Chilli and Chocolate » Jams and Preserves - A Belfast Food Blog

Posts in: 'Jams and Preserves'

Ooh, saucy..

Posted: 24 December '09 by Niall

Turkey, stuffing, brussel sprouts, roasted potatoes and carrots.. Have you noticed what’s missing?

Cranberry sauce is one of the most important ingredients in the traditional Christmas dinner, a deliciously piquant sweet and sour accompaniment which cuts through all of the meaty flavours of the meal.

After making chutneys and jams during the year, I thought “Why rely on the usual store-bought sauce this Christmas?” To my mind, making your own sauce is a nice addition to your yule-tide meal – you’ve worked hard enough producing the rest, why let yourself down at the last by buying an over-sweet, preservative-filled cranberry sauce?

This recipe is very straight-forward and gives you a perfectly sweet, orange-infused cranberry sauce that would grace any table. And the aroma of all that port and orange fills the house with a real Christmas-y atmosphere. What more could you ask for!

You can see more photos hereImage 1Image 2Image 3Image 4Image 5Image 6Image 7

Ingredients

• 1 orange
• 175g/6oz caster sugar
• 5 tbsp port
• 359g/12oz cranberries, fresh or frozen
• 1, skinned, cored, and finely chopped

NB. You’ll also need an empty, washed jam-jar to store the sauce.

Method

1. Heat the oven to 100 and place the washed jam-jar inside.
2. Finely grate the zest from the orange
3. Squeeze the juice from the zested orange into a separate bowl.
4. Place the sugar, orange juice, and 4 tablespoons of port into a deep saucepan, and allow the sugar to dissolve into the liquid over a low heat, stirring occasionally.
5. Stir in the cranberries, chopped apple and the orange zest.
6. Raise the heat and cook the ingredients in the uncovered saucepan until the fruit is soft and is breaking down, and the juices are slightly thickened.
7. Stir in the remaining 1 tbsp port.
8. Remove the warmed jam-jar from the oven, making sure to protect your hands, and spoon the cranberry sauce into the jar. Place the cap on the jar.
9. Set the jar aside on a heat-protected surface to cool.

Enjoy.

Tags: christmas, recipe, recipes, sauces

Categories: Featured Post > Jams and Preserves > Recipes

No Comments - Click to Add Yours

By popular demand – part 2

Posted: 23 December '09 by Niall

In the first part of this article I posted the recipe for Goats’ Cheese Crostini with Red Onion Marmalade. Now, for my personal favourite – Halloumi Skewers with Tomato and Chilli Jam.

Again, one of the best things about this recipe is that, if you’re making this for a party, the assembly is very easy and the jam can be made well in advance.

Halloumi is a cheese from Cyprus, made from a mixture of goats and sheeps milk. It’s delicious, but can be a bit of an acquired taste – there’s a definite salty tang and, when cooked, has a rubber-y consistency that squeaks on your teeth when you eat it! Despite my description it’s very tasty and if you haven’t tried it before I’d certainly recommend that you give it a go. Our preferred way of eating haloumi is to fry it in olive oil so that the edges are wonderfully crisp and golden, giving a nice comparison to the slightly springy centre.

The tomato and chilli jam is sweet with a slight acidic edge and a little heat afterwards – I usually pair it with halloumi, but the jam could go with almost anything: as a relish with blue cheese or as an accompaniment to with roast chicken, for example.

Here’s the recipe..

Ingredients

The skewers

• 2 x 250g blocks halloumi cheese, drained
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 32 wooden skewers

The tomato and chilli jam

• 250g ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 2 thumb-sized red chillies , seeded and roughly chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled
• 2cm piece ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
• 150g soft dark brown sugar
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 50ml red wine vinegar
• 4 tablespoons of tomato puree

Method

The jam

1. Place the tomatoes, chilli, garlic, and ginger into a food processor and blend them into a purée.
2. Pour the puree into a saucepan and add the sugar, fish sauce and vinegar.
3. Simmer the mixture for 30 minutes until the jam thickens considerably.
4. Stir in the tomato puree
5. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

The halloumi skewers

1. Cut each block of halloumi into 8 equal slices. Cut each slice in half so you end up with 32 pieces.
2. Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a large frying pan.
3. Place the halloumi in the pan, four pieces at a time, browning the cheese on both sides
4. As the pieces finish browning, remove them and place them on a paper towel, pushing a skewer into the cheese so it looks like a lollipop.
5. Place the halloumi skewers on a serving dish with the tomato chilli jam in a separate bowl on the side

Enjoy

Tags: recipe, recipes

Categories: Jams and Preserves > Recipes

No Comments - Click to Add Yours

By popular demand – part 1

Posted: 18 December '09 by Niall

Kelly and I threw a small, civilised (apart from one individual – you know who you are!) Christmas party at the start of the month and of all the party food we prepared, two dishes stood out and had several friends asking for the recipes.

The first of those dishes was Goats’ Cheese Crostini with Red Onion Marmalade.

