Blackberry Jam

 I was gifted an unexpected bowl of blackberries a couple of weeks ago and immediately thought of blackberry jam - hold your horses insisted no 1 - could I have a blackberry tart please?

Well, there were quite  few blackberries so I cleaned them all ( few little worms etc in there ) out and saved enough for a large tart and whatever I had left over made the jam, I figured I probably had enough fruit to make 2 large jars and so it was ......kind of.......

Ingredients

400gms Fresh Thoroughly Washed Blackberries

400gms Jam Sugar

Place washed jam jars and lids onto a baking tray and place in a warm oven  - 150c / 300f / gas mark 2 - for 20 minutes to sterilize. I leave mine in the oven until it'e time to fill with jam as they are still nice and warm.

In a large flameproof pan, gently heat the fruit and sugar together until all the sugar is dissolved. Don't rush this bit, as soon as you can see no crystals on the back of a wooden spoon its ready to turn up the heat.

Turn up the heat to a nice boil without it burning and let it boil for about 10 minutes stirring occasionally.

Now, I could put a little bit onto a cold plate to see if it wrinkles but honestly I find it just as easy to coat the back of a wooden spoon, leave it for a few seconds and just gently push it with a clean finger, if it wrinkles its ready.

Pour into sterilized warm jars right to the top and seal immediately . No need for wax discs if its completely to the top and lidded straight away.

Maybe don't do this, don't wash sticky jars under a cool tap - yes I did do this !! One jar just shattered ( of course ) leaving me with one jar of jam.

Tomato Bean and Bacon Stew

 This is a recipe that I've made so many times but can no longer find the original anywhere. It's taken from Nigel Slater many years ago and it's a lovely healthy gorgeous winter warmer of a recipe. Nowadays I kind of make it up as I go along and try and remember what is actually in it :)

Anyway - this is my take on this recipe, to be changed at will given how I remember it!

Ingredients

3 Large Carrots Roughly Chopped

3 Sticks Celery Roughly Chopped

2 Large Onions Roughly Chopped

4 Fat Cloves Garlic Minced

200gms Smoked Bacon Lardons ( or Smoked Streaky Bacon )

Half  a Savoy  Cabbage Deveined and Chopped

Half a Tube Tomato Puree

1 Tin Tomatoes ( 400gms ) 

3 Tins Beans - any type really, I used Borlotti, Canellini and Butter Beans

1 Green Chilli Finely Chopped

1 Teaspoon Dried Mixed Herbs

2 Large Bay Leaves

2 vegetable Stock pots / Cubes

Olive Oil

Good Handful Chopped Flat Leaf Parsley

Couple of Ounces Grated Parmesan to Finish

In a large flameproof pan ( with a lid if possible ), heat a good splash of olive oil and fry onions and garlic for a few minutes but not until brown,  add bacon and stir for a couple of minutes. Add chilli and celery and stir for a couple of minutes.

Add carrots and stir for a couple of minutes, add tomato puree, stock pots, herbs, tinned tomatoes, bay leaves and drained and cleaned beans. 

Give it all a good stir and cover with water.

Bring to the boil and put on the lid. Lower the Temperature to a gentle simmer and cook for about an hour or until the carrots are cooked through.

At this point the stew can be turned off until it's needed.

Half an hour or so before serving, bring the stew up to temperature and add the cabbage.

Pop the lid on and cook through for about 10 minutes or until the cabbage is tender. Add Parsley

Serve with crusty bread and grated Parmesan cheese - delicious!

Thanks Nigel Slater whatever this recipe actually started out as :) 

Homemade Tomato Puree ?? ......

 Yes !!! This really has been the summer of the tomato, I'll stop banging on about them soon as they're nearly all gone ( one more harvest this week should do it ). In the meantime there is a never ending supply of them and you can realistically only eat so many.

A thought crossed my mind - can I make tomato puree- I use it a lot in recipes and I really hate to waste food, why not ?? 

Ingredients

Tomatoes

I didn't even weigh my tomatoes as it doesn't matter as it's the only ingredient, I gave mine a thorough wash and chopped them up into my slow cooker. 

I didn't de skin or de seed as I knew that I was going to sieve after cooking.

So far so easy - I cooked these in the slow cooker for 6 hours on a low setting, I then put them through the blender and sieved until smooth. Back into a saucepan and cooked to reduce.

Now this I would change next time, it took a while to reduce and towards the end it got pretty spattery,  floopin tomato paste everywhere, while the end product was amazing, next time I'd pop the mixture back into the slow cooker and let that reduce it all down - much cheaper too!!

This tastes absolutely delicious - is it worth the faff - I think so, especially if you have a glut of tomatoes. Honestly you can buy tomato puree in a tube for a quid but homemade is great right ! 

Blackberry Tart

 I'm quite glad that I took photo's of my blackberries this year as honestly I thought I'd go out and pick tons more and make loads of jam and pies - I didn't!! This bowl of blackberries was the first and last of this years haul - there's probably still loads out there right now but I've got so much going on and the weather has been rubbish. Next year my little berries....

Ingredients

For the pastry

250gm Plain Flour

125gm Good Butter

2 Free Range Eggs

Pinch Salt

For the filling

5 Cups Fresh Washed Blackberries

1/2 Cup Plain Flour

1 Cup White Sugar

2 Tablespoons Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice

Pre heat oven to 170c/ 170cfan / Gas mark 5

In a large bowl rub cold cubed butter into the salted flour until it resembles breadcrumbs.

