The Preserver's Year

foreign_correspondent

Frugalista wrote: »

Strangely enough, no they're not - still just little green buds. Behind the kennels where I work there is a massive field where we exercise the dogs - and there are loads of elder bushes. The young kennelmaids think I am nuts ( Now! Now!) well pre-empted there!! as I usually go and earmark the "perfumed" elderflowers for champagne/cordial and the ones that smell like cat wee I leave so as I can harvest the berries later on. Mind you, they don't think I'm quite so batty when we are drinking my hot elderberry cordial in the winter .

Did you want the Curried Dried Fruit recipe?

yes, I would love the curried dried fruit recipe, it sounds interesting! May well try the beetroot and chive jelly too - looks good!

I saw some elderflowers out on my drive back from hereford, but sometimes it seems very localised - I spotted some ready yesterday on the main road about eight miles from here, but none on 'my' trees yet!

Frugalista

Ok! So maybe I am loosing the plot a little - its my age :rolleyes:.

The Curried Fruit is made with fresh fruit and the Mustard Fruit is made with dried fruit . Which one do you want? I can do both if you wish - it will just take a little longer (and OH is complaining that he is hungry) .

foreign_correspondent

no rush - the curried fruits I think!! :-)

Do it when you have time though, I wont be making anything till late next week (too much work to do!)

thanks in advance!

rainbowsprite

Allicouldwishfor there is dedicated thread to tefal jam makers hth

Frugalista

Taa Daaa!! :dance: Here we go foreign correspondent (and anyone else who'd like it). Don't forget to report back .

Curried Fruit Pickle
A quick to make pickle that goes particularly well with cold pork
Prep: 15 mins / Cook 15 mins / Yield: approx 2¼lb

225g/8oz light brown sugar
140ml/¼ pint distilled malt vinegar
140ml/¼ pint water
4 cloves
30ml/2 tbsps curry powder (mild or hot - depends on your individual tastes)
5ml/1 tsp coriander seeds
3 apples (peeled, cored and thickly sliced)
180g/6oz pineapple chunks
90g/3oz raisins
6 apricots (stoned and halved)

In a large pan, gently heat the sugar, vinegar, water, cloves, curry powder and coriander seeds. Stir until the sugar dissolves. Boil for 2 minutes.

Add the apple, pineapple and raisins and cook for 5 minutes, then add the apricots and cook for another 3 minutes until the apple is translucent.

Pot as usual. Once opened store in the fridge.

foreign_correspondent

that sounds really nice.... thanks

Will let you know how it turns out!

Gigervamp

Valli wrote: »

Rhubarb and Ginger Jam
(Vera's Recipe - think I have posted this before - probably on a jam thread actually)

2 and a half pounds of rhubarb (prepared weight)
2 and a half pounds of granulated sugar
2 - 3 heaped teaspoons ground ginger
Juice of 1 lemon

Roughly how many jars does this make? Just so I know how many to sterilise, I hate finding I've not got enough jars when I'm potting it up!

mathsus

rainbowsprite wrote: »

Allicouldwishfor there is dedicated thread to tefal jam makers hth

Where?? please

ampersand

Gigervamp wrote: »

Here's the recipe that we used to make eldeflower champagne.

3 gallons of water
4 Tbs white wine vinegar
4 lemons
4 kilos of sugar
About 20 elderflower heads.

I haven't got the method written down in my notebook but from memory, we put the flower heads, vinegar and juice from the lemons into a fermenting bucket. Heated the water and dissolved the sugar in it, then added that to the bucket. Left it for a few days before straining it into sterilised 2 litre coke bottles.
We had to make sure that we let out the gas from each bottle every day. We made 2 batches and that made about 16 2 litre bottles of very potent brew! :beer:

Our elders are just starting to get the flower buds on, so it'll be a while yet before we can make this years batch.

##############
Hello again gv -
Have read these:
http://www.selfsufficientish.com/elderflowercordial.htm, but pretty much used
HFW, as here(but 1.5 times the quantities):

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recipes Elderflower champagne recipe

Makes about 6 litres
Ingredients

• About 24-30 elderflower heads, in full bloom
• 2kg sugar
• 4 litres hot water
• Juice and zest of four lemons
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• A pinch of dried yeast (you may not need this)

Method: How to make elderflower champagne
1. Put the hot water and sugar into a large container (a spotlessly clean bucket is good) and stir until the sugar dissolves, then top up with cold water so you have 6 litres of liquid in total.
2. Add the lemon juice and zest, the vinegar and the flower heads and stir gently.
3. Cover with clean muslin and leave to ferment in a cool, airy place for a couple of days. Take a look at the brew at this point, and if it’s not becoming a little foamy and obviously beginning to ferment, add a pinch of yeast.
4. Leave the mixture to ferment, again covered with muslin, for a further four days. Strain the liquid through a sieve lined with muslin and decant into sterilised strong glass bottles with champagne stoppers (available from home-brewing suppliers) or Grolsch-style stoppers, or sterilised screw-top plastic bottles (a good deal of pressure can build up inside as the fermenting brew produces carbon dioxide, so strong bottles and seals are essential).
5. Seal and leave to ferment in the bottles for a further eight days before serving, chilled. The champagne should keep in the bottles for several months. Store in a cool, dry place.
##############

I've posted a ? below another post of yours on a Homebrew Thread, about covering the bucket.
May I also ask if using white balsamic was ok for the vinegar? -didn't have any white wine vinegar.
If necessary, could I safely use live yeast, rather than dry?

Apologies for questions..........:o, but suspect you can set my mind at rest. Thankyou again.

You wrote elsewhere that a bottle or two of yours exploded within a wooden crate. Will it really be necessary to keep it so well-caged? I'm using green 2l plastic screwtop bottles and want to take some down to France. Is this movement likely to provoke explosions?

Gigervamp

Hi again.

Last year was the first time that we'd made the champagne, so we're still novices, but I'll try to answer your questions.

May I also ask if using white balsamic was ok for the vinegar? -didn't have any white wine vinegar.

One batch we made, we used cider vinegar as we didn't have white wine vinegar and that came out ok, but I've never tried white balsamic.

If necessary, could I safely use live yeast, rather than dry?

You shouldn't need to add yeast as it uses the natural wild yeasts on the flowers, but I would have thought that live yeast would be ok if you did need to use it.

You wrote elsewhere that a bottle or two of yours exploded within a wooden crate. Will it really be necessary to keep it so well-caged? I'm using green 2l plastic screwtop bottles and want to take some down to France. Is this movement likely to provoke explosions?

To be honest, I wouldn't risk it! The box that the bottles were in had the slats screwed in place and the force ripped the slats off the screws. Maybe if you have a metal trunk to carry them in?
We let the gas out twice a day and you could feel the force of the pressure when unscrewing the lids and that was with the bottles in a still, quiet place!

I've posted a ? below another post of yours on a Homebrew Thread, about covering the bucket.

I'll pop along and answer your question there.

With regards to Hugh's recipe, I remember that after he'd shown it on RC Spring, there was a thread on the RC forum about his recipe. There was a general consensus that his recipe was wrong. I can't remember what exactly it was, but I think it may have been too much sugar and not enough water. You could have a search on the forum there to see if you can find it, but they've changed the forum software since then and I'm not sure if all the old threads got ported over.

HTH