Blood orange - beetroot jam

Just a quick post this evening where my two absolute favourites come together: beetroot and blood oranges. Both are in season, both have gorgeous colours so no wonder that the jam looks just amazing. Nothing can beat beets, that is for sure!

Ingredients:
200 g beetroot (weighed peeled)
200 g blood orange (weighed peeled)
1 organic orange and its juice
juice of 1 lemon
pinch of ground clove
250 g sugar
2 tablespoons agar-agar

Finely grate beetroot. If you manage to get organic blood oranges, then grate the peel finely, if not cut it off and cut out the segments of the oranges. Grate peel of the organic orange and juice. Put everything into a pot, add sugar, ground clove and agar-agar and bring it to the boil. As soon as it starts to thicken remove from the heat and pour into jars.

Cranberry-Quince Jam

Only a few days and the first Advent Sunday is knocking on the door! It is a great way to get in mood for the upcoming season with a mug of hot chocolate, some freshly baked scones and a spicy cranberry-quince jam. Though it has stopped snowing already hours ago, it is still possible to get in mood with listening to xmas songs. It is time for me to start planning the menu!

Ingredients:
200 g sugar
200 ml water
200 g quince
150 g cranberry
1 cinnamon stick
1 orange
1/4 teaspoon black peppercorns
1/4 teaspoon clove
1/4 teaspoon allspice

Bring sugar and water to the boil, in the meantime peel quinces and cut into small cubes. As soon as the syrup is cooking add quince, spices and cook over low heat for about 30 minutes. Then add cranberry, orange juice and its freshly grated zest and cook for another 15-20 minutes. Then puree and pour into sterilized jars.

Elderberry - Apple Jam

How much I adore elder, both the flower and the berry! The smell of elderflower is so unique and look at those deep purple colour of the berries! Irresistible! I have already decided last autumn, that this year I am going to make some elderberry jam, no matter what! I decided to combine it with apple, not only because they go well together, but also because I had no agar-agar or pectin at home, so I had to do something in order to achieve the right consistency. I confess that I do not like fruit pieces in a jam, so usually I puree it. However as far as blueberries and elderberry is concerned, I just can't get enough of them! So therefore I cooked the apple in the cider and pureed it, and only after that I added the elder, sugar and lemon juice. The lemon juice is a must, because that is what gives the jam a zesty note.

Ingredients: 

for the jam:
350 g apple
150 ml apple cider

400 g elderberry

400 g sugar

juice of 1 lemon

for the pancake:
100 g flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 egg

140 g kefir or yoghurt

1 tablespoon melted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the jam remove the core of the apple and dice with the peel on. Bring apple with the cider to the boil and cook until soft, then puree. If you do not want to waste time with this extra step, just cook everything together from the begining. I did it that way, because I wanted no apple chunks in the jam. So now it is time to add the elderberries to the apple pure among the sugar and the lemon juice and cook for 35-40 minutes. If you want a less runny consistency add about 5 grams of agar agar or pectin. Pour the hot jam into jars and let it cool covered under a bunch of blankets.

For the pancakes mix the ingredients together until smooth. Heat a frying pan and pour a ladle of the batter into the pan. Cook for 2-3 minutes or until bubbles appear on the surface, then turn and cook for a further 1-2 minutes or until golden. The batter makes 3-6 pieces depending on its size. I usually do not add any sugar to the batter, because we eat it with loads of syrup, but feel free to add some.

Chocolate-coconut milk scone with garam masala and chili served for breakfast with reine-claude & cucumber jam

Well, that was a pretty busy week! I had almost no time to cook and we lived on scarmbled eggs, potato salad with cervelat and so on. It is okay once in a while, but I was more than happy that I could finally get back to the kitchen! I checked the fridges, yeah we have two of them, and found some green gages and bunch of cucumber. I thought why not get them together and that's how this jam was born. When I tasted it warm I was totally thrilled! Wow! The cucumber brings something like a cold kiss and then the green gage and lime is there with its tart flavour. At the end the vanilla kicks in! I could hardly wait for the breakfast this morning. If cucumber, I just had to think of coconut milk and there I've been making these scones with chili and garam masala. I like the combination very much, but the butter is definitely a must because it holds everything together. It is not sweet at all and it is even refreshing.

