February is the time of the year to make marmalade as the new season of citrus fruit is in the shops. As well as using the traditional Seville oranges, marmalade can be made with limes, grapefruit or lemons, or any combination of the above.

I was inspired to make this recipe because I still have a bag of limes in the freezer, left over from a cheap box full I got at a car boot sale last spring. You can easily freeze all citrus fruit and use them to make marmalade later in the year if you wish.

This recipe is adapted from the marvelously utilitarian Home Preservation of Fruit and Vegetables, which although it looks like someone knocked it up on a photocopier is actually a mine of useful recipes and information.

See here for the Lime and Orange Marmalade recipe.

Recipe Costs

£1.92 750 g limes (about 12)
£2 750g seville oranges (about 10)
£2.56 2.75 kg granulated sugar
3 litres water
£6.48 Total

about £1.44 per kg of marmalade (about 60% of the cost of similar at tesco )

The fruit is halved and after squeezing out the juice the pips and membranes removed, I find a sharp edged spoon useful for this. The limes are a lot tougher than the Seville oranges and consequently had quite a bit of membrane left attached.

I put all the juice and insides into a sieve over the preserving pan, so that they are easily separated.

Once drained the membrane, pith and pips are put in a muslin bag and added to the pan, along with the chopped peel.

 Chopping the peel is actually quit a quick job, not half as time consuming as removing the insides. I've gone for a medium shread as I quite like a bit of bite on my toast.

The peel, juice and muslin bag are simmered for several hours (with the lid on) until the peel is soft.

After the muslin bag has done it's job helping to release all of the pectin contained in the membrane, pith and pips it is removed, I clip it to the handle with a clothes peg to allow it to cool before attempting to squeeze all the liquid out.

Sugar is added and mixed until dissolved, I always love the contrast of white sugar against the fruit.

The marmalade is then boiled until it reaches setting point, this took about 20 minutes, although will be different depending on how juicy your fruit was. With marmalade it helps to let it cool down slightly before potting into jars, this ensures the peel is evenly distributed and doesn't all sink to the bottom.
The small bubbles in this jar are probably due to it being a bit cool when poured.

The best thing about marmalade is you can eat it straight away, I'm enjoying the combination of different sized peel, the lime is a bit tougher than the orange which makes for a nice contrast.

Recipe Timings

1 hour preparing fruit
2 hours simmering
20 mins boiling
15 mins potting

Taste Test

I was concerned the taste of the limes would be lost, but they come through well giving this marmalade a fresher taste than if I'd just used Seville oranges.

I've been inspired to make a Chutney for next Christmas, having been given several jars of 'Christmas Chutney' this year. While in some respects obviously a marketing ploy, it got me thinking about what sort of chutney would have the required festive feel.

Delia has a Christmas Chutney which includes lots of dried fruit and  Mary Berry has one made from peppers and aubergines. The general idea seems to concoct something a bit richer than usual, maybe containing fruit associated with Christmas, which also goes well with cold meat and cheese (most chutneys do...)

I realise I'm coming at this from the wrong end of the year, so may save up some ideas for use in the late summer, maybe plum and apple chutney.

I finally went for a Apple and Cranberry chutney from the BBC good food website, mainly because there was a bag of cranberries lurking in the bottom of the vegetable drawer.

I reckon it's a good time of year to use make this chutney, using up cheap cranberries or Christmas leftovers along with apples still stored from the Autumn. This lightly coloured fruity chutney would make a good Christmas chutney for next year, if you could wait that long.

See here for the Apple and Cranberry Chutney recipe.

Recipe Costs

£1.34 1kg cooking  apples
£0.74 500g eating apples (coxes)
£0.33 450g onions
£0.50 50g fresh root ginger
£0.04 1 tsp peppercorns
£0.37 500g granulated sugar
£0.35 250ml cider vinegar
£4.94 500g cranberries
£8.61 Total

about £4.30 per kg of chutney (about a quarter the cost of buying similar from the Hawkshead Relish Company or 65% of the cost of similar at tesco )

Starting with finely chopped onions, with life made easier using a sharp knife.

The mixture of cooking and eating apples is not one I've come across before, I guess it should give a variety of textures in the finished chutney. The coarsely chopped Bramley Apples will break down quickly when cooking...

... while the finely chopped coxes should retain some of their bite.

The only spices in this recipe are chopped fresh ginger and whole black peppercorns, it'll be interesting to see if the finished chutney could of done with more. (perhaps a few cloves or cinnamon)

All the ingredients apart from the cranberries are cooked up together and simmered for about 50 minutes. The organic cider vinegar will add to the apple flavour, I'm sure white wine vinegar would work as well.

