Category Archives: Recipes

Best Medlar Jelly Recipe (for home grown or shop bought medlars)

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Homemade medlar jelly recipe

The best medlar jelly in the world


Well made medlar jelly is a true delight. It is beautiful to look at – amber with pink highlights and very glossy. And medlar jelly is joyous to taste; some say it is like sweet cider infused with cinnamon and a touch of allspice. Whatever your adjectives it is utterly delicious, wondrously fragrant and gives a lift to game and cold meats like no other jelly. Add a spoonful to your gravy and you will never be without it again. You can buy medlar jelly in the shops, especially in season, but it is easy to make.  So much so that everyone should have a medlar tree – small, well behaved, tolerant of most soil types and producing the best fruit jelly made. Who could ask for more?

This recipe for medlar jelly is a family heirlook and never fails. The quantities shown make about 6 big jam jars full (but have a couple extra ready in case you get a bit more).

Ingredients

3 Small, sharp apples or 20-25 crab apples

2.5 kg bletted medlars(see below)

600g firm medlars

4 lemons

3 litres water

1.2 Kg granulated sugar

Optionally, you can add about 20 cloves at the beginning which are removed when you strain. They make the jelly a bit more Christmassy.

Instructions

The bletted medlars should be dark and soft before your start. Clean them by removing any stalks and leaves and chopping them in half. Remove any really obvious rotten bits.

Cut the lemons and apples into quarters (just halve crab apples if you are using those instead). Then put all the fruit into a maslin or large saucepan such as you would use for jam making.

Pour all the water over the fruit and bring to the boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat and cover with a lid. Leave to simmer gently for about an hour.

Don’t boil hard, and keep covered so the water doesn’t evaporate.

every 10-15 minutes squash the fruit with a wooden spoon. Don’t over squash or stir the whole time as your jelly will end up cloudy (the taste is unaffected though).

Pour the whole mess into a jelly bag hung over a large bowl. Bathroom taps are great for the job although we have a hook on a beam in the garage. Just let the juice drip into the bowl. For the clearest jelly, do not squeeze at all. If you leave the bag there for 12 hours, almost all the juice will have run through by itself anywhy. You can put the contents of the bag on the compost heap.

Measure the juice, which should be clear and a wondeful amber/rose colour, into a suitably sized clean saucepan and boil hard for 6-7 minutes. Then add an equal amount of sugar (which shouldbe about 6 cups or 1.2kg). Bring back to the boil and stir until the sugar has completely dissolved. Boil hard for another 2-3 minutes and test on the back of a spoon for setting. When it has just begun to set (medlar jelly is best with a soft as opposed to hard consistency) pour or ladle into sterilised, warm jars and seal. Leave to cool.

If you were a bit nervous about your jelly being too hard, and find that is still has not set the next morning, you can put it back into a pan and boil for 4-5 minutes then return to the jars. When cool, medlar jelly should be smooth and soft and have a lovely gleam to it.

Bletting Medlars

Bletting really means to overripen. It just sounds better. Shop sold medlars are generally unripe and really hard. To be useful they need to be bletted and much softer. So remove their leaves and put the medlars on plates. you do not have to be fussy about them touching, but at the same time do not heap them up. Put them in a cool but frost free place away from vermin and leave them until they turn deep brown and are soft. Really soft – they should be almost squashy. Depending on how hard they were when you started this can take from 1 week to 4 weeks.

If you grow medlars yourslef (and it is a really easy tree to grow) then bletting is simple.  Leave them on the tree until they are ready. You can pick by hand, or if you have a mature tree are going to use them immediately, knocking them off the tree with a pole on to a sheet spread below is quicker

They are then ready to cook. Medlars lose their pectin as they ripen and pectin is essential to make your jelly set. So you either need some hard medlars or you can replace them with sharp apples, or crab apples (Golden Hornet makes golden jelly while Evereste makes pink jelly. You choose.

Pear, Stilton and Walnut Salad Recipe

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New Year's Day Salad

Pear, Walnut and Stilton Salad

Having eaten my fair share of mince pies and all the other heavy foods associated with  Christmas, I long for something light and fresh in January.  Pears and walnuts make great partners in a salad and with a cheese dressing, peppery rocket leaves, spinach and watercress the combination is delicious.

We always seem to have some stilton left over after Christmas so this is a great way to use it up.  If you grow your own pears you might have stored some ‘Winter Nellis‘, a late pear harvested in November. If not, most shops will stock Comice or Conference which are sweet and juicy.  You might also have some walnuts from the autumn.

Ingredients

  • 170g Stilton, crumbled
  • 142ml carton single cream
  • 2 ripe pears, peeled
  • Juice of 1/2 lemon
  • 90g pack watercress, spinach and rocket salad
  • 25g walnut halves, toasted

Instructions

  1. In a small pan, gently heat 110g of the crumbled Stilton and all of the single cream until the cheese has melted and the dressing is smooth.
  2. Slice each pear into thick wedges and remove the core. Toss into the lemon juice.
  3. Divide the salad leaves between six plates.
  4. Scatter with the pears, walnuts and remaining Stilton.
  5. Drizzle with the dressing and serve at once.

Homemade Plum Chutney Recipe

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Plum chutney can be made with plums or damsons and it’s a good way of using up damaged or misshapen sweet plums. If a plum is bruised, we still put it all in – it makes no difference once it’s cooked.

