Cooking with AH2: Preserves

[Glaucus]

What to do, while off injured? Make various preserves of course.

Now I am totally bored of tv, pc and getting sick of reading.
decide that after a year of very little cooking, be a good opportunity to get back in to it, and to do something I've wanted to do for ages, make and bottle my own preserves and sauces. So ordered 48 jars and 48 sauce bottles.

So far decided to make:
Onion marmalade
My BBQ sauce
Roasted pepper and chilli sauce
Maybe a lemon curd as never made anything like that before.

So if anyone has any awesome recipes then suggest away. Will update as and when I do stuff.

To start with Onion Marmalade(this one is from the River cottage handbook):

4kilos sliced onions
200ml olive oil
400g brown sugar
300g redcurrant jelly
600ml cider vinegar
100ml balsamic vinegar
salt+pepper

that's a lot of onions:

Part way through, what I imagine will be a very long sweating and caramelisation process.

been sweating down for about 30mins with a lid on, now loads of liquid in it.

So it's time to add the sugar and jelly

Been reducing down for about another 30mins

Time to add the vinegars

Been reducing for another 10-15mins, now ready to pot

Boil your jars and lids for 10minutes

Pot whilst jars and marmalade are still piping hot, this next stage shouldn't be needed for this recipe, but I will need to do it for the sauces, so i thought it can;t do any harm and will make sure there's nothing in the jars. Place the jars with lids only 1/2 on in a few cms of water place in a reasonably low heated oven for around 30-40minutes.

Was hoping to get 10 of each, but as you can see this only made 7.

 

[Glaucus]

Impressive stuff! How does it taste in comparison to supermarket stuff?

I'll get back to you on that one, it's still in the oven, probably crack one open in a few weeks to see.

But onion marmalade is disgusting.

It's true. OP, make strawberry jam.

heathens, it's a mighty compliment to cheese and biscuits.

 

[Glaucus]

Jars are from www.jamjarshop.com

 

[Glaucus]

Do you have any wax seals on the jars? Or do the real lids cover it correctly?

The lids cover it correctly.

 

[Glaucus]

/awaits bbq sauce

BBQ sauce.
1 did 7 lots of this
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 onion diced
4 tbsp dark brown sugar
4tbsp vinegar (I used red wine, but cider and others would work)
4tbsp soy sauce
4tbsp ketchup
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp mushroom sauce (optional)

Sweat the onions down

Throw everything else in

Reduce down and taste, you may need to adjust sugar/vinegar

usually I would leave it like that, but this time I'm going to blend it for a smoother texture

Then bottle, didn't have any pans beg enough to boil sterilise, so these have been washed then placed in a warm oven before filling

Again back in the oven for about 30mins with lids only lose, as soon as they come out tight lids fully.

I love this bbq sauce, but I do want to make a honey and hickory flavoured one, but need to experiment with that, before doing anything this size.

 

[Glaucus]

250ml

 

[Glaucus]

I wonder if my Chilli Jam thread is still around..Bingo/bump, minus the pictures.

It's a shame I keep killing my chillis, want to do so many chilli recipes. But keep killing the plants, maybe 3rd year lucky in the spring.

 

[Glaucus]

It's a sauce rather than a Marinade. With bbq meat, grilled meat, ocasionaaly chips as an alternative to ketchup. Not sure what handersons relish is.

 

[Glaucus]

Wicked. They look nice.

Never heard of onion marmalade though! What do you do with it?

God's well with cheese or things like pork pies. So stuff like a ploughman's lunch, cheese and biscuits, Also a topping on pizzas is the moreunusuall ones.

 

[Glaucus]

Hendersons is the Yorkshire area alternative to Worcestershire Sauce, I've always found it to be pretty much exactly the same though.

Should work fine then.

 

[Glaucus]

A saucepan?



Yes please.

sauce, need to pay more attention to predictive text still getting used to how this app works.

 

[Glaucus]

Been slacking, but next instalment

Tomato and chilli chutney
2kg tomatoes, chopped
900g onions, chopped
9 red chillis finely diced
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
4 tsp mustard seeds
4 cloves
5cm piece fresh ginger, grated
550g light muscovado sugar
1200ml malt vinegar

1) peel the tomatoes by scoring an X into them, then placing in boiling water for 30 seconds then plunging in cold water, peel and chop.
2
1) place all ingredients but only 1/2 the vinegar in to a large pan, bring to the boil and reduce.
2) once reduced add the rest of the vinegar and reduce.
3) taste and season
4) place into sterile jars and follow sterilisation procedure.

peeled tomatoes

 

[Glaucus]

Well made some more today and plan to make some more tomorrow.

Tuk Trey

32 cloves garlic
24 red chilies
24 tsp ground peanuts
Juice of 8 large lime,
32 Tbsp fish sauce
16 tsp sugar
32 Tbsp water

Oops just realised I forgot to add water, still it tastes nice, very hot though. Probably why it's so thick.
I left the seeds in. Added fair bit more sugar and it's very garlicky. Next batch I'll try less garlic.