The cranberries are added towards the end of the cooking, to ensure they don't turn to mush. I have to admit to not knowing much about cranberries and was intrigued by the slogan 'straight from the bog' on the packet. You can find out a bit more about them, along with some photos of how they are harvested from the flooded bogs at the pineypower.com website.

After a further 10 minutes simmering the cranberries were still whole, the apples had broken down and the chutney was a good consistency.

The finished chutney is a very light colour, which makes an interesting change from the usual dark brown offerings.

Recipe Timings

25 mins chopping
55 mins simmering
15 mins potting

Taste Test

This will have to wait a few months.

 

Preserved lemons are traditionally used in North African cuisine, but are a useful ingredient to have in the fridge and can add a citrus kick to many other recipes. They are very easy to make, see here for a blog post about making preserved lemons.

Try out some of the following ideas:

Use as a marinade for chicken or fish. Add 1 teaspoon of finely chopped lemon to 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/2 garlic clove and 1/4 teaspoon balsamic vinegar.
Puree or combine in a mortar and pestle.

Add a tablespoon of finely chopped lemon to potato salad.

Use with parsley, tomato and bulgher wheat in a Tabouli.

Add to a stuffing mix with parsley and thyme.

Stir chopped lemons into yoghurt with chopped mint for a barbecue dressing.

Mix diced lemons with tomatoes and fresh coriander for a  salsa to serve with fish steaks.

Use the salty liquid in a Bloody Mary.

Mix thin strips of sliced lemon in with dishes of olives.

Puree a whole lemon and use with olive oil as the base for a salad dressing.

Use the lemon juice when making hummus and add some chopped lemon as a garnish.

Marinate chicken breasts  in a pureed mix of preserved lemon, harissa and olive oil before barbecuing or grilling.

Use the pureed pulp to add flavour to stews.

Add thin strips of lemon to stir fried vegetables.

Mix in slices of lemon when cooking couscous.

Finely dice the lemon and add to pasta dishes or risotto.

Preserved lemons are a common ingredient in North African, and  especially Moroccan, cuisine. You can actually use them in many dishes - anywhere that would benefit from a bit of citrus flavour.  I've put together some ideas in this blog post about what to do with preserved lemons.

They're very easy to make and it costs very little to make a large jar full, especially in January and February when the new crop of imported lemons enters the UK. 

See here for the preserved lemons recipe.

Recipe Costs

£2 8 lemons (unwaxed)
£1.87 10 tbsp sea salt
£3.87 Total

about £3 per kg of preserved lemons (less than a tenth of the cost of buying them from Rick Stein's website)

After giving the lemons a good scrub in hot water the stalk ends are removed with a sharp knife.

Carefully chop the lemon into quarters taking care not to slice right through (it doesn't matter if you do, they just won't look as pretty)

Squeeze as much of the juice out as possible, this can be made a bit easier by popping the lemons in the microwave for 10 seconds beforehand. I find using my thumb to push done each quarter was the most efficient way.

My eight lemons produced about 500ml of lemon juice, which was just enough to cover them later.

Rub about a tablespoon of course sea salt into each lemon, make sure it gets well into each quarter. Pack the fruit into a steralised jar as you go, squashing each one down as you push it in, this helps to release more juice.

My 8 lemons filled about 2 litres of preserving jar. Spices can be added at this stage, try a cinnamon stick, peppercorns, coriander seeds, a chilli or a bay leaf.

When the jars are packed full, top them up with the lemon juice, making sure there ar no air gaps. If you don't have enough juice then use some bottled lemon juice or little bit of water.
The jars need to be kept for at least a month to allow the salt to draw out the lemon juice. Once opened it's best to keep the jar in the fridge.

Recipe Timings

45 mins preparation

Taste Test

This will have to wait a few weeks.

Mincemeat dates from the 15th Century, when it actually contained meat and was more of a savory pie filling. Over time the meat was replaced by animal fat (in the form of suet) and the mixture sweetened by the addition of sugar, making it more of a pudding dish.

This recipe substitutes vegetarian suet for the animal fat, although I actually used baking margarine which doesn't seem to make any difference, meat eaters could use the real thing if they wished. The recipe is adapted from one on Delia Smith's website, and is also available in her many books including Delia's Christmas.

The process of making the mincemeat is very easy, if a little time consuming, as there are a lot of ingredients to weigh out. It's one where a bit of improvisation shouldn't make a lot of difference, try substituting in different dried fruit like dates and apricots, or adding more of your favorite nuts. It's worth making quite a lot of this, as it keeps for years and the recipe won't suffer from being scaled up.

