Preserves

I'm well aware that I sound like I've just walked off the set of The Good Life, but making your own preserves is a fun and original way of solving your Christmas present dilemmas. Save up nice-looking jars through the year, fill them with yummy chutneys and jams, cover them with a square of material tied with a piece of ribbon and you can even design your own labels on the internet. The easiest way to sterilise jars is in a baby's bottle steriliser, but if you don't happen to have one, wash your jars in warm soapy water and then leave to dry in an oven at 140 degrees centigrade. Here are my two favourite recipes for you to try: Onion ...  Read the complete review

Where we live we are fortunate enough to have quite a few areas of unspoiled (ie not near a road) blackberry bushes. After making several batches of blackberry jam recently (my preserving pan is very old and has been inherited and can only cope with 1kg of fruit - slightly annoying), I had 450g of blackberries left over. I was about to freeze them as I wouldn't have had enough to make a whole 2lb jar and the only small jar I had left would have been too small and then I remembered the punnet of blueberries I had in my fridge so thought that I would combine the two fruits and try out a black and blue jam. The recipe is simple and to be honest I ...  Read the complete review

I love Christmas! I love shopping for special food and presents. I also love cooking. I make my Christmas cake in October and always make my own mince pies. I love buying lots of different cheeses for the holiday period and like to make, my own chutneys to go with them. Here are a few of my all time, foolproof favourites. I hope you will enjoy them too! Simple chutney. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This chutney is easy to make and doesn’t need any cooking. It is a fun chutney to make with your children as there is no danger from getting burnt. 1 lb of stoneless dates. 1 lb. Cooking apples. 1 lb brown sugar. 1 lb ...  Read the complete review

One difference between Great Britain and Germany is that it’s difficult to find someone in your country who doesn’t know what chutney is, and it’s difficult to find someone over here who does. Thick volumes have been written on the impact of history on eating habits - as on the impact of some plants, i.e. coffee, tea, potatoes, pepper, cotton, on world history. I’m going to confine myself to chutney which I got to know in GB. A text on the net with the title ‘The History of Indian Food’ informs me that the various invasions the Indians had to endure have had major influences on the nature of Indian cuisine ...  Read the complete review

Have you noticed the blackberries this year? Hot sun and plenty of rain have made the wild brambles set masses of fruit. Being early August, most of it is unripe, but I have already picked several piesworth of ripe ones. I love blackberry picking. At weekends, Deefa (our sort-of Jack Russell terrier) and I go for our walk. Our favourite route is along a disused railway track. Squirrel territory. Deefa lives in hope of catching a squirrel. A mere glimpse of one in a treetop, the fur rises all along her back, and she leaps skywards, stretching out the whole of her ferocious two foot length, all the while barking wildly. She knows that one day she is going ...  Read the complete review