Stoning the Plums:
The easy way to do this is to simmer them in a covered pot with some vinegar at the bottom for about 20 minutes, then leave them overnight. Use some of the white wine vinegar from the ingredients list for this and remember to subtract the amount of vinegar used to help stone the plums from the amount that you add to the cooking pot.

Ingredients:

Note: all the main ingredients should be chopped fine, but some people prefer their apricot & raisins to be a bit chunky.

  • 1350g of plums or damsons with the stones removed.
  • 450g of cored apples. Ideally use cooking apples or cooking crabapples. If you can only get eating apples, the more tart, acidic tasting ones are best.
  • 450g onions.
  • 300g dried apricots.
  • 200g raisins.
  • 220g-450g of sugar. Brown sugar is best. Use less sugar for sweet plums, more for damsons or really tart cooking plums and somewhere in the middle if it’s a mixture.
  • 2 cloves of garlic.
  • 750 ml of white wine vinegar.

    • Spices & Seasoning:

  • Half tsp of cayenne pepper
  • 1 hot chilli
  • 2 tsp of salt
  • 1 tsp of allspice powder
  • 1 tsp cinnamon powder
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • 2 tsp of balsamic vinegar
  • 5 juniper berries
  • 10 black peppercorns

    • Now for the fun bit – just dump all the spices & seasoning into the vinegar, stir and then pour it over all the ingredients in a pot or saucepan for slow cooking and give it a another good stir.
    Next,
    bring it to the boil and then immediately turn the heat right down so that the mixture is barely simmering. Leave it for about 5 hours, stirring occasionally. When it is ready, it will be thick enough so that when you stir it, you will leave a little valley in your trail.
    Pour it into sterilised jars for storage in a cool place or the fridge. Chutneys are at their best when they have been left to settle for a couple of weeks.

    Elderberry Syrup Recipe

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    The Recipe:

    This is our family recipe, and we think it makes the best elderberry syrup we have ever tasted.

    Pick the berries on a dry day,  (I added pieces of ginger before simmering)

    You will need:

    * Loads of elderberries – get a couple of kilos to begin with (take whole heads and pick them when the weather is dry)

    * A bit of ginger (optional)

    * 1lb (450g) of sugar per pint of juice- you can use Splenda instead if you are worried about sugar intake (it is very light so follow the instructions which substitute volume for weight….)

    * Juice of one lemon per pint of liquid

    * 10 cloves per pint of liquid

    * A stainless steel pan (don’t use aluminium)

    * Glass or food grade plastic bottle(s) with airtight caps

    * a funnel (you can just cut the top off a large soft drinks bottle and use that)

    * Jelly bag, J-cloths or wine filtering fabric

    * A large sieve

    * A fork

    Instructions:

    * Wash the elderberries and drain well. The easiest way to strip them off their heads is to use a large fork. You don’t have to be inch perfect here – just not too much greenery.

    * Put the elderberries in a pan – stainless is best, and not aluminium as the berries are acidic and strip the metal – and just cover them with water.

    * Bring to the boil and simmer till they are soft (usually 25-30 minutes)

    * Strain through a jellybag/J cloth/Sieve. You can bash them about first and squeeze the bag all you like, but don’t use a food processor as the seeds are bitter when broken.

    * Then for every pint of liquid add 1lb of sugar, juice of one lemon and 10 cloves

    *Return to the heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Boil hard for 10 mins and then leave to cool. Fish out the cloves (we just pour it through a sieve).

    * Bottle in containers that have been sterilised.

    Use sterilised bottles:

    • The microwave, in a pan with a little water to make steam  if they fit! – 1 minute. Remember to remove all metal and paper from the bottles
    • Glass bottles in your oven (load them in when it is cold, and then run it up to about 140C, leave it there for 10-15 minutes and let it cool slowly.
    • Leave them to soak in disinfectant then rinse and run in dishwasher twice on highest setting with no powder.

    Save old glass bottles: Olive oil bottles and wine bottles with screw caps are good to fill with syrup.

    Unopened and refrigerated or kept in a nice cold place this should keep for years.

    Elderberries are ripe in Early Autumn

    As I walked into work today I noticed a certain reddening of the elderberries. So the time of elderberry syrup is almost upon us.  Those of you who remember the late, truly great Spike Milligan may recall a mythical invention of his called Snibbo. Snibbo did everything, cleaned floors, cured cancer, took the dog for a walk – you name it.
    Elderberry Syrup has some of the same properties. It is a tonic, it works as a cough syrup, it helps the vodka go down, it makes a slightly spicy winter Kir Royale and for all I know it is good for any number of other uses.  Not for cleaning floors though as it is a bit sticky.
    However if you have not tried Elder Berry syrup, do so this autumn.  It is unbelievably good.

    More seriously – this is a remedy that has been used for at least the last 400 years.  The syrup is aperient, which means it helps relieve chest troubles, it is a cold preventative (not H1N1 unfotunately although it probably helps) and undiluted it will  bring on a sweat.

    We usually dilute it at about the same rate as Ribena and then you can add a squeeze of lemon, a drop of brandy or whisky or (according to Laura – elderberry syrup is good with tequila).
    Add a little to some red white before dinner.
    Drizzle it on Ice Cream.
    Drink long with soda water, ice and a sprig of mint during those sweltering summers of ours…. et

    Creative Commons License

    Elderberry Syrup Recipe by
    Frances Bosdari is licensed under a
    Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

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