See here for the vegetarian mincemeat recipe.

Recipe Costs

£0.60 450g bramley apples, cored and finely chopped
£0.87 220g vegetarian suet
£0.97 350g raisins
£0.29 220g sultanas
£0.62 220g currants
£0.66 220g mixed candied peel
£0.55 350g soft dark brown sugar
£0.60 juice and zest of 2 oranges
£0.60 juice and zest of 2 lemons
£0.65 50g finely chopped almonds
£0.22 4 tsp mixed spice
£0.03 1/2 tsp cinnamon
£0.03 large pinch of nutmeg
£1.26 tbsp brandy
£7.95 Total
£2.94 per kg of mincemeat (60% of the cost of tesco finest mincemeat)

The bramley apples are chopped finely, no need to peel them.

Raisins, sultanas and currants make up the bulk of the mixture.

This recipe was a good chance to use up some of the homemade candied peel I'd had in jars since February.

I grated the margarine, which was made simpler by keeping it in the fridge beforehand, this makes it easier to distribute it well when mixing together all the ingredients.

Lemon and orange juice and zest add flavour and moisture.

Almonds, grated nutmeg (I use the extremely efficient microplane nutmeg grater) and mixed spices.

All the ingredients are given a good mix, I found this easiest using my hands in a large bowl, which is then covered and left overnight in a cool place. This allows the flavours to mingle.

The next morning the bowl is covered with foil and cooked in the oven for three hours (at 120 degrees C), this melts the fat allowing it to coat all the fruit and helping in its preservation, it's quite a surprising amount when it's melted down, as you can see in the picture. This filled the house with the most wonderful smells of spices and citrus fruit.

It's important to keep stirring regularly as the mincemeat cools, this makes sure that all the fruit is covered in fat.  Wait until the mixture is cool before potting in steralised jars otherwise you'll end up with all the fat in a lump, it took about three hours for mine to congeal.

Before potting is the time to add brandy, this helps preserve the mixture, and also adds flavour. All the alcohol will evaporate when the mincemeat is cooked, so it's fine for giving to kids, you can leave it out if you wish but should keep the resulting mincemeat in the fridge and use it within a few weeks.

I bought cheap brandy from Aldi, no need to splash out.
I potted the mincemeat up in my recently reconditioned Le Parfait jars, it should be good to use in a few weeks and will keep for several years.

Recipe Timings

45 mins preparation
12 hours resting
3 hrs cooking
30 mins potting

Taste Test

This will have to wait a few weeks.

Green Tomato Chutney is one of those things that you almost hope you don't have to make (apart from that it's delicious). It would be so much nicer to eat all the tomatoes in the red and juicy state that they should be, however the recent wet summers mean that there are often green tomatoes left at the end of the season. This is an ideal way to use them up.
I've never seen green tomatoes for sale anywhere, although I wouldn't be surprised if you could get them at some larger farmers markets. The ones I used were the last stragglers from the greenhouse, there were a few orange and red ones in there as well.

Nigel Slater has written a nice article about green tomatoes, which includes another recipe.

This recipe is taken from the "Good Housekeeping" Cookery Book, granny recommended it as the best, and she should know.

See here for the Green Tomato Chutney Recipe in more detail.

Recipe Costs

£0.40 300g cooking apples
£0.16 1 large onion
£0.00 900g  green tomatoes
£0.16 125g sultanas
£0.02 1 1/2 tsp salt
£0.20 125g demerara sugar
£0.35 270ml malt vinegar
£0.05 1 tsp mustard powder
£0.01 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
£0.50 50g fresh ginger
£1.85 Total
£2.05 per kg of chutney  (an eighth of the cost of Rick Stein's Green Tomato Chutney)

The tomatoes are thinly sliced and put in the preserving pan.

Chopped apples, onions, sultanas, sugar and dry spices went in next, I used mustard seeds as I had run out of powder. I only roughly chop the apples, as they will be reduced to a pulp, the onions are chopped a bit finer.

I added 50g of fresh ginger in a muslin bag as well, nothing like a bit of improvisation when chutney making, although interestingly it was the most expensive ingredient and pushed the overall cost up quite a bit. I smash it about a bit with a rolling pin before putting it in the bag, this helps release more of the flavour.

I used the spicy pickling vinegar I'd recently made for pickling onions, this should add some extra depth to the finished chutney.

All the ingredients in the pan and ready to bring to the boil.

After 55 minutes of simmering the bottom of the pan stayed visible after drawing a spoon across it, a sure sign that the chutney has reached the correct consistency.
Remove the muslin bag at this stage.

