canning

You are currently browsing the archive for the canning category.

Cranberry jam

January 10, 2010 in canning, jam, recipes | No comments

I made this cranberry jam recently:

It is quite lovely, and simple to make.  I got the recipe from Nigella Lawson’s How to Be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking, and as she says it really is very easy.

I think I may make some next year and give it away for Christmas as what could be more Christmasy than cranberry jam, and you don’t have to be sufficiently far sighted that you make your jam earlier in the year when other things are in season.

Here is my version of her recipe, which is this instance is really more of a method:

Cranberry jam

Ingredients:

Cranberries

Equal weight of sugar to the amount of cranberries you have

Water

Directions:

Cover the bottom of a heavy bottomed pot with water (I am not sure why anyone has thin bottomed pots as everyone tells one not to use them), pour in your cranberries and sugar.  Stir over medium heat until the berries burst and it really looks like jam.

Pour into sterilized jars and seal or make less and put in in the fridge and eat it sooner.

Tags: , , , ,

Pineapple chutney

January 3, 2010 in canning, chutneys | No comments

I have never made chutney before, but pineapples must be in season as they look lovely in the stores right now. I bought this one a few days ago:

Actually I may have left it a little long on the counter and from the outside it is not the most beautiful pineapple I have ever seen anymore, but it was so sweet.

Of course pineapples aren’t every really “pretty” to start with, but can you imagine trying one when they first came to Europe? Jonathan goes on and on about this in quite a charming way — as who could resist a man who effuses about fruit (especially one you like already)? They really taste unlike anything else, and I did read recently that they caused something of a sensation when they were first available.

It is a little difficult to use a whole one in time as there are only two of us, so I decided to make some chutney with mine (minus a couple slices for us).  The recipe I used is from Nigella Lawson’s How to Be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking.

Here is is cooking up:

The recipe did call for a “skinned” apple, but I forgot and by the time I remembered half the apple was in the pot, so it is half skinned.

I canned it and all the jars sealed (this may not seem like much, but it was my first time).

I didn’t have enough for four whole jars, so one is half full in the fridge, and I don’t know how it happened, but I hadn’t tried it yet, so I just did, and it is so delicious I could eat it out of the jar with a spoon.

Tags: , , ,