Ingredients: 

300 g flour
2 teaspoons baking powder

50 g cold butter

50 g sugar

60 g dark chocolate (at least 60% cocoa)

1 egg

120 ml coconut milk

1/4 teaspoon garam masala

chili powder

for the jam:
250 g cucumber (peeled)

250 g green gage (peeled and without core)

250 g sugar

10 g agar-agar

1 lime

1 vanilla pod

Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl and make a mold. Add egg, sugar and diced cold butter into the mold. Warm 50 ml of coconut milk over low heat and once it is hot stir in the coarsly chopped chocolate and stir until it is well mixed. Pour the rest of the coconut milk and the chocolate-coconut milk mixture to the rest of the ingredients and knead a dough. Roll it out on a floured surface about 1,5 cm thick and cut out scones with a cookie cutter. Bake for 8-9 minutes over 200°C.
For the jam ground 50 of the sugar with the diced whole vanilla pod. In the meantime grate cucumber and bring it to the boil together with the decored and peeled green gage and sugar. Add vanilla sugar and cook for about 10 minutes, then puree. Stir in lime juice and agar-agar and once it is boiling cook for 3 minutes. Fill into jars. If you want the consistency to be more runny, I sugges to use only 5 g of agar-agar.

Poppy Syrup

The most elegant and probably the most innocent looking flower is poppy. There is no other that can compete its velvety petals. It's always been my favourite flower. I even remember that picnic with my parents, where I saw them for the first time in my life. Today, while making some crystallized petals I had the idea to cook a syrup. I am gonna tell you more about the petals in another post, now let's see that beautiful purple syrup with a light smell of freshly ground poppy.

Ingredients:
poppy petals (corn poppy / Papaver rhoeas)
sugar

Remove poppy petals (use only corn poppy, do not use garden or any other type of flowers) and put them into a saucepan. Pour just enough water over it so that it is covered. Start to warm it over medium heat and give it a stir once in a while. As soon as the petals turn white sieve and mesaure the liquid. Heat liquid with the same amount of sugar (so for 100 ml syrup you'll need 100 g of sugar) until it reaches 72, but not higher than 85°C. Now the syrup is ready to be filled into glasses. Consume only in small amounts.

Strawberry-Asparagus Jam

The white asparagus-strawberry combination is nothing new here at the "corner", after all you might have already seen once in a dessert. So it was naturally that I gotta cook a jam of these two. Together with vanilla and orange it made a delicious and pretty addictive jam, at least as far as I am concerned.

Ingredients:
makes 2 glasses
500 g white asparagus
250 g strawberry
2 oranges
1 vanilla pod
530 g gelling sugar
10 g agar-agar (optional, if you don't want it to be a little runny)


Peel asparagus and cut the ends off, then take these parts and add just enough water so that it is covered and cok for 15-20 minutes, then sieve. Now take the reserved liquid, add sliced asparagus, strawberries, lemon juice and zest, vanilla pod and previously scrapped seeds, gelling sugar and agar-agar. Cook for 30-40 minutes and if you want puree or leave it as it is. Pour into sterlised jars and leave them to cool covered well in some blanket until it has cooled down completly.

Rhubarb Jam

If I am not wrong, it's been about 4 years ago that I cooked a jam for the first time. Not because I was keen to do so, but the fruit wasn't really tasty, so I hoped that a jam would bring the best out of it. As it turned out pretty okay, I decided to experiment around with other fruits. Somewhen I developed the recipe for this rhubarb jam made with apples that became a favourite in my family. I also cooked pure rhubarb jam, but the one in combination with apple turned to be the winner every time. This time I added some port wine to it, and that was a real good idea. By the way, feel free to add spices like cinnamon, star anise, cardamom or even some black pepper gives a nice kick to it!

Ingredients:
850 g rhubarb
850 g apple
650 g sugar
150 ml port wine
3 tablespoons vanilla extract

Wash rhubarb and cut the ends off, then slice in about 2 cm thick pieces. Peel apples, remove the core and cut in about 1 cm pieces. In a large pot bring it to the boil together with the sugar and port wine and cook for 50-70 minutes or until it thickens. If you want a smooth jam now it is the time to puree. Put it back to the stove, add vanilla extract and cook for another 10-20 minutes. Pour into sterlised jars and leave them to cool covered well in some blanket until it has cooled down completly.