Just blend/mix together. You could finely dice, but why bother.
For the peanut paste, I just got roast salted peanuts, as they are cheap. And washed the salt off and blended them up. They're far cheaper than the whole food plain peanuts.

I'm not sure on preserving stuff like this, so I did my usual oven trick. So it has had some cooking, which it's not meant to.

 

[Glaucus]

Great stuff.

I wonder if my Chilli Jam thread is still around..Bingo/bump, minus the pictures.

Just re-reading thread and found this. Hell yeah. I'll be doing this once my chillis ripen. Probably another 3 weeks. Till they turn red.

 

[Glaucus]

Onions, just keep on a low heat and stir often. Needs a reasonable amount of oil.

Sterilising jars, can either buy steriliser or.
1) fill with an inch of water and microwave for ~5mins
2) fill with a bit of water and place in oven for a while
3) submerge in pan filled with water and boil for 5 mins. (easiest if you don't have sterilisers)


As for keeping the sauce, fill jars, put lid on loosely, put in roasting trey with a bit of water and place in a low oven for about 30 mins. When you take it out, tighten lids up immediately and once it cools it should pull the lid in.

 

[Glaucus]

Put less garlic in to begin with (mine where big cloves though). But really, it's one of those recipes you change to your tastes. Want it hotter - more chili, want it sweater - more sugar, saltier - more fish sauce and so on.

 

[Glaucus]

Oooh, it's fairly hot eh? I used a packet of Tesco 'hot chilli', had a naga in there.

I haven't put any water in mine, as it's quite thin. How thick should it be?

It's a dipping sauce, so fairly thin. Think kind of Thai/east Asia dipping sauce thickness.

Yeah a naga would certainly pep it up even more.

Oh and if your looking for something to do with it, see the show off your dish post.

Making Nam Prik Pao which is an even hotter oil based sauce. Excited about this one, looks right up my street.

Just hope I get more naga morichas this year, only got 1 last year of my plant. Pain to fertilise the flowers. Naga jam, sounds good to me.

 

[Glaucus]

I did triple recipe

• Makes a small jar of Nam Prik Pao - about 1/2 cup (a little goes a long way!)
• 1/4 cup canola or coconut oil, plus a little more to finish (or light vegetable oil of your choice)
• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• dried whole OR crushed red chilies, ground to make 3 Tbsp. powder (*If you have a sensitive stomach, use cayene pepper)
• 1/2 to 1 tsp. shrimp paste (available in jars at Asian stores)
• 2 Tbsp. fish sauce
• 2-3 Tbsp. palm or brown sugar, or more to taste
• 1/2 to 1 tsp. tamarind paste (available at Asian or Indian food stores)
• 1+1/2 Tbsp. lime juice
• 2 Tbsp. water

• Preparation Tips: Although traditionally the shallots and garlic are finely chopped by hand, you can also use a food processor for this task. Just be sure not to over-process, or you will end up with a mushy mess. What you want are individual-looking pieces of shallot and garlic.
• If Using Whole Dried Chilies: simply place them in a coffee grinder (or food processor) and blitz until you get a powdery consistency.
  Heat oil in a small frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the chopped shallots and garlic, frying until they turn a very light golden brown and slightly crispy (2-3 minutes). Tip: try not to over-brown the garlic, or it will turn bitter.
• Remove garlic and shallots with a slotted spoon from the oil and set in a bowl to cool. Leave remaining oil in the pan.
• Using a pestle & mortar OR food processor/mini-chopper, combine the prepared chili with the shrimp paste, fish sauce, sugar, tamarind, lime, and water. Also add the fried garlic and shallots.
• Pound or process all together to form a thick paste. Return this paste to your frying pan and stir it into the oil over low heat, gently simmering until you get a fairly even consistency. Adjust the consistency by adding a little more water if you find it too thick, or more oil if you prefer a "shinier" sauce.
• Adjust the taste, adding more fish sauce if you'd like it saltier, or more sugar if you'd like it sweeter (I usually end up adding another 1/2 Tbsp. of fish sauce and another Tbsp. of brown sugar to mine).
• Nam Prik Pao will keep for several months stored in a covered jar in your refrigerator. Use your Nam Prik Pao as an addition to Thai soups, or added as a flavor booster to Thai stir-fries and curry sauces. Also wonderful when stir-fried with seafood, or as an accompaniment to noodles. Enjoy!

 

[Glaucus]

Nam Prik pao, it has that more usual cooked type style to it. But it's essential chilli oil but very flavoursome and strong puncher not just in spice but flavour as well.
Not sure it would work as well as the tuk trey for a noodle based dressing like I did last night.

 

[Glaucus]

Several months to a year or longer.
Depends on ingredients and sterilising technique.

Yeh budget things a pain, I hate it. I should be doing that as well. Tempted to do a honey based BBQ sauce tomorrow but not sure I should be spending.