If you only ever buy one recipe book...or maybe two

If there's one thing I lack confidence in, it's making things up from scratch. I need inspiration. I like taking an idea and running with it. It's not always pretty!

.A small selection of inspiration

I have a few recipe books for preserves. 

OK, I have a lot of recipe books for preserves.

Some of them, quite frankly, are rubbish. They're over complicated & often make you feel like its just all too much trouble. I hate books that hint at 'leave it to the experts'.

While I was waiting for my gooseberry & elderflower jam to boil yesterday I was flicking through one of my favourites.

'Preserves' by Pam Corbin

This would be my Can't Do Without Book. It brings me back to my reason for The Jammy Cow in the first place and, if I ever feel I've lost the plot, out it comes. I'm reading through it quite a lot at the moment!

But I really, really like this one too....

It, also, has no pretensions and was my sole inspiration to make marmalade.

But, there's no way I'm stopping looking for more books...all in the name of research, of course!

Mellow Yellow...not quite

Not-so-Mellow Yellow Chelly

We can't keep this on the stall very long at the Farmer's Markets so I thought I'd share the recipe.
I can't take all the credit; I got the idea from Nigella & you can make it as hot or as mild as you like.
It's much easier than making a jelly from apples and only takes an hour at most to make.

Chelly (Chilli Jelly) - Mild

INGREDIENTS

150g long fresh red chillies (Remove seeds if you want it even milder)

150g red peppers - seeds & white membrane removed.

1kg jam sugar

600ml cider vinegar

6 x 250ml sealable jars, with vinegar-proof lids

METHOD 

Makes approx. 1.5. Litres Keeps sealed for 12 months

Wash your jars & sterilise (I do mine in the oven)

Put the chillies & peppers into a food processor and pulse until they are finely chopped.

Dissolve the sugar in the vinegar in a wide, medium-sized pan over a low heat without stirring.

Scrape the chilli-pepper mixture out of the bowl and add to the pan. Bring the pan to the boil, then leave it at a rolling boil for 10 minutes.

Take the pan off the heat and allow it cool for about 10 -20 minutes depending on your patience* (this helps distribute the fruit mixture & prevents it floating to the top of your jars)

Ladle into your jars & seal.
*If you've had no patience, like me, bottle immediately & after 15 minutes or so invert each jar to distribute the chilli & pepper flakes (continue to invert every 15 mins until the little devils stay suspended!)

Hotter version:

Replace red chillies with yellow scotch bonnet chillies & red peppers with yellow or orange peppers

If you can't be bothered at all, here's the link to buy some! Chelly

Too good to be true.

Back in October I mentioned making marmalade...and the easy recipe I'd found. And it's a good job I did find it; if I'd had to make the Oxford Marmalade I've finished today I'd probably never attempt marmalade again.
Cheeses wept! What a faff!
I'm going to have to work on that recipe & get the setting point time down.
In all fairness to the marmalade, I did double the quantities so it took an age to reach the boil then my pan was too full for a rolling boil...but I now have a vast quantity and still 16kg of oranges to go!

Oxford Marmalade cooling

Oh dear....

Anyone who knows me will appreciate that I’m sooo beyond being a ‘yummy mummy’. 

I'm neither young enough, slim enough or attractive enough. However, I've just found myself overwhelmed with a feeling of yuppy, yummy mummy-ness that a trip to Waitrose was only just narrowly avoided.

I have a new (to me) car. I had, previously, a black & pink striped Suzuki Swift. It was me! Modest enough yet cheeky enough to shout (quietly) ‘look at me, look at me’. 

Totally useless for transporting a 6’ table, 3 meter gazebo & 20 crates of jam and their associated display hardware.

The new one is perfect – it has no personality – but its perfect. And, my goodness, it’s got a magnificent boot space!

But...as I drove to work , past my neighbour walking his dog, he failed to recognise me and, at that point, I realised that I had become a ‘grown-up’.  Not only a grown-up but a Volvo driver too.

Now...where are my wellies?