The chutney was potted into steralised jars and should be ready in a few months.

Recipe Timings

30 mins chopping etc.
55 mins simmering
15 mins potting

These pickled onions should provide a bit of warmth when they are ready in the new year, the spicy pickling vinegar is added to by tucking a few chillies in the jars.
I used up the remainder of a 5 kg bag of onions I recently bought for the bargain price of £3.75, much more cost effective than buying small bags from the supermarket.
The first half of the bag had gone in making sweet pickled onions.

This hot and spicy recipe used spicy pickling vinegar.

Recipe Costs

£1.87 2.5kg pickling onions
£0.19 500g salt
£0.75 1 litre malt vinegar
£0.10 1 tsp coriander seeds
£0.03 1 tsp mustard seeds
£0.20 4 tsp cumin seeds
£0.26 5 cardamons £0.19 5 cloves
£0.10 10 g fresh ginger
£0.03 1 tsp garam marsala (whole, not ground)
£0.24 4 fresh chillis
£3.86 Total
£1.54 per kg of onions (about quarter the cost of traditional pickled onions (not budget ones) from tesco)

This mix of spices would be great even without the extra chillies, I choose a good selection of seeds making sure there were about 15g - 30g to each litre of vinegar. These were then added to the vinegar and brought to the boil, then left to stand overnight. You could use a Spice Bag , but I just make sure I strain the vinegar carefully.

The onions are topped, tailed and peeled, then mixed with the salt and left to stand overnight as well.

The next day they are rinsed, and almost look good enough to eat already. The salt has removed a large amount of water which should make them nice and crunchy.

The onions are packed into steralised jars, I find if you push them down you can get them to fit nice and tight and the top layer tucks pleasingly under the shoulder of the jar.
I decided to put two half chillies in each jar, time will tell if this is being overly keen.

The end result looks good and will be left to mature for several months in a cool dark cupboard.

Recipe Timings

30 mins peeling and salting
10 mins preparing vinegar
overnight salting and cooling
15 mins potting

Taste Test

Very spicy, not for the faint hearted.
I would probally halve the amount of chillis inthe jar next time as I could only manage to eat these onions chopped up in a sandwich.

After the success (I hope) of making pickled onions last week, I've been keen to make some more, so hopefully we've got enough to last us the whole of next year. I picked up a 5kg sack of pickling onions from the local fruit and veg shop, along with 5 litres of malt vinegar, the plan being to try out some different mixes of spices and flavours.

This recipe makes  sweet pickled onion which may suit those who don't like too much of the sharp taste of vinegar.

It uses the recipe for sweet pickling vinegar, of which I made 2.5 litres, as I only used 1 litre I have scaled the costs and spices below down accordingly. You could get away with only making a litre and topping up some of the jars with malt vinegar (or any other sort - balsamic might be nice).

Recipe Costs

£1.87 2.5kg pickling onions
£0.19 500g salt
£0.17 180g granulated sugar
£0.75 1 litre malt vinegar
£0.04 1 blade of mace
£0.05 15 cloves
£0.05  15 allspice berries
£0.17 1 cinnamon stick
£0.11 2 heads star anise
£0.04 1 tsp peppercorns
£0.05 5 g fresh ginger
£3.49 Total
£1.39 per kg of onions (about quarter the cost of traditional pickled onions (not budget ones) from tesco)

Making pickled onions takes a bit of time, and needs to be done over a few days, that said each step is not that time consuming, I did this batch over two evening while cooking the tea. The first step is to make the spiced vinegar, which means selecting a bowl full of spices (around 15g - 30g per litre of vinegar).

You can put them in a Spice Bag or just make sure you strain the vinegar carefully afterward. Add the  spices and sugar to the vinegar and bring it slowly to the boil stirring to make sure the sugar is dissolved. Then turn off the heat, cover, and let it stand at least overnight for the flavours to develop. This fills the kitchen with a wonderful spicy smell, although it is a bit vinegary.

The second step is topping and tailing and then peeling the onions. This  is the most time consuming task although you can loosen the skins  by scalding the top and tailed onions in boiling water for 20 seconds then draining. Be careful not to leave them in the water too llong as they will start to soften.

The peeled onions are then put in a bowl and mixed with the salt, this draws out some of the water (by osmosis - diffusion of water through a semi-permeable membrane - remember that from school?) Leave these covered overnight, giving them a stir before going to bed, it's amazing how much water this produces, and it will help make the onions crunchy and preserve better.
No photos of osmosis action, but there are some in my last post about pickled onions.

