Pineapple and Passion Fruit Jam

From a very early age I loved pineapples, and as for passion fruit, now there is a taste that I really love, and both of these remind me of my Gourmet Gourmande days, when my father loved to introduce me to the flavours he too loved so much.

One of the sights whenever I went to the local fruit and vegetable markets in Mauritius, were the lads cutting up the small local fresh pineapples.  with machetes they cut off the finest of slithers to remove the coarse outer peel, then with smaller knives cut decorative channels removing the eyes.  Have a look at my Pineapple Chutney Recipe where I explain the technique.  We almost always bought the unpeeled ones to bring home.

When I was young almost every home used to make their own 'confitures' or compotes....Two of my mother's friends Aunty Frances and Aunty Phylis, both English ladies, would often come over with pots to share.  Particularly memorable were jellies and jams made with Goyave de Chine or the small wild Strawberry Guavas that grew wild on the highland plateau.  In season, our families used to go on Sundays for adventures, picnics and foraging.  At home my very favourite was pawpaw and vanilla jam.

For the last few months, I have been making standard blackcurrant and strawberry jams for the year, but strangely missed out on apricot which is one of my favourites.  Its when a friend brought me a bag of plums that I started to get my thinking hat on, leafing through my preserve and recipe books for a little inspiration.

I had read that Mes Confitures by Christine Ferber had inspired many lovers of jams.  Just as a little present to myself, I sent off for my copy and have had it for less than a week.  I've only dipped in here and there, and she describes a different approach compared to the 'traditional' British jam making techniques.  As usual with my jams I like to try little twists, and look forward to reading this book, more or less from cover to cover.

There is no Pineapple and Passion Fruit recipe in Mes Confitures, but having a pineapple on the shelf just coming up to its best, and half a dozen passion fruits in the basket, I followed Ms Ferber's techniques and proportions.

I had also made some of the Green Apple Jelly which she uses as 'pectin stock' to add to fruit that has very little pectic.  I've never successfully made good setting pineapple jam, and have make chutney with pineapple.

Here the fruit is draining, early this morning, after its overnight 'marinade' in its just boiled up state in the dissolved sugar.  In releasing juices into the syrup, through osmotic dehydration, the chopped pineapple shrank.  

The liquid is then boiled up to 105 C, then the fruit and apple pectin stock added...and more boiling until 105 C setting point is once more reached.

With only a small standard pineapple this is the yield.  When trying something new I don't mind at all working on a small batch.  I've just had a spoonful on my evening sheep's yogurt...definitely nicely pineappley with a good depth of passionfruit too.  The jelly is very good, with pineapple and seeds nicely distributed.  Its a little sweet so maybe my ratios were not quite right, or perhaps a little more lemon juice in my next attempt.

When I have perfected my proportions, I'll add my recipe, but of course, there may be more jams tried before then.

Plum Jam with lime and cardamon

As I love the flavour of cardamon, as evidenced by my recent lime marmalade making, I decided to flavour this jam with that same spice.  I would normally use lemon juice in jam making, to add acidity, but with several dozen frozen limes in the freezer, I thought I would take the opportunity to see how the flavour of lime would go with plums in this small batch of jam.

1Kg victoria plums, weighed after prepared and chopped into smallish pieces, about quarters, went into the preserving pan. I added one lime which came straight from the freezer quartered to the fruit, and the five bruised cardamon pods with no water, and slowly heated this till the juices started to flow, in a thick bottomed pan.  Every couple of minutes or so, I gave the pan a stir with a steel slotted spoon, and slowly more liquid came out from the fruit.  When I was happy that there was sufficient liquid, I left the fruit to cook over a moderate heat with the lid on, and after about ten minutes took off the lid to allow for a further little evaporation.

When I felt the fruit was sufficiently softened, 800g white granualted sugar was added.  As soon as the sugar was dissolved over a moderate heat, the heat was increased and with a good rolling boil, afters about 15 minutes I started to use the Thermapen.  At 105 C I turned off the heat, put a spoonful on the saucer which went into the fridge, cover the pan with the lid...and waited.  Yes there was the sure sign of the wrinkle on the top of the jam.  I removed the cardamon husks, left the seeds behind, and potted the pieces of lime peel, ready to use in some fruity bread or wherever candied peel is called for.

In the past I have been potting up the jam immediately, but I feel that with lumps of fruit, a little of the liquid would be pulled out into the jelly matrix, and dilute this.  I therefore left the jam to cool completely, and in the evening returned to it.  Carefully increasing the heat, whilst checking that there was no sticking to the bottom, brought the jam to 105 c, then allowed the jam to cool for about 10 minutes before potting it into heated sterilized jars.