Lilac Jelly

Could you imagine anything more delightful on a rainy autumn afternoon, then a freshly baked scone with butter and a fragant jelly that brings back those gorgeous spring days? I simply adore lilac! It is one of my favoruite flowers, among poppy. Both remind me of my childhood and bring back beautiful memories of the days we used to spend in the nature with my family. The fragrance of lila takes me always back to the those days. Some years ago I already made lilac syrup and "jam", now this time I am here with the jelly. It has a beautiful frangrance and taste, however it has lots its colour, because I had to cook it twice. First I used some kind of sugar mixture with gelling agent, but the next day it still was liquid, so in order to save it, if possible, I had to cook it again. Nevertheless, the taste compensate the loss of colour!

Ingredients:
100 g lilac petals
500 ml water
juice of 1 lemon
300 g sugar
30 g agar-agar or pectin

Pour boiling water over the lilac petals, then add the juice of the lemon and let it stand for an hour. Sieve, add sugar and pectin and cook it for about 5 minutes. Fill in jars and enjoy a spoon of spring as soon as it set.

Spicy Pear Preserve with Whisky

While I was in Hungary, I was lucky to enjoy some fragant sour cherry and plum preserves togther with chicken liver and mashed potatoes. That is an unbeatble combination and no fancy food can compete. As the mentioned fruits are not in season at the moment, I decided to prepare some pear preserve that will just be gorgeous with veal liver. I am pretty inexperienced with preserves, therefore I am thankful for any advice. I indeed received some of them, but then I decided to do it the same way the pickled cucumbers. By the way those turned out perfectly crisp, but I must make some changes, because it was not sour enough, at least according to my taste and some of the spices I am also going to remove when I make it again. But back to the pears! I think it was a great idea to add whisky, however port wine would be a winner too!

Ingredients:
1500 g pear
2 lemons
1 vanilla pod
3 cardamoms
5-6 sichuan pepper
1 clove
2-3 allspice
1 small piece of cinnamon
100 ml bourbon whisky
500 g sugar
700 ml water

Peel and dice pears and keep it in lemon-water so they don't get brown. Bring water together with sugar, whisky and spices to the boil. Put diced pears in jars, pour hot syrup over it and close the jars. Cook jars in 90°C warm water for 20-25 minutes.

Mandarin Syrup

Well, slowly I am going to disappear under the huge mountains of xmas cookies that I am baking day after day. I really enjoy it, though I was not sure if I wouldn't get bored. Not at all! I love doing it! In fact the most time consuming part of the proccess is the package making part, but still that is great fun. On the other hand I have plenty of idea that I would love to realise in the kitchen, but there is not enough time at the moment. Of course I note everything in order not forget a single idea! As I have run out of maple syrup I decided to prepare a small amount using mandarins, after all no pancake for breakfast without syrup, right? However, I'll show you on Monday, what I prepared to be served with the syrup so stay tuned! (Ah by the way, now you find the blog also on Facebook.)

 

Ingredients:
150 ml mandarin juice
150 g sugar
2 tablespoons orange blossom honey
1 teaspoon orange liqueur

Sieve freshly squeezed mandarin juice and bring it to the boil over medium heat together with the sugar and honey. Cook for 5 minutes or until the sugar is dissolved. Let it cool a bit and stir in orange liqueur. If you use organic mandarins then add the grated zest as well.

Spicy Fig Chutney

If I am not mistaking, last autumn figs were everywhere available, however this year I had some trouble finding fresh and good quality figs. Last weekend all of a sudden I've found myself in the fig paradise, and noone could stop me! I love figs, such a gorgeous fruit! I was even lucky enough to find some fresh dates. I have been seeking for those for ages! After wondering how I should combine the two delicious fruits, I had the idea of a spicy fig chutney with dates. And it indeed was a great one! It goes just perfectly well with cheese!

Ingredients: 
450 g figs
100 g fresh dates
1/4 teaspoon fresh ginger
5-6 coriander seeds
star anise
piece of cinnamon
mace
150 ml whie port wine
50 ml sherry vinegar
50 g sugar



Chop the figs and the dates. Melt sugar over low heat, add fruit and caramelise. Pour vinegar over it, let it reduce, then add wine, spices and cook for 25-30 minutes. Pour it hot into jars.

