Today I picked up a Kilo of Apricots from the Wednesday market in Wells, and was delighted that they were put into a paper bag....not the 5 or 6 to a plastic tub with film that is not recyclable which have been the only source from Tesco's recently. The only way forward to try to buy unpackaged fruit.
I have yet to decided which jam to make: will it be Apricot and Ginger, Apricot and Orange Marmalade, or Apricot and Pistachio? Which reminds me...I have yet to post the recipe for Apricot and Lemon Verbena Jam which I recently made.
Lemon Verbena is my recent most favourite herb picked from the garden. I have the mother plant bought back in 2015, which having outgrown its pot is now in the garden, a second one from a cutting taken last year, and several more cuttings hopefully growing little roots . It is delicious just chopped up on fruit like pineapple, melon, etc. I love to make a cup of hot tea too with its crushed leaves.
This is a straight forward apricot jam, to which I add the blanched kernels, and about six leaves of lemon verbena finely chopped at the time I added the sugar to the cooked fruit. Delicious. Next time I would, in addition, add the same amount of chopped leaves a minute or two before taking the jam off the heat, to add that bright green speckle.
Stasher! That is a fun nickname for an expert in canning food. Apricots made a good conserve, they are not so super sweet that all other flavors are lost.
ReplyDeleteThe kernels are the part inside the cover of the apricot pit? I've not heard of this, they are edible?
The last jam I made was fig from our little tree, a little batch, but it didn't even make it into a jar, it got gobbled up.
I'm not an expert in anything....just a keen amateur. Stasher is the name of my main blog....for this one I am Mrs Mace. I used Stasher many years ago when I first started blogging...I have a stashes of a few things, which change over time. I have a stash of yarn beyond Life Expectancy, used to have lots of different teas, and salts, and flower, and tend to collect plants etc. As for the apricot jam, I would not eat the kernels in large quantities...one or two per jar is fine. They give a wonderful flavour to the jam. You need a mallet to get the outer stone broken, then take the skin off the 'almond' to get a peeled and blanched kernel. Ah fig jam...a favourite of mine!
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