In an earlier post I wrote about all the wonderful edible flowers you could use to add fun and flavour to your meals. As well as using them fresh there are all sorts of ways of preserving them: best known are of course crystallising them or freezing in ice cubes but you can also pickle the petals and you can use the seed pods of nasturtium to make poor man's capers. Freezing in Ice Cubes This doesn't really need any instruction: pick and wash your flowers; put into ice cube trays and fill … [Read more...]
Zucchini Relish
Summer is time for growing zucchinis or courgettes and if, like me, you have ended up with more of them than you (and your friends) can eat now then making relish so that you can enjoy them later is a good thing to do. 4 cups finely chopped zucchini (courgette) 1 cup finely chopped onion 1 large red, yellow or orange capsicum (sweet pepper)* 1/2 cup finely chopped celery 2 tbsp pickling salt 1 1/2 cups sugar 1 1/4 cups vinegar (white or cider) 1 tbsp celery seed … [Read more...]
Strawberry Jam with Grand Marnier
Strawberry jam is perfect with scones and cream. This recipe has a bit of a citrus twist with lemon juice and Grand Marnier that makes it even better. 2kg strawberries (can use frozen) Juice of 2 lemons 125g Grand Marnier 2kg sugar Place strawberries in a bowl and marinade in 75ml Grand Marnier, lemon juice and sugar for about 2 hours, stir regularly. Transfer strawberries & juice to a pan and simmer over a low heat until fruit is soft. Bring to the boil and boil for … [Read more...]
Tomato Relish
I use the good old Edmonds Cookbook recipe for this delicious tomato relish and am always amazed at how many 'rave reviews' and recipe requests I get. This is the cookbook owned by just about every New Zealander and covers a good range of basic recipes for all occasions. It is regularly updated though so perhaps not all recipes stand the test of time. My cookbook was printed in 1983 but the 100th year edition was published in 2008. We wait and wait for the tomato season to begin, eagerly … [Read more...]
Spiced Brandied Cherries
Usually cherries are an absolute treat for me that are just eaten fresh and whole (and usually as quickly as possible). But if you are lucky enough to have a sufficient quantity that you can't possibly gorge yourself on all of them without being ill, you may want to preserve some before they go off. Spiced brandied cherries are great way to save the taste of summer to enjoy later in the year. And use the pits to make Cherry Vinegar. Spiced Brandied Cherries About 0.5 - 0.75 kg … [Read more...]
Making Fruit Leathers
I have always been a big fan of Annie's Fruit Leathers as a snack and part of my motivation in buying a Dehydrator was so that I could make my own fruit leathers from all the fruit I will one day have growing in my garden. I was given a bag of apples and had some blackberries in the freezer so thought I'd try out the method. My dehydrator came supplied with one fruit leather tray and I purchased another set of 3 - I had to ask for these to be ordered in for me. Recipe Peel apples and … [Read more...]
Dehydrating Citrus
In an earlier post I described my not very successful attempts at drying herbs in a dehydrator. I decided to give it another go, this time with citrus, after being inspired by some delicious dried lemon served as an edible garnish on a dessert at a function I went to. According to the instructions in the manual, you scrub whole fruit under warm water and then cut into 5mm slices. Well actually that was the instruction for lemons. For oranges, the instruction was to cut them into 0.5mm … [Read more...]
Drying Herbs using a Dehydrator
I had been thinking about getting a dehydrator for a while, particularly for drying herbs for cooking and in soaps and other bath products but also for potentially preserving my increasing fruit and vegetable harvests. After a bit of research it seemed that you could get either large expensive dryers or small relatively inexpensive dehydrators and nothing in between. There was a lot written about the bigger dryers but not so much about the smaller ones. I certainly couldn't justify the size … [Read more...]
Plum Jam & Spiced Plum Butter
I love having a good supply of plums in the freezer to use over the winter: stewed plums, plum crumble, or plum jam. Usually I make a basic plum jam recipe that uses 2.5kg plums (stones removed). Add 1 1/4 cups water and cook slowly until the fruit is pulped. Add 2kg sugar and boil quickly for 20-30 minutes. Test a little on a cold plate to see if it sets. Spoon into sterilised jars. Makes about 8 large jars. You can use ~2.7kg whole plums and simply remove the stones as the mixture … [Read more...]
Quick & Easy Berry Jam
Once you have berries in your freezer, you can quickly make some tasty jam whenever you need it. The wonder ingredient is Chelsea's Jam Setting Sugar. 1 kg Fruit 1 kg Chelsea Jam Setting Sugar A knob of butter (10g) Crush the fruit coarsely with a potato masher, fork or food processor. Or I simply heat the frozen berries until they are a bit mushy. Put the fruit and jam setting sugar into a large, heavy based 6 litre pot (I used a preserving pan). Heat over … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- Next Page »