I feel that this waiting and reheating the jam has led to a very good set indeed.

The jam has turned out very well, and I expected comments at the breakfast table to be somewhat along the lines:  Why put all these flavourings in?  If you have read some of my previous comments on preserves, you will know that I love adventure and innovation in flavour, whereas Mr M loves traditional preserves.  However I completely agree with his opinion that it works wonderfully on toast.

I hope Jane who gave me the plums, will enjoy her jar of jam.

I am normally a purist when it comes to Marmalade, well for me Toast is for Marmalade, and at a pinch good with hot crusty rolls,  but jam is never for toast.  I changed my mind on this was when I first made wild plum jam from  lovely little wild yellow plums.  I have since found out that they are called Mirabelle de Nancy...and I must find a tree to grow in the garden.  In many areas these grow wild in the hedgerows, but I am yet to find them growing close enough to home to go and forage.

I've ordered a small Mirabelle de Nancy, which should be planted in the garden this autumn, and hopefully I shall be able to pick my own mirabelles in a couple of years time.

Victoria Plum Chutney the easy way

With a bagful of Victoria Plums from friends, I quickly looked through recipe books and also my own recipes, and devised a different one to use up a Kilo of prepared plums.

To prepare the plums, I wash them first, then as they need to be chopped up, I select the more variable in size and shape and ones that may have small blemishes, since these can be eliminated.  Its the completely prepared fruit which had had the stones removed, and pieces cut out that are weighed to make up the chutney.  Each plum is cut into about 8 pieces.

I now store all my fresh ginger in the freezer.  Having first washed and brushed it, I cut up the large rhizomes into pieces about two centimeters long, and open freeze it, then put them all in a tub in the freezer.  There is now always ginger ready to hand, and from frozen it cuts up very easily into whatever size pieces are needed.  I like to use the dry dates and keep the lovely soft ones for eating fresh with nuts.

Ingredients

1Kg prepared plums
350g cooking onions, peeled and chopped
50g prepared fresh/frozen ginger
100g dried pitted dates
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tbsps cumin seeds, dry roasted and slightly crushed
300ml organic cider vinegar
100g soft brown sugar, preferably Billington's Light Muscovado from Mauritius

Add all of the above to a large very thick bottomed pan, stir over a moderate heat, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat, and continue to cook gently, stirring regularly, to make sure that that nothing is sticking at the bottom of the pan.  The chutney should be thick and pulpy, but do bear in mind that it thickens further as it cools.

Sterilized your jars and have them hot and ready from the oven, then ladel in the chutney using a jamming funnel, cover quickly with a new and clean top, check that the tops are wells sealed down.  When cool, label, and set by in a cool dark cupboard and wait......two to three months at least.

This chutney is wonderful with cold cuts of meat, on the side with vegetable bakes, macaroni cheese etc.

To anyone who is a newby to chutney making, I say:

" Taste the chutney when cool enough, by all means.  However, it is only two, three, or even six months down the line that the lovely depths of flavour start to be produced.  Think of the chutney as a red wine or a port that develops over time.  Chutney is a lovely way of capturing ingredients when they are at their best, preserving them in a sealed and hygienic environment, then with time you realise that you have created something that is greater than the sum of the original ingredients."

By all means use whatever variety of plums you have to use....

Lime Marmalade several ways using the Pressure Cooker

Have I mentioned before that I like marmalade?  And how many times have I used limes?  Lots for sure.  We have a lovely vegetable and fruit sellers just once a week on a Thursday  a few miles outside of Wells, at the Rocky Mountain Plant Nursery.

I went up there this Thursday on the off chance of getting some things from the nursery, and had a peep in at fruit and vegetable stall.  Readers it would have been completely rude of me not to take on the offer of a whole box of limes.  I still cannot believe that I paid very nearly the same as for a small bag from a supermarket, and there was no plastic whatsoever.  OK they were not the bright dark green variety.  They were an even colour, some were slightly green but most were more yellow.  Maybe they did not quite make the price at the wholesale market because of this.  They had come all the way from South America and because they were yellowish I guess they must have been picked ripe or were a different variety.  They were firm, smooth, and may have even been Meyer Limes.  They taste like limes, are very juicy and have no pips whatsoever.

With my first Kg I made a batch of lime marmalade following Dan Lepard's Recipe  but with the addition of a few crushed gin berriers.  With the same proportion of raw limes as weight in sugar this makes a very fruity and zesty marmalade.

For the second batch of another Kilogram of limes, I devised my own recipe to include fresh chopped ginger and whole cardamom.  I have used both ginger and cardamom before and really love the twist they bring.  To the 1Kg fruit I added 1.5Kg sugar this time.

