So there may be some changes on this blog in the coming weeks and months. There may be less posts, but hopefully the ones that do appear will be of a higher quality, there will be less 'I must bake something because I haven't posted in a week' and more time in the kitchen to build on the skills I already have and develop a few new ones as well.
That said, there actually seems no better place to pick back up than where I left off! Making a cordial with seasonal fruits was very much a new technique for me to try and so deceptively simple that it will become a regular feature in our home. This is the post I was in the middle of writing a few weeks ago when my laptop decided it needed a wee holiday;
I was flicking through my copy of 'River Cottage Handbook No.2 - Preserves' the other day ... OK, it was at least two weeks ago, but who's counting ... not looking for anything in particular, just flicking through the pages as you do in quite moments. I had only just clipped the lids down on the kilner jars for some Rhubarb Liqueur (recipe courtesy of Choclette, hopefully I can share the 'efforts of my labour' in a blog post in 6 months to a years time) and fancied my hand at preserving the start of the summer's fruit bounty in any other way than jam. This is what I came up with;
Rhu-Berry-Beena
2kg fruit, I used a mixture of strawberries and rhubarb, with a higher strawberry to rhubarb ratio
Granulated sugar
Halve and hull the strawberries and slice the rhubarb. Add 200ml water. Bring slowly to the boil, crushing the fruit with a wooden spoon or potato masher, and cook gently until the fruit is soft and the juices flowing. This can take anything up to 45 mins.
Scald a jelly bag (place it in a saucepan of water and boil it for 5 mins) and then suspend it over a large bowl (I went to Lakeland and bought myself a jelly straining set, I feel sooooooooooooo grown up!) Tip the fruit into it and leave to drip overnight.
Measure the resulting juice and pour into a clean pan. Foe every 1 litre of juice, add 700g sugar or to taste. Heat the mixture gently to dissolve the sugar, then remove from the heat. Pour immediately into warm, sterilised bottles, leaving a 1cm gap at the top. Seal with a screw top or cork.
Makes about 1.5 litres
Adapted from River Cottage Handbook No.2
Hubby is really enjoying his Rue-Berry-Beena, a tiny amount mixed with soda water proves to be a very refreshing drink and I imagine that a smidgeon of vodka ... or gin ... or rum ... added to the mix couldn't be a bad thing either. The juice from my mix came out about 150ml above the litre mark but I still only added the 700g sugar, next time though I will add much less sugar as the cordial is very sweet. I'm looking forward to trying out some other flavour combo's, the passionfruit and mango sat in the fruit bowl look like they may be my next venture.
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