No, I still can't cook. But I'm slowly working my way through the apples I picked off our apple tree a couple of weeks ago.
So far I had done an apple crumble and an apple cake, which has some room for improvement. But I still had about 7kg of apples left. So next on the list was to try something that would preserve the apples for a bit longer. Apfelmus, a popular German pudding and common rosti accompaniment, is kind of like apple sauce but a bit sweeter and flavoured with cinnamon. I didn't want to do just that so had a good rummage online and found a slightly more rustic version. Described as "apple jam", I adjusted the recipe a bit and think it's really more of a compote. (Unfortunately I just jotted the recipe down and now can't find it. So apologies to the cook who created this for not crediting you.)
Ingredients
2.5kg apples (after chopping)
500g sugar
juice from 1 lemon
cinnamon
1. Cut apples, core and chop into chunks. As per the recipe, I didn't peel them first. This is part of the rustic appeal of this recipe.
2. Put apples into a large pot and add about half of the sugar. Leave to stand for a few hours.
3. Cook on a medium heat and add the rest of the sugar and lemon juice.
4. Cook for approx. 1 hour. Stir frequently. Puree with a blender if desired.
5. Add cinnamon to taste. Fill into sterilised jars.
As I said, the recipe described this as apple jam, but I can't really see myself eating this on my toast. I think it's more of a compote, so it'll be eaten with Kartoffelpuffer (German style rosti) or as a desert.
Do you have a favourite recipe for preserving apples?
If you read my Covet post from a couple of weeks ago, you will know that I am pretty rubbish in the kitchen but that a glut of plums made me take the plunge and try out my hand at jam making. In said post I also mentioned that we did not only harvest plums but also blackberries. I guess, I could have just followed the same recipe and done some blackberry jam but memories of my grandmother's blackberry syrup made me search for a syrup recipe. Really remarkably easy, I managed to not mess it up.
700g blackberries
700g sugar
1. Wash berries, don't worry about the odd stalk left in there
2. Put berries into a saucepan on a low to medium heat. Add sugar. Do NOT stir.
3. After 5 minutes the berries will start to break up. Stir gently.
4. Leave on a medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes, stir gently every 5 minutes.
5. Put a muslin over a sieve and ladle in the mixture. Leave it to drip into a bowl for 1 hour. Do not squeeze.
6. Fill into sterilized bottles. I stood the bottles in boiling water for 10 minutes after filling.
The syrup is lovely drizzled over icecream or puddings, diluted in water or maybe in a glass of champagne as a Kir style drink.
People who know me will be happy to testify that I am not very good in the kitchen. When I try to do anything more complicated than pancakes or boiled eggs (both of which I can actually do very nicely, indeed), it usually goes wrong. Tears have featured a number of times in the past.
So when our garden produced a bumper harvest of plums and topped it off with an incredible amount of wild blackberries, I needed some really easy ways of preserving them. A couple of phone conversations with my mum, some light online research and a trip to a jar wholesaler and I was ready to go.
So this is what I did with the first lot of plum:
Plum Jam
All I used was plums, a squirt of lemon and sugar. Ordinary sugar. Not preserving or jam sugar or any other setting agent. If you use ordinary sugar you rely on the natural pectin in your fruit to set your jam, so it will work best with fruit that contains more pectin; you might struggle with berries. And you typically need to use a fruit to sugar ratio of 50:50.
1. Wash plums and de-stone.
2. Put fruit, lemon juice and a bit of water in a pot.
3. Bring to the boil, stir frequently.
4. Reduce heat and simmer for 40 minutes.
5. Add the sugar and stir until dissolved.
6. Turn up the heat and bring to a rapid boil.
7. After about 5 minutes, take a drop of your jam and pop it on a cooled plate. Leave for a minute and push your finger through it. If it wrinkles, it has reached setting point. If not, boil a bit longer and try again.
8. Fill into jars. [I remember my granny sterilising huge glass jars in pots and this being a big palaver. I just got some ordinary jars with screw tops, washed them well, rinsed them hot and put them in the oven upside down for about 20 minutes. I put the lids into boiling water and filled the jam in when the glasses had just come out of the oven.]
I was a bit worried that this jam would be too sickly sweet due to the 50% sugar content but the fruit had good flavour and a bit of tartness and I am happy to report that it tastes nice and fruity.
So this was the first lot of plums taken care of. We had another one to come. And all those blackberries. I am happy to report that I have since then produced blackberry syrup, blackberry jelly, plum vodka and blackberry gin. So watch this space if, like me, you need easy ways of preserving some fruit. If I can do it, anybody can!
The lovely people at Independent Fashion Bloggers have chosen my post this week for their top 20 "Links a la Mode", alongside with the others below. Do check them out!
Links à la Mode, October 29
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