The next day rinse the onions with very cold water, to get rid of the salt, and pack them in steralised jars.
Strain the vinegar, unless you want to leave some of the spices in for decoration, I couldn't resist popping a star anise in each jar. I figured it would help me remember which jars contained the sweet onions.

Pour over the cold vinegar, it's important to cover the top onions with at least a 1 cm of vinegar as some may evaporate during storage.

The pickles should be kept in a cool dark place for a few months to allow the flavours to mature.

Recipe Timings

30 mins peeling and salting
10 mins preparing vinegar
overnight salting and cooling
15 mins potting

Taste Test

These have a very strong flavour, which I can only think comes from leaving the star anise in the jar. I'll leave it out next time..

If, like me, you've been wondering what to do with all that left over pumpkin, apart from make pie and soup, then this spicy winter chutney might be the answer. Our lantern was made early this year, in preparation for a weekend away, so the rest of the afternoon was spent putting the scrapings to good use.

I adapted the pumpkin chutney recipe on the lovely mytinyplot blog, increasing the amount of ginger and adding some apricots for extra fruitiness.

There are many other recipes for pumpkin preserves out there, mostly (unsurprisingly) from America, one UK site which has a selection of recipes and some pictures of amazing carved pumpkins is bumpkinpumpkins.co.uk
I really must spend some more time carving next year.

See here for the the pumpkin chutney recipe.

Recipe Costs

£0.95 500g diced pumpkin
£0.20 150g apple peeled cored and chopped
£0.11 150g onion chopped
£0.30 3 tsp fresh ginger finely chopped
£0.20 1 tbsp mustard seeds
£0.48 100g dried apricots chopped
£0.01 pinch cayenne pepper
£0.11 200ml apple juice
£0.64 500ml vinegar
£0.19 200g sugar
£0.01 1 tbsp salt

£3.20 Total
£2.90 per kg of chutney (a third of the price of similar at ocado)

The larger pieces of pumpkin from the carving and scraping were diced, the rest of it I did have to make into pumpkin soup (best you've ever tasted), an opportunity not to be missed.

1 apple, 1 onion and the spices were added into the preserving pan along with the vinegar, I also added some apple juice at this point as I felt there wasn't quite enough liquid.

When looking for pumpkin recipes apricots seemed to crop up as an ingredient quite regularly, often added in the form of jam. I imagine this may be because of the similarity in colour, as well as the extra sweetness it gives. Not having any apricot jam to hand, I added 100g of chopped dried apricots, which should add some texture and sweetness to the chutney.

After 45 minutes of simmering, the chutney was starting to thicken and the pumpkin was well cooked, so in went the salt and sugar.

A further 10 minutes of boiling, with frequent stirring, and I was starting to see a trail left in the bottom of the pan, indicating the chutney was the correct consistency, so it was potted into steralised jars.

Recipe Timings

30 mins preparation
45 minutes simmering
15 minutes boiling
15 minutes potting

With the sloe gin sitting under the stairs being regularly shaken, thoughts have turned to making other sorts of warming drinks which will be ready for Christmas. Also, as our neighbours have been supplying us with quantities of apples, it would be nice to be able to repay them in a few months time.

The obvious conclusion, especially after the successful making of rhubarb schnapps,  was to try and hunt down an apple schnapps recipe, maybe with the addition of cinnamon for that extra warming taste. I found just what I was looking for on the canadianliving.com website.

See here for the the apple and cinnamon schnapps recipe in more detail.

Recipe Costs

£1.34 1kg bramley apples (equivalent cost, mine was free)
£0.09 100g granulated sugar
£7.89 70cl vodka
£0.17 1 cinnamon stick

£9.49 Total (£8.15 without buying the apples)
£13.55 per litre of schnapps (£11.64 without buying the apples - peach schnapps costs £14.27 at ocado)

The apples were washed and then thinly sliced without peeling or removing the cores. The whole lot is strained out after several months so it all adds to the flavour.

The apples, cinnamon stick and sugar are put into jars which have an airtight seal, I find Le Parfait jars ideal for this.

I used two 1 litre jars for this, as it leaves a bit of room for shaking the contents every now and again. After mixing well to dissolve the sugar the jars are put in a cool dark place for a minimum of 3 weeks, preferably two months. The contents will then be strained off through muslin, pressing the apples to release all the liquid.
Should be ready just in time for Christmas.

Recipe Timings

15 mins preparation
2 months sitting

Taste Test

Compared to something like sloe gin, this is very sweet and smooth with the cinnamon adding a warming afterglow. Definitely one to make if you have a glut of apples.