Beat two eggs together and add to the flour mix, mix together until all combined, don't overhandle as it'll make the pastry tough .If it refuses to come together simply add a little cold water.

Bring together into a ball, wrap in cling wrap and place in the fridge for half an hour. Don't leave any longer as the pastry becomes unworkable, you just need it rested not comatose.

While the pastry rests, combine all the filling ingredients in a bowl, put to one side.

When the pastry had had a little snooze, roll out to your pie dish and bake blind in the oven for approx 15 - 20 minutes, take out and leave to cool slightly.

Pre Heat oven to 16oc / Gas Mark 4

When ready to cook, pour blackberry mixture into your coolish pie shell and pop into the oven to cook for approx  30 - 40 minutes.

So - The original recipe that I kind of used for this pie calls for butter to be added to the filling but I would say this is entirely unnecessary - I put it in and it added nothing to the recipe and actually just pooled a little on the top of the tart making it look greasy. 

The tart is lovely ( without the need for butter ) and I served it with thick double cream

Monster Apple Pie

 A lovely family member ( Thank you Rosalie ) has a mahoosive cooking apple tree in her garden and after an unexpected visit last week to share fun time with our granddaughter I was given a rather large bag of apples. Now, I knew that I was going to make tomato chutney with said apples but even I was surprised by the sheer quantity. There wasn't really any question as to what I was going to make as rather lovely husband has a proper sweet tooth. 

Question really was , just how many apples could I fit into the pie....

Actually about half the apples I was gifted! 

Ingredients

For the pastry

250gm Plain Flour

125gm Good Butter

2 Free Range Eggs

Pinch Salt

For The Filling

1kilo Cooking Apple Cored and Sliced

150g Soft Brown Sugar

1/2 Teaspoon ground Cinnamon

3 Tablespoons Plain Flour

I beaten Free Range Egg To Glaze

Pre heat oven to 170c/ 170cfan / Gas mark 5

In a large bowl rub cold cubed butter into the salted flour until it resembles breadcrumbs.

Beat two eggs together and add to the flour mix, mix together until all combined, if it refuses to come together simply add a little cold water.

Bring together into a ball, wrap in cling wrap and place in the fridge for half an hour.

Don't leave it too long, you want it rested but too cold as it's a monkey to roll out. 

While pastry is having a snooze, chop apples and coat thoroughly with the sugar and cinnamon.

Add flour and mix thoroughly.

Divide pastry roughly into two pieces and roll out one piece to cover your  buttered pie dish.

Roughly pile all the apples into the pie dish, brush the edges with egg and place second piece of pastry over the pie, seal the edges. Brush with egg to glaze 

Cut a hole into the top of the pie to let the steam escape. Sprinkle with a little brown sugar.

At this point you can trim the pastry but I know someone who like to eat all the little overhanging bits of pastry so I leave it on to cook. 

Bake in the oven for approx 40 minutes taking care for it not to catch .....

Yup - it caught .....

Tomato Chutney

As previously mentioned, I was given a rather large bag of cooking apples and knew that I wanted to make a nice tomato chutney as I already had a floopin huge supply of allotment tomatoes.  I found this recipe online but have failed to find it again so thank you to whoever this came from originally - great recipe. I have doubled up the quantities as I had lots of veg to use including onions and garlic from the allotment.

Ingredients

2 Large Red Onions Chopped

1 1/2 kilos Tomatoes Chopped

4 Medium Apples Cored and Chopped ( skins left on ) 

8 Cloves Garlic Finely Chopped/Minced

250g  Light Muscovado Sugar ( I used dark )

2 Teaspoons Ground Ginger

1 Teaspoon Ground Allspice

500mls Cider Vinegar

Place all ingredients into a nice big pan and gently bring up to a boil stirring to dissolve all the sugar.

Once the sugar has dissolved, bring the temperature up to the boil, lower the temperature to a simmer and cook uncovered for approx 1 1/2 hours. 

I cooked mine for 2 hours as I wanted it a bit more syrupy .

Once cooked spoon into sterilized jars and immediately put a lid on.

Leave to cool and then label and place in a cool dark cupboard for at least a few weeks to mature.

Safe to say that as I had a little left over , I've already tried this. It would definitely benefit from maturing but its lovely and fresh and I think it'll be even nice in a few months time.

So Many Tomatoes.....

Pretty much half of the haul from the allotment on one day!

 Just when you think that all the work going into growing tomatoes may just be a bit of a faff - up they all come. Year after year I'm shocked as to how many we end up with on the allotment, so many questions, did I plant enough seeds ? will they ever ripen ? how did I end up with so many again ? 

We planted a number of different varieties this year but without a doubt these three are the very best:

Sunstripe Tomato - these are so good I could barely stop eating them as I was picking them.

Pomodoro Tomato - These plants produce so many tomatoes and they are great for everything, not too wet they are great served with Burrata  or made into tomato sauce.

Tomato Costoluto Fiorentino  -  These took they're time to ripen but they are magnificent tomatoes. Good for absolutely everything, eaten straight from the allotment on a hot day seems best 

Much bigger freezer needed for next year for sure.