Pickling spice

We decided that we needed to get our wotsits into gear and get some brisket in some brine so that we can have a Reuben over the Christmas period. I managed to use up all of our pickling spice last night whilst brining some chicken thighs prior to smoking using hickory today. Therefore I decided to have a go at using some of the spices that we have to hand and see if we could make our own. This is the ‘blend’.

3g ground Mace

3g Juniper Berries

3g Allspice Berries

2 fresh finger chillies, chopped (no dried ones in the house)

2 bay leaves

3g pepper corns

3g mustard seeds

When the brisket comes out in 8 days or so then I’ll post back to let you know whether or not it worked.

Post Boxing Day:

As a Pickling Spice the above works very well. The salt beef was excellent 🙂

Sloe Gin

“So Richard, what do Sloes look like? Small and blue was the not so helpful response.” Hopefully there will be some blackthorn bushes on our walk was a fleeting thought as we set off with the dog to tramp around the fields on the outskirts so Corby Glen. Quite soon we saw a what looked like some Sloes, so taking the approach that this might be the only one in the area we started to pick as much as we could of this particular bush. Once we’d picked as much as we could from this bush we started walking again, well we got five yards before another bush full of fruit, and another bush. You get the idea…

So now we’re back home the Sloes will be washed and put in the freezer overnight before being dropped into a bottle along with some cheap gin and sugar. I think we’ll go for Tim Haywood’s recipe of 500g of Sloes, 300g of sugar and a bottle of gin.

Chilli Apple Jelly

Apples, apples everywhere! As fast as we pick them up there are more that are ready to drop. Although we like the occasional apple (and blackberry) pie/crumble we’re not big desert fans. 

I can’t remember which television programme it was, but on Friday night someone mentioned Chilli Apple Jelly. Hmm, that sounds interesting, a way to try something out using the many apples that we have plus we do like chilli as a spice.
A quick search of the internet revealed a recipe on the BBC website that seemed to fit the bill, not too complicated and all of the necessary ingredients to hand. Yesterday afternoon was spent chopping the apples, removing any brown bits and then stewing them to a pulp in a large pan. We then ladled the pulp into a straining bag and left it hanging up for the evening, with a suitable receptacle there to catch the juice. We managed to ‘acquire’ 1.4l of apple juice.
This morning we started the next piece. Not too difficult to follow, just add the preserving sugar and chilli flakes, boil it and remove the scum that forms on the top. As it was boiling the whole mixture was very cloudy and far from appealing. As we removed the scum the chilli flakes were, it appeared, a ‘casualty’ as there was no separating them from the scum. By the time the mixture had reached the setting point there was clearly less fluid in there than when we started, down from 1.2l to under 1.0l (we only used 1.2l as we didn’t have enough preserving sugar). It was though very clear and and a lovely chilli red colour.
The jelly was ladled into a couple of preserving jars and the tiny bit that remained was put into a bowl and on the table at lunchtime…it didn’t last long!! The conclusion that we can draw from this is that we’ll have to make some more very soon as although the BBC website says it will keep for up to two years, fat chance of that happening!!

Plum & Apple Chutney – maybe a little early

So, we got back from our holiday in Alnwick yesterday to find lots of ripe plums and cooking apples. I know it’s August, but the combination of the cold winter, lots of rain and then plenty of sunshine has super-charged the ripening of our fruit. I’ve added a picture of the plums, not that you don’t know what a plum is, more I am really pleased about this year’s harvest.

Also in the garden we have damsons that a little tart at the moment and some ready to eat blackberries.

With all of this fruit, we couldn’t let it go to waste so we decided to make some chutney. This morning I spent some time searching the Internet for some interesting recipes and happened upon a couple, one from Pam Corbin via Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and the other on the bbcgoodfood website. I’ve ended up blending the two together due to the availability of the other ingredients in our larder.

The recipe that I’ve gone for in the end is

1kg plums, quartered and stoned
1.5kg apples, peeled, cored and diced
500g onions
100g stoned prunes, roughly chopped
100g raisins
500g dark muscovado sugar
450ml cider vinegar or white-wine vinegar
Salt
For the spice bag
3 star anise
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp smoked cracked black pepper
1 cinnamon stick

Once everything had been prepared, I put all of the ingredients into the largest pan that we have (note to self – stop being so frugal and buy a preserving pan!), brought to the boil and now it’s on simmer.

It’s been on simmer for the past hour and a quarter. This blog is taking a little bit longer to write as I need to keep nipping off to stir the pan to prevent it from sticking on the bottom. It’s reducing quite nicely at the moment.

Whilst it’s cooking I’d like to mention Harrison & Dunn our local hardware shop in south Lincolnshire. So traditional that I think that this is the closest that they’ve got to an Internet presence (I can’t find any others), but they have everything you could ever need! What size of preserving jar do you need? Do you need any muslin, replacement jar seals, wax discs? You name, they’ve got it! Sorry, got to go and give it another stir…

I’ll add to this post once I’ve started to fill the preserving jars with the chutney.

Now all done. Ladled into sterilised jars and put away for a couple of months or so…