Pickled Cucumbers

For the first time ever, this summer I managed to prepare some fermented cucumbers, flavoured with dill and garlic. These are very easy to make, simply fill a big jar with dill, garlic and then the cucumbers, then fill with salted water and put a piece of bread that is packed in a cheescloth on top. Now you only have to leave the jar on a sunny place for a few days and soon you can enjoy the cucumbers. It took me years to prepare these, because it is almost impossible to find the right cucumbers. So my success on the fermented cucumbers made me want to prepare some pickled ones for the winter. By the this was also the first time. I am not so experienced with preserves yet, but I am certainly going forward on the way. Luckily, a farmer grows just the right sized cucumbers, so I bought only a smaller amount to make my first pickled cucumbers. By the way, I am a big fan of pickled gherkins, but it is quite a task to find the right ones, I am very picky. Therefore, I can hardly wait to try my own!

Ingredients: 

2 kg gherkins

500 ml vinegar (5%)

600 ml water

150 g sugar

2 onions

some cloves of garlic

2 bunches of dill

mustard seeds

coriander seeds

black peppercorns

allspice

bay leaf

After cleaning the cucumbers under running water, put them in salty water and let it stand over night. Put some dill, chopped onion, garlic and spices into the jar. Drain, wash and dry cucumbers and put them tightly into the jar. Bring water with sugar and vinegar to the boil and pour it hot over the cucumbers. Close the jars and cook them for 10 minutes in 90°C hot water. The pickles are already edible in 2-3 weeks, but its real taste unfold only in 3-4 months.

Sweet and Sour Pumpkin

It happened that I have bought far too many pumpkins in autumn. The best proof of this is that I have used the last one only today. I had many plans with it, first I wanted to cook a soup, then a puree, after I had the idea of baking a cake, but somehow I never did any of these. Well, I did not dare to leave the pumpkin in the pantry any longer so finally I had to prepare something. I decided to make some kind of a preserve with a sweet and sour taste. Though I am not a fan of that, but I haven't tried in that way yet, so I was curious enough to go for it. After all pumpkin and orange is a great match and with some cinnamon you can't go wrong. I can't wait to try the pumpkin in a few days!


Ingredients:
200 g pumpkin
500 ml water
300 g sugar
juice and zest of 2 oranges
juice and zest of 1 lemon
1/4 stick cinnamon
2 tablespoons apple vinegar
2 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar


Peel and deseed the pumpkin and cut in slices or small cubes. Bring the water together with the sugar and the rest of the ingredients over low heat to the boil. Let it cook for 10 minutes, then add the pumpkin and cook it for 2-3 more minutes. Fill it into jars and let it marinate for at least 2 days.

Quince Jelly

One thing, that I really love about quinces is that the whole fruit is good for something. You can prepare many different desserts using the fruit flesh or serve it poached with meat, but do not throw away the core and the skin! Using those parts you can prepare a fragant jelly in a very simple way.


Bring these parts to the boil with enough water so that it is covered and cook it over low heat until it turns red. Be careful, because you will have to add more water during the cooking process.


This might take some hours, then pour the quince water into a bowl through a cheesecloth lined sieve and let it stand over night. The next day bring the quince water together with the same amount of sugar to the boil and cook it over low heat until it thickens. You can test the consistency in the way that pour some drops into cold water and if it is jelly like then it is ready. As I said before, it is indeed very simple and the result is so satisfying!

Pear jam with lemongrass

It's been a long time that I had a real good pear, juicy and fragant. There are many different types availbale, but somehow lately they are always too "floury". My favourite is Willimas, but even those are a disappointment lately. And when I buy a green one, I always forget it about it and it is already over ripe when I want to eat it. That is exactly what happened now, and as I did not want to bake, I decided to cook a jam.


Ingredients:
500 g pears (e.g. Williams)
300 g sugar
juice of 1 lemon
3 stalks lemongrass
1 vanilla pod

Peel and deseed the pears and cut in cubes, then bring it to the boil together with sugar, lemon juice, vanillapod and seeds and chopped lemongrass. Cook for about 1-1 1/2 hours or as long as it has reached the desired thickness. Put it into jars and let them cool covered by a blanket over night.

