Oven Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

These beautiful jewels of cherry tomatoes come from Adrian Izzard, the PhD bio chemist turned organic farmer of salads in Cambridgeshire, who sells in farmers markets all over London. All through the winter Adrian produces a huge range of salads most of us have never heard of, such as mizuna, claytonia, Komatsuma, tatsoi, green in snow (fiercely hot mustard leaves), to name but a few from his extra ordinary range.

Having a jar of oven dried tomatoes to call on for dramatically upping the game on virtually anything is a great cook's secret. Just adding a few to a tomato sauce will deepen and enhance the flavour.

Also a perfect solution to dealing with a glut of tomatoes. Never mind how beautiful these look.

Wash to remove any dust or mud

Cut in half, sprinkle with some sea salt flakes, adorn with thyme and a very light anointing of olive oil, maybe a bayleaf or two and into the oven on 50C for 12 hours

12 hours later, the jewels are now little powerhouses of the most intense and concentrated tomatoness

Into a steralised glass jar, cover with olive oil and put in a clove or so of garlic and a sprig of fresh thyme

Jamming and Preserving

Clockwise: Plums, damsons, tomatoes & blueberries

Damson jelly, Plum jam and Blueberry jam

Damson jelly, Plum jam and Blueberry jam

I've had some great jam making sessions. The farmers market awash with autumn berrries and fruits. Including one of my favourites, damsons. The blueberries were on offer, 2 punnets for £1.50. All that you see in the this image cost £15 and I made 15 jars. Plenty of Christmas presents and all the jam we can eat throughout the winter.

The plum jam was really excellent. The recipe called for the addition of the plum kernal near to the setting point. A kernal? I didn't know there was a kernal in a plum; when I cracked the stone and to my childish astonishment found a fat pip of a kernal. What a revelation! On further investigation I have found that, as with almonds, applepips and apricot kernals, these seeds contain mild and safe does of cyanide. Check out The Little Cyanide Cookbook: Delicious Recipes Rich in Vitamin B17.

The plum jam is possibly the nicest jam I have ever made. The addition of adding the plum kernals helps the setting. As they are such an interesting taste, I left the pips in. The recipe was very easy, although quite time consuming in extracting the kernals.

Tomato and chili jam is a fridge staple, which transforms virtually anything into a tasty snack. Especially chicken, pork, halloumi, avocado, eggs or any combination of these with rocket in a sandwich. The following recipe is from Peter Gordon. A friend challenged me to a tomato and chili jam taste off. I was reasonably confident in Peter's reliable recipe until he told me he used Skye Gyngell's Roasted Tomato & Chili Jam; there I had to concede the challenge. Without even tasting it, there's no doubt that roasting the tomatoes are going to produce an easy to imagine superior result............ next time.

Here are the 3 recipes for my jamming sessions

Plum Jam

• 1kilo plumbs (stoned weight)
• 1 kilo granulated sugar

1. De stone the plums and cut up.
2. Crack open the stone and reserve the kernal.
3. Simmer the plums in a pan. If the plums are not ripe add enough water to poach until soft.
4. Add the sugar and heat slowly until melted fully and bring to the boil, add the kernals as the mixture comes to setting point.
5. Transfer to hot clean jars.

Damson Jelly

This jelly is essential for your game cooking. Especially good addition to gamey sauces.

• Damons
• Sugar

1. Simmer the damsons in a pan until soft
2. Push through a seive and throw away the stones.
3. Weight the pulp and add the same weight in sugar.
4. Bring to the boil until setting point is reached.
5. Add to hot and clear jars.

Tomato and Chili Jam

• 500gms ripe tomatoes
• 4 cloves garlic
• 6cm ginger
• 4 red chillies
• 30ml fish sauce
• 100ml red wine vinegar
• 300gms soft brown sugar

1. Wash the tomatoes and roughly chop half of them
2. Peel and chop the ginger, peel the garlic, wash and chop the chillies
3. Blitz the roughly chopped tomatoes, garlic, ginger, chili with fish sauce and vinegar.
4. Finely chop the other half of tomatoes and reserve.
5. Slowly heat with the sugar and bring to the boil.
6. Add the diced tomatoes.
7. Simmer for about 30 to 40 minutes until the jam looks thick.
8. Transfer to clean and hot glass jars.

Cinnamon and Blueberry Jam

Here's the recipe I referred to a couple  of weeks  ago.  This is not an economical preserve.  It is a fabulous jam and cinnamon was clearly invented just for this combination.

450gms blueberries

450gms sugar

half teaspoon ground cinnamon

Simply simmer the fruit over a low heat stirring well at first so the juice flows.  As soon as the berries begin to soften add the sugar.  Add the cinnamon. Stir over a low heat until the sugar has disolved then boil rapidly until setting point is reached.  Spoon into hot steralised jars and seal down.

Serve with white bread and lashing of unsalted butter.

Preserved Cherries

The short season nears the end and I always start to think about holding on to the last offerings as one of the summer's most delightful sights goes.  The cherry tree brings us glorious cherry blossom in spring.  The Japanese revere this tree, with the blossom being their national flower, they celebrate the spring blossom, honouring the custom of Hanami, by way of blossom viewing picnics.  I can only reserve faint hope for us being that sensitively atuned to nature's rythyms that we engage in blossom picnics........ it feels a long, long way off!