The first rule for party food is that it must be easy to prepare, and that’s certainly true of this dish. But the simplicity of the preparation isn’t reflected in the taste – the creamy piquancy of the goats’ cheese is tempered by the sweet and sour of the red onion marmalade to create a delicious treat.

So, for everyone at the party (and for anyone that wasn’t) here’s the recipe – enjoy!

Ingredients

Red onion marmalade

• 50ml Olive oil
• 1 kg red Onions, finely sliced into long thin slivers
• 250g soft dark brown sugar
• 150ml red wine vinegar

Goats’ cheese crostini

• 1 long, thin, white baguette, cut into ½ cm thick slices
• Olive oil, for drizzling
• 200g soft Goats cheese
• 1 punnet mustard cress

Method

1. For the red onion marmalade: heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over a low heat and add the sliced onions. Sweat the onions until they are soft, sticky, and translucent.
2. Add the sugar, stirring as it melts, and then add the vinegar. Simmer the mixture so that the liquid reduces and you are left with a thick, sticky jam consistency, stirring occasionally – this should take about 45 minutes.
3. Spoon the marmalade into a bowl and allow to cool
4. For the crostini: preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4.
5. Put the baguette slices on a baking tray and drizzle each with a little olive oil.
6. Put the tray in the oven and toast the crostini until they are golden brown.
7. Remove the crostini from the oven and leave to cool on a rack.
8. Put the goats’ cheese into a bowl and season with salt and pepper.
9. Spread a little goats’ cheese onto each crostini and top with a small spoonful of the red onion marmalade.
10. Finish with a few stems of mustard cress.

In part 2 I’ll give the recipe for chargrilled haloumi skewers with tomato and chilli jam..

none

Categories: Jams and Preserves > Recipes

No Comments - Click to Add Yours

How to make your own strawberry jam

Posted: 23 October '09 by Niall

 The last time we walked around our local supermarket I spied some sorry looking strawberries – small and misshapen they might have been, but perfect for making jam!

You don’t need any special skills for jam: it’s a fairly simple process, and the end result is well worth it. But strawberry jam is a slight exception to the rule – strawberries are low in “pectin”, a natural gelling agent that helps the jam to set. Because strawberries are low in pectin, it’s best to use a jam sugar, which has added pectin. I’ve also added a good squeeze of lemon juice – lemon is high in pectin, and will help your jam to set.

Basically, with a little care, you shouldn’t have any problems.

Makes six 250ml jars of strawberry jam

You can see more photos hereImage 1Image 2Image 3Image 4Image 5

Ingredients:

• 1.1kg fresh strawberries (slightly under-ripe is better than over-ripe)
• 1.1kg jam-making sugar
• 1 large lemon
• A preserving pan
• A jam funnel (optional)
• A large ladle
• A couple of small plates
• A wooden spoon
• 6 x 250ml jam jars
• Wax discs and Cellophane

Method:

1. Put the small plates in the freezer
2. “Hull” the strawberries (i.e. take out the hard core below the leaves) and halve the larger ones, so every piece is roughly the same size
3. Put the strawberries into the preserving pan with the sugar and the lemon juice. Put over a low heat and warm through until the sugar dissolves. Don’t stir the strawberries too much as this stage as they’ll break up, and you want nice large pieces of fruit in the finished jam.
4. Now that the sugar has dissolved you need to boil the jam. Run a wooden spoon around the corners and across the bottom of the pan to make sure all the sugar has dissolved. Increase the heat and bring the jam to a gentle rolling boil.
5. Allow the jam to boil like this for 4-5 minutes and then remove the pan from the heat.
6. Take 1 of the cold plates from the freezer. Spoon a little of the jam onto the plate and set it aside to cool. Once it has cooled, run your finger through the cold jam – if you see wrinkles then your jam will set, and you’re ready to move on. If you don’t see any, return the jam to the boil for a further 1-2 minutes and repeat this process. You might need to repeat this step a few times until you get it right (just remember to use a new plate from your freezer for each pectin test).
7. Take a dessert spoon and skim off as much of the scum (i.e. the white froth) as you can from the jam in your preserving pan, then leave the jam to sit and cool slightly for a while before potting it – about 20 minutes should be fine – which prevents the fruit from floating to the top of the jam.
8. While you’re waiting for the jam to cool, you can sterilise your jam jars. Preheat the oven to 120°C/fan100°C and wash the jars in warm, clean soapy water, then rinse in clean water. Put the jars upside down on a clean baking tray and put into the oven for 10 minutes to dry out, removing them and setting the aside just before you need them.
9. If you have a jam funnel you can use it to put the jam into your jars – we didn’t, and it does make a mess in a sticky, molten-lava kind of a way. Just make sure that you don’t overfill your jars.
10. Now put the wax discs on while the jam is hot to melt the wax and seal in the jam, then cover with Cellophane.
11. Taa-daa! You’ve made strawberry jam!!

Tags: preserves, recipe, recipes

Categories: Featured Post > Jams and Preserves > Recipes

1 Comment