and Vitamin B tablets): nutrient is important for this wine
  • yeast: I used about 1g of Gervin GV5 from Muntons

First, clean your equipment and sterilize it!

Put the elderflowers in the fermenting bucket, and pour the boiling water onto them. Add the sugar, lemons, raisins, tea, and nutrient, and stir well.

Allow to cool to 21ºC, and then add the yeast. Cover and allow to stand for 4-5 days. Strain and pour into demi-john; add air lock and move to somewhere dark (airing cupboard!). Allow fermentation to proceed for about two months, then rack. When it clears, rack again, and bottle.

One can make elderflower champagne from this recipe, if you catch the fermentation at the right stage, and have suitable bottles.

Fridgecake
  • 400g sweetened condensed milk
  • 255g digestive biscuits, broken down
  • butter
  • plain/milk chocolate
  • raisins
  • toasted whole almonds
Coming soon...

Fudge
  • 370g sweetened condensed milk
  • 255g white granulated sugar
  • 115g butter
Heat gently until the sugar's dissolved, then bring up to 116ºC. Pour into a well greased, and lined, tin (about 10x15x3cm). Cut while still soft. Chocolate & Almond Fudge Once the fudge reaches 116ºC, stir in 115g grated plain or milk chocolate, and 115g toasted whole almonds. Stir them in well, so they're coated properly, then pour. You'll need to work quickly, as the fudge can start cooling and setting.

Ham
Basic Wet Cure
  • 6 l cold water
  • 2 kg salt
  • 50 g saltpetre
  • 1 tbsp black pepper (freshly ground)
  • 1 tbsp cloves (freshly ground)
Mix the ingredients together in a large (non-metallic) bucket. This is sufficient for four 1-1.5 kg joints, but the bucket needs to be pretty large (20 l). Put the joints in the brine, and get them thoroughly wet. Weight them down: plates or a clean block of wood do the job -- I use a clean tupperware, filled with water and tightly lidded, that's large enough to keep the joints submerged. Keep at 1-4ºC for 3-4 days per kg (not cumulatively: per joint): for my 1.5 kg joints, I leave them a week. Open the bucket and turn the joints every day or two. If you can, a spare fridge is good for keeping them cold. The other option is to use frozen cool packs, and keep the bucket somewhere pretty cold (garage, shed, cellar).

Mango Chutney
  • 900 g mangos (or a tin of mango pulp/purée)
  • 450 g apples
  • 450 g onions
  • 855 ml distilled malt vinegar
  • 55 g mixed pickling spice
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp ground ginger
  • 450 g soft brown sugar

Cut the mango into small slices (unless it's pulp, obviously). Chop the apples and onions finely. Put everything in a big pan and heat gently until the sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil, then simmer until it thickens. Pour into hot, sterilized jars, and seal.

Mango Sorbet
  • 900 g mangos (or a tin of mango pulp/purée)
  • 225 g sugar
  • 100 ml water
  • 3 tsp lemon or lime juice (or a combination)

Put the sugar and water in a saucepan, and heat gently until the sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil, and simmer for a couple of minutes. Stir into the mango pulp, and add the citrus juice. Mix well, then pour into a freezer container. Put in the freezer for 4–6 hours; remove, and mix thoroughly. Re-freeze for another 6 hours, and re-mix. The sorbet should then be frozen until required (depending on how hard it freezes, you might wish to remove it shortly before serving). Makes approx. 1 l.

Red Onion Salad
  • 2 large red onions
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 heaped tsp soft light brown sugar
  • 2 tbsp water
  • 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
  • ½ tbsp wholegrain mustard
  • salt and pepper

Cut the onions into eighths, through the root (helps keep them together). Gently cook in the oil for five minutes. Add the sugar and water, lid, and allow to cook for ten minutes. Add the rest, mix thoroughly, and allow it a couple of minutes. Remove from the heat, and allow to cool to room temperature before serving. Goes very well with Chicken Liver Pâté. Serves 5–6 as a starter accompaniment.

Soda Bread
Treacle Soda Bread
  • 370 g plain flour
  • 130 g wholemeal flour
  • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 40 g butter, melted
  • 1 tbsp black treacle
  • 300–340 ml buttermilk, or warm milk with 1tbsp lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Stir together the flours, bicarbonate, and salt. Pour in the butter, treacle, and enough milk to make a loose, sticky dough. Tip it onto a dusted worktop, and knead for a minute (it will be sticky!). Form it into a large ball with a smooth top, and flatten it slightly, and place on a baking tray. Take a long wooden spoon, flour its handle, and push it down through the ball, bisecting it, until you reach the tray. Repeat, perpendicular to this, to form the characteristic cross. Dust with some flour, and bake for 30–40 minutes, or until brown, risen, and the cross is no longer damp.

Whisky Soda Bread
  • 300 g plain flour
  • 300 g wholemeal flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 50 g sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 60–75 ml whisky
  • 375 ml natural yoghurt

Preheat the oven to 190°C. Stir together the dry ingredients. Beat together the egg, whisky and yoghurt, and pour into the dry ingredients. Mix together to a soft and sticky dough. Knead for a few minutes, and form as for the Treacle Soda Bread (above). Bake for 30–40 minutes, until golden brown and the cross is no longer damp.

Soda bread doesn't keep well, so try to use it on the day of baking. It can be toasted the next day, if not finished, though!

Strawberry & Elderflower Jam
  • 900 g hulled and halved strawberries
  • 900 g jam sugar (that is, with added pectin)
  • 25 ml (approx) lemon juice
  • 5 large elderflower heads, tied into a muslin bag

Wash and sterilize jars for about 1.4 kg of jam. Put all the ingredients in a jam pan, and heat gently to melt the sugar. Once it's dissolved, increase the heat, and boil. We found it needed to boil for about 9 minutes before it reached setting point. Remove from the heat, and allow to cool slightly before you bottle (which helps evenly distribute the fruit). Obviously, remove the bag of flowers before bottling.

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