Passata di pomodoro

Those who read my blog regularly may know that I am not only an onion junkie, but I am also absolutely mad about tomatoes. A friend of mine told me, that I spend more money on vegetables than a normal woman on shoes. Well, he might be right...and I don't mind it! Especially, in summer when all those wonderful heirloom veggies are available! There are two places where I usually buy tomatoes, and those you can call a real paradise! One is a tiny organic shop that sells about 5 kind of tomatoes and about 8 types of cocktail tomatoes the whole summer and the begining of autumn, and another farmer's shop that sells at least 6 varieties from Green Zebra to St. Pierre.


In the past, I hated cooked tomatoes, meanwhile I love it and can't get enough of pasta with any kind of tomato sauce. After all I have missed it for long years! Anyway, I used to buy one special passata di pomodoro, but the shop where I bought it has closed, and I haven't found it nearby. Since then, I have tried several other types, but none of them was at least half that tasty like that one and most have anyway citric acid (and rarely even other ingredients) in it, where that specific one had only tomatoes and salt. And an amazing taste!


Lately, I have had enough of experimenting, so I decided to cook my own. I was sure, that it is not gonna taste like that magical one, and it doesn't, but it is still gorgeous in comparison to the rest of the available tomato purées. Besides I have the possibility to experiment with all the different kind of tomatoes. I have cooked the passata only with a little salt, no further herbs or spices, these I am gonna add while cooking with it, depending on what I am going to prepare.


Ingredients:
500 g tomatoes
50 ml water
1 teaspoon salt

Dice tomaotes and together with the water and the salt, bring it to the boil, puree and sieve to remove any rests of the skin. Put it back to the pot and bring it once more to the boil, fill it hot into bottles and let them cool covered by a blanket over night. It should keep for several months if the bottles were sterlized before. In case you do not trust it that way, freeze it.

Blueberry&Black Currant Jam

It seems that this summer my favourite berry is black currant. Unfortunately, last week it was the last harvest on the farm where I usually get it from. I decided to cook a small portion of jam, to have a little jar of summer during the cold winter days.


Ingredients:
250 g bluberries
250 g black currant
50 ml port wine
300 g sugar



Bring the fruits among the port wine to boil with the sugar and cook for about 45-50 minutes or as long as it has reached the desired thickness. Put it into jars and let them cool covered by a blanket over night.

Pear - Chocolate Jam

December is here, so it is time to plan the Holiday menus, gifts and bake cookies. I am not yet done with my plans, but almost. I am going to bake some Swiss cookies among the meanwhile classic ones, like the honey cookies, Lebkuchen and Beigli. Now I would like to share a recipe for a pear-chocolate jam, that could also make a delicious gift.

Ingredients:
1200 g ripe pear (e.g. Williams)
750 g sugar
juice of 1 orange
50 ml lemon juice
250 g dark chocolate (60% cocoa)

Peel and dice pears and bring it to boil among the lemon and orange juice. Set it aside and stir in chopped chocolate, mix well until melted. Let it cool and leave it in the fridge over night. The next day bring to cook and as soon as it reached 105°C fill in jars and let them cool covered by a blanket over night.

Banana Jam

Overripe bananas. It happens again and again and again! Usually, I buy bananas every week. These were in my fruit basket for almost 3 weeks now! I completly forgot about them, and if they wouldn't have been green when I brought them home, probably they must have ended up in the compost. So it was pretty urgent to prepare something out of them. Last time I had overripe bananas I baked banana bread, another time banana-chocolate beignets, but I also liked the idea of making ice cream. Well, at the end I decided to go for a banana jam. First I was sceptical, but the result is amazing! I haven't expected such a flavour carnival and such a great texture!


Ingredients:
450-500 g bananas
350 g cane sugar
150 ml water
2 lime
1 piece of ginger, grated
20 ml white rum

Peel and slice bananas. Bring water together with the sugar, lime juice and grated ginger to boil. Add bananas and cook on medium heat for 20-30 minutes. When ready stir in rum and fill in jars and let them cool covered by a blanket over night.