So, this very simple recipe preserving cherries in eau de vie and syrup will be a welcome treat in the winter with some ice cream or to add to a simple geonoa cake with cream.  The cherry infused eau de vie will be good too I suspect......

• Cherries
• Sugar syrup (2 thirds sugar, 1 third water, boiled and simmered)
• Eau de vie

1. Wash, dry and sort the cherries discarding any blemished ones.
2. Pack into a steralised jar.
3. Pour one third cold sugar syrup and two thirds eav de vie.
4. Cover and leave for at least 3 months.

Gooseberry Chutney

Gooseberries are with us for a very short while and so the temptation to preserve them is all the more stronger.  The tartness of gooseberries goes very well with fish, especially oily fish.  Here's a very easy recipe.

• 1.5Kg Gooseberries (topped and tailed)
• 500gm diced onions chopped small
• 450ml cider vinegar
• 270ml water
• 500gms soft brown sugar
• 1Tablespoon  ground ginger
• Half teaspoon cayenne pepper

1. Place  the gooseberries, onions, vinegar and water in a pan and cook until soft.
2. Add the sugar and  spices and bring to the boil, about 30/40 minutes.
3. When thickened pour into steralised jars.

Smoked, Cured & Air Dried - The Ancient Art of Perserving Meat and Fish

Platter of Smoked & Cured English Meats

Hebridean Peat Smoked Sea Trout and Norfolk Smoked Mackerel Pate in Oatcake Cups

I catered to a party this week end where the host wanted me to choose the menu entirely. This is always a large blank canvas opportunity and instead of my usual seasonal influences I was drawn to preserved meat and fish. Man has been preserving his protein for millennia. It's a rather fascinating process if one stops to think about it. How did he work out how to do this, through smoking, hanging and more bizarely, rotting in some cases?

All was from the wealth of excellent choices from the British Isles, from rare breeds and wild game; all from small and remarkable producers who are strongly connected to the land and sea from where they farm and fish.

Here is the menu

Air Dried Herdwick Mutton with English Quince
Air Dried Galloway Beef on Potato Pancake with Damson Jelly
Beech Smoked Haunch of Roe Deer with Avocado
Wild Boar Cumberland Procuitto with Goats Curd
Smoked Widgeon with Rocket & Lemon
Confit of Aylesbury Duck on Fennel Biscuits with Fig Compot
Peat Smoked Hebridean Sea Trout Served on Pea Blinis with Creme Fraiche
Norfolk Smoked Mackeral Pate in Oatcake Cups
Norfolk Smoked Eel on Pea Blinis & Dill

This was as sumptious and rich as deep burgundy velvet curtains; old leather armchairs and dried rosebuds.  I hesitated over the avocado, but the texture of avocado matched so well with the roe deer, and thus allowed the presence of our air freighted guest amongst such esteemed indiginous company. It was a welcome companion.

I include the recipe for Smoke Mackeral Pate as everything else is just as it says.

Smoked Mackeral Pate

• 2 fillets of smoked mackerel
• 225gm cottage cheese
• 1 Tablespoon creme fraiche
• juice of one lemon
• a decent pinch of Cayenne pepper
• black pepper
  

Method: Simply blend all of the above.

It's a popular cocktail or canapes. Delicious spread on toast or crostini or in this case oatcake cups. Garnish with a chive.

The Seville Arrives

Having found some Seville oranges at Tony Booths of Borough Market, I set to making some marmalade. I haven't made orange marmalade for 15 years. There's something so satisfying about using ingredients who make a brief appearance, so much more so when one preserves it's particular flavour. There's no doubt that Seville oranges make the best marmalade, of that there is no doubt.

This marmalade is reminicent of my childhood, when my mother would make enormous batches of a years supply for ourselves and both grandmothers. There was this large cast iron mincer which would perch on the side with a vice holding it in place and all the peel would go though it and turn it into the marmalade 'bits'. This device was also the meat mincer and baby food masher. (What would health and safety risk assessments make of this? There probably won't even be a category of disaster likelihood available to express it's utter horror at the cross contamination inevitability. ) There would, now I think about it, be rows of marmalade along with other preserves in the 'pantry'. Ahhh, they were the days!

The recipe

1Kg Seville Oranges
1 Lemon
2Kg preserving sugar
2Ltr Water

Large pan and a good size of muslin, 6 Jars

Juice all the oranges and lemon - reserve all the pips - discard the lemon halves.
Add the juice to 2Litres of water.
Cut all the orange halves in half again and scrape out all the pith and flesh, so the pieces are all very clean.
Slice all the peel into the size of 'bits' you want or use a devise - add to the water and juice in the pan.
Add the pips, pith and flesh to a piece of muslin and tie it up tightly - add to the pan.
Bring the water, juice, peel and muslin bag to the boil and let it gently boil for about 2 hours.
You want the peel to be soft and the liquid reduced by about half.
Now add the sugar and slowly bring to the boil.
Boil vigoursly until setting point is reached (usually 15/20mins)
Add to steralised, warm jars.

So, I set about making the marmalade, and cut up all the peel by hand. I had to restrain myself from deviating from the original plan of Seville Orange Marmalade, as the idea of Whiskey marmalade, or orange, lemon & lime marmalade, or ginger marmalade was hugely tempting. Within two and a half hours six jars of deep burnished orange marmalade with flecks of peel adorned my kitchen sill with the sun shining through them. It was one of those moments.

This is where some freshly baked bread, thick butter and marmalade is the only thing that will do!