Rhubarb, Orange & Prosecco Jam

Well, it's been several months sinced i last posted, but it's time to get back into the kitchen & feed the houseboy up for winter. The summer has been filled with weddings (including our own wonderful day) an amazing Italian honeymoon, parties, hen do's & weekends away which have all been brilliant fun, but it's secretly quite nice now it's all calming down.

 

This time of year is great for jam making & due to our amazing (& very surprising) British summer there is an abundance of deliciously ripe fruit available. This is a recipe from a Jam & Preserves book i've had a while but never used - the recipe actaully calls for plain old boring water, but i thought i would liven it & add some prosecco & it works very well. The ginger isn't too overpowering & the orange really enhances the flavour of the rhubarb. It's quite a sweet jam (more so than say a raspberry jam) so would work well with desserts like greek yoghurt.

 

Ingredients:

• 1.5 kilos of rhubarb
• 50g of fresh root ginger
• pared rind and juice of two oranges
• two lemons
• two pints of prosecco (its just shy of a bottle - top up with a little water)
• 1.75 kilos of sugar
• 15g butter

Method:

 

Slice the rhubarb & add two thirds to a large heavy based saucepan. Finely grate the fresh ginger, zest & juice the oranges & juice the lemons. Add these to the rhubarb along with the prosecco and the two half's of lemon shell (the pectin in the lemon helps set the jam). Bring the mixture to the boil & simmer for around 45 minutes to an hour with the lid off so the fruit has reduce by about half. Allow to cool & remove the lemon shells. Add the remaining rhubarb & gently simmer for about 5 minutes until the fruit is soft. Gradually stir in the sugar over a low heat until fully dissolved, bring to the boil and reduce to a gentle simmer until it reaches setting point. Take off the heat, stir in the butter and skim the scum off the top. Pour into clean and warmed jam jars, top each with a disc of waxed paper & allow to cool completely before screwing on lids.

 

The Wedding Day

Artichoke & Butterbean Dip

When you have people for dinner it's really easy serve so many nibbles that they are too full for the main event. This is a light and delicious dip which is great with pitta bread, carrot sticks or crackers. You can use artichoke hearts in salted water but the dip will have a stiffer consistency, the olive oil does also add to the taste. 

Ingredients:

• one tin of chickpeas
• one jar of artichoke hearts in olive oil
• one tablespoon of creme fraiche
• one clove of garlic grated
• one good pinch of  cumin powder

Method:

Take all the ingredients listed & blitz together in a food processor, season to taste and serve with  strips of warm toasted pitta bread.

Walking in the Woods

Chocolate Oatmeal Biscuits.

Chocolate & Oatmeal Biscuits. 

I'm not sure where i originally found this recipe. I came across it at the weekend written down in an old hardback book i used to carry around to record recipes and shopping lists & thought i would try it out. It's a ridiculously simple recipe with great results; nice & crunchy with a really chocolaty feel, you're better off making a double batch. You could also try dipping half of them in some melted chocolate to make them extra special.  

Ingredients:

112g butter

84g caster sugar

112g plain flour

28g coco powder 

28g medium oats

2-3 drops of vanilla essence

Method:

Turn your oven to 175 degrees or the equivalent & lightly grease your baking tray.

Cream the butter and sugar together until light & fluffy, carefully sift in the plain flour & coco powder, add the oats & vanilla essence and mix together until it forms a fairly stiff dough.

Lightly dust your work surface and roll out the dough until it's about 5mm thick. Using a circular cookie cutter cut out each biscuit, place on your baking tray & bake for 10 - 12 minutes, make sure you check them half way through to make sure they aren't burning at the edges. 

Remove from the oven, leave on the baking tray for a couple of minutes before removing and placing on fooling rack until cooled. 

They will keep for around five days in a well sealed tin. Makes 18 - biscuits.

Snow Drops