Category: Recipes

Recipes

Cumquat Marmalade

Sarah James-Wallace

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I got the blues thinking of the future, so I left off and made some marmalade. It’s amazing how it cheers one up to shred orange and scrub the floor. D.H. Lawrence

I’m not sure about scrubbing the floor, but there’s definitely something cheery about making marmalade which is ideal for a case of the coronavirus blues. Last week I got stuck in a bit of a post traumatic, we’ve come so far, but we’re not there yet; when will this finally end?; we can, but we can’t, funk. Making marmalade was the perfect treatment for my malaise, which I’m happy to say has now passed.

When you’ve been through a tough time (and let’s face it, we all have), I find you need to work on small positive experiences, which one by one add together to overpower the negativity of the recent past. …so this is what we’re doing here today: simply being grateful for that one small thing … and one more small thing … and one more small thing – just taking back ground one grateful step at a time till the battle is WON. Ann Voskamp

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I’ve got a cumquat tree growing in a pot, which produces very large fruit (not cumquat sized at all), but rest assured they still taste exactly like cumquats. There’s always quite a decent crop from my small tree, which makes around sixteen jars of marmalade. It’s a lovely treat to have on hot buttered toast and the supply lasts nearly all year, (with some spare to give away). Making marmalade gives me a smug feeling, as I compare myself to Laura Ingalls Wilder preparing for a long hard winter or one of the Brambly Hedge mice with their beautifully stocked larder!

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Here’s the recipe which always works wonderfully well:

Cumquat Marmalade

  1. 1 part fruit (ie 1 kg)
  2. 1 part sugar (ie 1kg)
  3. 1 part water (ie 1 litre)

Cut the fruit in half and then shred finely. Remove any pips you find and place them into a small piece of cheesecloth or a clean chux. Once you have cut your fruit, weigh it and place it in a large pot with the same ratio of water, along with the pips tied up tightly into a bag with kitchen string at the top. Bring to the boil and boil until the skin of the cumquats is soft (20 mins – 1 hour). Remove the pip bag and squeeze out any liquid, once the bag has cooled slightly. Add the sugar and stir until it’s all dissolved. Place a small plate into the freezer. Return the marmalade to the boil and boil until it starts to thicken. To test if it’s ready, drop a tablespoon of marmalade onto the plate and return it to the freezer for a few minutes. The marmalade is ready if it crinkles and stays separated when you run your finger through the middle. I start testing after around half an hour of boiling, although start testing earlier if you’re making a small batch. Once it’s ready pour carefully into warm jars which you have sterilised in the oven at a low heat.

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Bears like Paddington are very rare. And a good thing too, if you ask me, or it would cost us a small fortune in marmalade. Mrs Bird, from More About Paddington

Recipes

Mexican Pineapple Beer

Sarah James-Wallace

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I recently enjoyed brewing some tepache or pineapple beer as part of a Mexican feast I cooked up at home. The recipe comes from a wonderful cookbook I bought last year called Taco Laco : Mexican Street Food from Scratch by Jonas Cramby.  All the recipes I made for the feast from the book were delicious, so it’s worth getting your hands on a copy if you love Mexican food. You can buy it here. I’ll share the recipe (which I adapted slightly), below.

Tepache or Mexican Pineapple Beer

  • 4 litres of water
  • 450g of brown sugar
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 4 cloves
  • 1 ripe pineapple
  • 1 small bottle of Corona beer

Add the sugar, water, cinnamon stick and cloves to a large saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar. Simmer for fifteen minutes and then leave to cool completely. Remove any leaves from the pineapple and cut the unpeeled pineapple into cubes. Add to the cooled sugar syrup and cover with a tea towel. Leave to ferment for a couple of days. When it starts to fizz, give it a sniff. If it smells like meat, unfortunately you need to throw it away and start again. If it smells good, pour in the bottle of corona and leave to ferment for a maximum of twelve hours. (Any longer and it will turn to vinegar). Strain the drink into some glass bottles and store in the fridge.

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It tastes too good to be healthy for you, but apparently, it is good for gut health due to the fermentation process! I find the beer a little too sweet on its own, but delicious in a salt rimmed glass served with more corona in a 50:50 ratio. If you prefer less alcohol you could top it with soda water instead. Tepache typically has an alcohol content of between 1-5%.

Delicious and good for you to boot – Olé – although, apparently Mexicans don’t say this!

 

 

Recipes

Perfect Persimmons

Sarah James-Wallace

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Have you ever wondered what on earth you do with these unusual orange fruits which appear in our shops every Autumn? And who buys them and eats them anyway? I always passed them by, until last week when I discovered just how delicious they are baked as a dessert. They are often sold underripe, but don’t taste good unless they are fully ripe and quite squishy. Apparently, they are much loved by the Italians. I came across a simple recipe to roast them in How I Cook by Skye Gyngell, and was intrigued to try it. I’m so glad I did, as it was a taste sensation – one of the most delicious things I’ve eaten!

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First you gently peel the fruit, then cut in half and place on a baking tray. Drizzle over about three tablespoons of honey and add a vanilla bean split in half to the tray. Roast at 200 degrees for approximately ten minutes. Your kitchen will fill with a beautiful, delicate aroma. Serve warm with runny cream and that’s it – easy, healthy and yummy!

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Have you tried persimmons before? Let me know if you give this recipe a try!

Recipes

Mulberries . . .

Sarah James-Wallace

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It’s mulberry season in sunny Geraldton. These trees grow like weeds here and reward us with lots and lots of fruit (so much that it’s a little overwhelming). The main reason I planted one, was for my kids to have the joy of climbing and eating and the fun of deep purple stained mouths and hands. Happily, the stains wash out easily in the wash with no extra soaking or stain removal required. I also just discovered that the stains come out of the carpet easily by dabbing them with a little vinegar.

What to do with all the excess fruit? There are only so many mulberry pies you can make (even if they are delicious), so I went on a hunt for another recipe which I’ll share below. I’ve adapted it from a recipe I found in Notebook magazine a few years back.

Mulberry Mousse

500g mulberries (stems removed)

1tsp grated orange rind

1tbs lemon juice

1/4 cup caster sugar

250ml thickened cream

250g mascarpone

1tbs Cointreau

1. Reserve 4 mulberries for a garnish. Place remaining mulberries, orange rind, lemon juice, sugar and 1tbs of water in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Reduce heat and simmer for another 8-10 minutes until the fruit has broken down.

2. Transfer the mulberry mixture to a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Set aside to cool.

3. Whisk together the cream, mascarpone and cointreau until firm peaks form and then carefully fold through the cooled mulberry mixture (you may like to sieve this first if you require a smoother texture).

4. Place mixture in four pretty glasses and refrigerate until chilled. Top each mousse with a mulberry and a dusting of icing sugar. Serve with a small shortbread biscuit on the side.

Serves 4.

Easy and delicious! Are you a mulberry lover?