For both batches I followed the same procedure for cooking up the fruit:

1 Litre water to 1 Kilo of Fruit

Wash the fruit well in warm water.

Half the fruit, squeeze out the juice, which is stored in a jug in the fridge and used later.



Cut the halved limes into two, still with their pith and membrane, and soak the quarter peels in 1 litre of fresh cold water.  Keep the fruit submerged by putting a plate smaller than the bowl on them, and leave to soak overnight in a glass bowl.

The next day transfer the peels and water to a pressure cooker, and cook at 12lbs for 10 minutes.

When the pressure has cooled down naturally, and the peel is cool enough to handle, stain it from the liquid over another bowl, catching the liquid.

Remove the membranes with a small spoon, and cut the peel up finely.

Return the chopped peel with the draining cooking liquid to the pressure cooker.  At this stage add whatever spices, bring to the boil and pressure cook for a further 5 minutes.  Allow the pressure to drop naturally.

In the meantime, pass as much of the removed membranes and tissues through a sieve as you can.

Measure your sugar, add this and the sievings of the membrane, the cold juice from the fridge, and the spices to the contents of the pressure cooker. You can boil this quantity in a large pressure cooker, without the weights and lid, but I prefer to boil up the marmalade in my larger preserving pan.

I used both a thermometer and wrinkle test to gauge when the marmalade is set.

From the 1Kg of Fruit and 1.5Kg of sugar I got 8 large jars

From the .9Kg of fruit and sugar I got 3 large and 3 medium jars of Lime and juniper Marmalade.

Early Rhubarb Jam

On Thursday Maggie asked if I would like a ride up to Fruit and Veg stall at the Rocky Mountain Nurseries about three miles from Wells.  We were going up to get oranges, lemons etc for a great marmalade making spree next week.  We are going to make marmalade to raise funds for the refurbishment of the Chapel at the Wells Almshouses.

It is almost like going to a wholesalers, as the owners buy the best in season, and sell off whole boxes of fruit and veg at very competitive prices.  We bought a whole box: (cardboard) of fine but 'ungraded' forced rhubarb for £5 to split...this is just half a box!  It was towards the end of the day so I think we arrived close to the final sell off.

After washing and preparing the stems, I had 1.75Kg, but by then was too tired to start cooking...

By yesterday evening I had looked through recipe books and had plans not only for the 1Kg of rhubard that went into the jam, but had also made a rhubarb crumble and an almond and spelt cake with chopped rhubarb in it.

For the jam, the rhubarb was chopped up, and layered with 900g granulated sugar to which I had added a sachet of powdered apple pectin, the juice and the rind of an orange...

After several hours of trying to get back to sleep, and no results, I was up at 5 a.m this morning, and found that the sugar has pulled out a lot of the juice leaving the little pieces of rhubarb bobbing around near the surface.  So is this doubly early Rhubarb Jam?

I boiled up the jam, using both the thermapen to test for the 105 c temp, and a cold plate for the wrinkle test, to check when it was ready to pot...and was very happy with this very delicate pink rhubarb jam.

This is the first time I have bought the very early rhubarb, and wanted to make a very simple preserve.  Last year I made a double ginger rhubarb jam as well as a rhubarb, fig and orange jam from garden grown rhubarb.

Grapefruit and cardamom marmalade

There is a much easier way of weighing grapefruits, but sometimes a little fun creeps into my preserving. 

I was thinking back to our holiday last year in La Gomera.....

Making marmalade in stages allows for time, which helps with the softening the peel, allowing the pectin to seep into the water.

I followed my now trusted formula for marmalade, using the ratios of 1 litre water to 1 Kg fruit to 1.5 Kg Sugar, with the juice of 3 to four lemons.

For this preserve, I added the lemon peel to the grapefruit peel for the soaking.

I leave the rind in these long segments for the soaking and cooking at pressure, then cut them up finely after the pan has returned to room temperature naturally, often on the following day.  It is then soft and very easy to cut up.

Before it is cooked, the flesh and pips which I removed before cutting up the rind, also go into the soaking liquid overnight.

The lemon juice only goes in when the sugar is added and the preserving pan is brought to the boil.

As I  enjoyed the Pear, Lemon, Lime and cardamom marmalade which is just coming to an end, I decided to add some cardamom to this grapefruit marmalade.  I think the P L L & C marmalade is my favourite flavour in the marmalade field.  I have made several Grapefruit marmalades since I started this blog, but it has always been using pink grapefruits.

I leave the crushed whole pods to boil up in the pan, but remove the husks and leave the seeds whole in the finished marmalade.

I have only just today made up labels, and the jars are now nestling in the preserve cupboard in the newly decorated utility room.  All except for one which I have already given to a friend.