Food Preserving course starting tonight

Looking forward to my first Food Preserving course - beginning tonight. I have a syllabus prepared, but the class needs will lead us to different places than what I have imagined. I'm excited to find out what they want to focus on!

Free food

This is the time of the year for collecting lots of free food - I'm starting to see ripe elderberries in the hedgerows, and my jam making mother has been on a blackberry collecting mission for the past few weeks. Good crop this year. You might also find crab apples. I think that things are too wet for good field mushrooms - at the end of the last good summer (2006 - remember it?) my brother was presenting me with carrier bags full of mushrooms - wonderful stuff.

If you are picking - try to pick away from a roadside - less dangerous and dirty, and if you are in any doubt as to what you are picking, as an expert.

Here's a sample of what you might do with your pickings...
Elderberry Jam
Elderberry syrup
Blackberry Jam
Crab Apple jelly

OK, now I'm motivated myself - that Elderberry syrup sounds tasty, healthy and easy to make - think I'll have to try it!

Cranberry Marmalade

Not exactly the right season for Marmalade, but my mother had some Seville oranges in her freezer, and I had some cranberries, and I had been hankering to make a marmalade flavoured with cranberries. Here's what we did:

 

Oranges were boiled till soft, insides removed, and peel sliced small. Looks good already!

 

At a rolling boil, waiting for it to set...

 

In the jars - what a colour!

 

Yum - it tastes as good as it looks!

Jam and Chutney making

This months course is Jam and Chutney making - both on the one day - you can do either or both. I'm very excited to share these skills - especially the chutney - you can make a wide variety of chutneys, once you follow some simple steps, and you will have a great addition to your savoury dishes, and a lovely home made gift.

We'll be making Strawberry Jam in the morning - my mother - who is an award winning Jam maker, will be doing most of the teaching, she's the expert. If you have ever had home made strawberry jam, it's so much better than the shop variety. And you can work with the strawberries which are not so beautiful, so you can buy cheaper fruit from the growers.


Here are the details:


Make your own Jam August 15th 10:00am, to 12:30pm: €35
Make your own Chutney August 15th 2:00pm, to 4:30pm: €35

One course + Lunch: €45, or both courses + Lunch: €75



Location - Mullingar Educate Together National School (Opposite the 'Rathgowan' housing development on the 'C-Link' road - 3rd roundabout after the hospital from the Castlepollard side, 2nd roundabout from the Ballymahon side).

To book your place, email me - annambrowne@gmail.com

Making Jam

This week my mother and I made some delicious jam. We were going to make a Rhubarb/Strawberry jam - based on this one from David Lebovitz (what a great blog!)

Anyhow, we couldn't leave well enough alone, so we ended up with a variation with Rhubarb, strawberries and red currants. It's delicious, and has a nicely complex flavour.

Rhubarb, Strawberry and Red currant Jam:


1.25kg rhubarb, trimmed and sliced into 1/2-inch (2cm) pieces
250g strawberries
200g red currants
250ml apple juice
1.3 kg sugar
juice of one lemon
pinch of salt


1. In a large pot, mix the rhubarb, berries, and the apple juice. Cook, stirring frequently over moderate heat, until the rhubarb is cooked through and thoroughly tender. It should take about 15 minutes.

Put several saucers in the freezer.

2. Add the sugar, lemon juice, and salt, and cook, uncovered. You want to get to a rolling boil, which is beyond simmer, and spitting a bit.

To test when the jam gells, you take one of the cold saucers, put a teaspoon of jam on it, and chill in the freezer of 5 minutes. If the surface wrinkles when you nudge it with your finger, it's done. This may take longer then you expect, but be patient, the redcurrants and lemon juice will help with setting.

If you put it in the jars before it's done, it will be runny. If you cook it for too long, it will be impossible to spread. Either way, you can probably find a good use for it :-)

Once it's gelled, you need to put it in clean hot jamjars - a dishwasher cycle will work for both, or heat them in the oven. Get the lids on fast. The jam will keep for a few months- but it may not last that long....