Marmalade

My husband, as any good Briton, loves marmalade. And the bitterer it is, the better, which is something I still don’t fully understand… But if he is happy with his super bitter marmalade, here I am willing to harvest the entire crop from the promenade’s trees.

Here is the recipe. I got it from an English cookery book and it is called “Busy woman’s marmalade”. I don’t want to even imagine how the recipe would be for “Woman with a lot of free time marmalade”.

MARMALADE

8 seville oranges

1 juicy orange

1 juicy lemon

1 litre of water

1.5 kg of sugar

Squeeze out juice from all the fruit. Put pips in a jug with some water. This will provide pectin that will thicken the marmalade.

Put the halved fruit cases through a mincer using finest blades.

Put the minced fruit into the juice and water and leave to soak until the next day.

Then turn soaked fruit, juice and water into a pot adding the strained water from the pips. 

Bring to boil and boil gently until peel is soft when pinched between finger and thumb.

Add sugar and boil rapidly until marmalade sets when tested. To do this, take a teaspoonful of marmalade on to a cold plate. Allow to cool. The surface should set and wrinkle when pushed with the finger.

Allow to cool a little but pot while still warm into sterilised jars. Fill jars to the very top, close with the lid and place upside down until they have completely cool down.

Strawberry Jam

I love making jam. It seems magical to be able to put in a jar that spare fruit to enjoy it during the coming months. Even more comforting if you've grown the fruit yourself. Unfortunately, that is not the case this time. I bought the strawberries at the market, taking advantage of the price.

Normally, jam recipes state the same weight of sugar as of fruit, but with half the sugar it is sweet enough and healthier.

STRAWBERRY JAM

1 kg of strawberries

½ kg sugar

1 lemon

Wash thoroughly and cut the strawberries into slices. Place them in a bowl alternating layers of strawberries and sugar. Sprinkle with lemon juice and leave in the fridge overnight.

After this time, put them to cook in a pot, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. After about 20-30 minutes, the jam should be ready. To check this, you can drop a teaspoon of jam on a plate that will have been in the fridge for a while. This way you can see the consistency that reaches the jam when cooled.

To store, distribute it while still hot (hey, not boiling!) in previously sterilized glass jars (I use a baby bottle sterilizer). You must completely fill the jars, place lids and put them upside down. This way we get the jars vacuum sealed and the jam will keep longer.

Sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil

Sun-dried tomatoes have been my latest discovery. Yeah, I guess many of you already knew them already. In fact, I had them in restaurants before. Even bought them a couple of times, but I always missed a key step, to REHYDRATE them! And how do they change!

I have been gathering some information on the net and after reading several methods I chose the one I am telling you here. The result is great and gives a lot of possibilities. One example is the toast with feta cheese and tomatoes that are in the photo. Try them also with pasta or in your favourite salad...

SUN-DRIED TOMATOES IN OLIVE OIL

1 package of sun-dried tomatoes

Several cloves of garlic

White wine vinegar

Oregano

Ground black pepper

Virgin olive oil

In a saucepan, boil some water with a splash of vinegar. Add the tomatoes and let them boil for a few minutes. Drain all the water and place all the tomatoes on absorbent kitchen paper and cover them with another paper. The idea is to remove any excess water.

Place the tomatoes, sliced ​​garlic, oregano, black pepper and oil in a jar alternating the layers and making sure that all tomatoes are covered with oil. If you are going to store them for a long time, better use a sterilized jar.

And that’s it, there you have your tomatoes (and your flavored oil) to enjoy at any time.

Quince preserve

My neighbour Toñi gave me some quinces! Thank you, thank you, thank you! 

The first thing that came to mind is to make the famous (at least in Spain) quince preserve. Last year I made my debut with this recipe but as I have a very bad memory and I didn’t write it down, I had to call my mother to remind me how to make it. Here is the procedure...

QUINCE PRESERVE

1 kg of clean quince

¾ kg sugar

The first thing is to peel and cut the quinces (which is not easy with quinces as they are). To do this, cook the quinces in boiling water for 15-20 minutes in a normal pot, or 5 minutes in the pressure cooker as I did. Drain the water and wait until they cool down before peeling and cutting them. As I am very impatient, I didn’t wait enough and I burned my hands. L

In the empty pot put the chopped quince and sugar and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon to prevent sticking. When the quinces are softened liquidise with the blender and continue cooking.

BE CAREFULL! From this point, the quince-sugar mixture has become a kind of magma that will not hesitate to burn you if you are not careful, so I recommend lowering the heat when you are about to stir it and to use a lid as a shield.

Continue to simmer until it thickens and acquires a golden color. It will be ready when the spoon stands by itself into the quince. Distribute in molds and when it has cooled down put them into the fridge to solidify.