Tag: stewing

Ratatouille, new fiction book, and a blog post

Picked first green-gage plums yesterday and collected a fallen ‘Victoria’ plum off the ground too. Blackberries are ripening. Broccoli has been picked. Five pumpkins are growing. It is August now – so that basically means autumn in the UK, but there is talk of 30C at the end of the week…

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Yesterday I harvested our first aubergine – eggplant – of the year and made Ratatouille. I have posted a recipe before, but I think this one was better, so I will re-write it in a moment.

One of the best things about this dinner is that everything (except for the olive oil for frying and the rice I ate with it) is homegrown.

Very exciting!

So here is the updated recipe:

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Ratatouille  

 

(Serves 4)

-Olive oil, for frying in – 1 onion, sliced – 1 large aubergine (eggplant), sliced into small chunks – 2 medium sized courgettes (zucchini), sliced into discs – 1 red bell pepper, sliced into small chunks – 1 large garlic clove, diced – 250g fresh tomatoes, sliced in half – Salt and pepper, for seasoning

  1. Heat the oil in a large pan. Fry the sliced onion and aubergine, turning it down to simmer.
  2. Add the sliced courgette and pepper. Add the diced garlic and the tomatoes, stirring to combine.
  3. Leave to simmer for at least 15 minutes – 30 minutes, the longer the better, stirring now and then.
  4. Once the vegetables are tender and the tomatoes have broken down, releasing their juices to become a sauce, add salt and pepper for seasoning and remove from the heat and serve hot in dishes.

Option: serve with potato, sweet potato or rice, and any other vegetables for a hearty meal.

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Other news: Firstly, my new fiction book, Crazy Killer Sister, is available now. If you fancy a summer read, please consider? I’m not one for advertising so apart from Facebook, this blog is the only way I promote it!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crazy-Killer-Sister-Isobel-Murphy/dp/1722118326/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1533025326&sr=8-3&keywords=isobel+murphy

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And finally, I was fortunate to be able to write a blog post for Angie Viet’s, an eating disorder recovery blog, on how gardening helped my own recovery.

Here is the link if anyone is interested:

https://www.angieviets.com/articles/6-ways-gardening-strengthened-my-recovery

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Have a good week y’all!

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Strawberry Jam

Remember my love of jam? Not that I am trying to hit you over  the head with it or anything…

I fell in love with raspberry jam a couple of years ago. Then it was homemade plum jam. Then blackcurrant. This year, it has been strawberry. I just can’t get enough.

You will remember my overly-excited post about harvesting enough strawberries to make strawberry and rhubarb jam (Recipe: Strawberry and Rhubarb Jam) and hoping that one day I would pick enough to freeze for purely strawberry jam? Well, my dear friends, that dream came true and it is a sweet, sticky, yummy dream, perfect for finishing off August with slathered on homemade toast and butter.

Strawberry jam is a little tricky: the fruit is very low in pectin meaning it is most likely going to end up running all over your toast or scone so pectin rich liquid (what I use) in abundance or pectin jam sugar is pretty much an obligation. Then there is the sweetness of the fruit. You don’t want to overly sweeten  the jam with sugar otherwise it becomes sickly. To counter this, I would advise using lots of lemon – this will also add pectin to the mixture. Finally, do you want whole strawberries in your jam or just a straight jelly? To get rid of the whole fruit, you need to simmer the fruit down to mush. For my batch, I chose to go halfway – stew the fruit before adding in the sugar so that it created a jammy sauce for some whole fruit to float in.

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Strawberry Jam

(Makes 2.25kg)

– 1kg strawberries – 1kg granulated sugar – Juice of at least 3 lemons – 135 ml Certo Apple liquid pectin

1. Put the strawberries in a large pan over a high flame. Stir the fruit as it begins to bubble and some of the juice starts to ‘leak’ into the pan so that the whole berries are swimming in the sauce. Add the sugar and lemon juice, stirring in.

2. Stir over a high heat and then allow the fruit to stew, checking the temperature with a jam thermometer. When it has reached boiling point, allow it to bubble furiously for at least ten minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. Meanwhile, put a china plate inside the freezer so that it is cold. Spoon a small dollop of jam onto the plate and put it back in the freezer for a minute. Take it out and run a fingertip straight through the middle of the jam splodge on the plate. If the jam ‘crinkles’ and leaves a trail as you push your fingertip through, then it is done. If it doesn’t, continue to boil the jam and check to see if it is improving. Once it is nearly done, turn of the heat. Pour the liquid pectin into the pan and stir in. Check the pectin test again to make sure that it is setting. Allow the jam to cool slightly, for probably at least half an hour.

4. Once done, bottle in sterilised jars (place wax discs over the surface to preserve it longer before putting the lid on) and store in a cool, dry place overnight, allowing it to set. You can use the jam from the next day onwards.

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