Edible Xmas gifts that can be made well in advance.....

SmlSave

cucumber pickle:

Ingredients - sliced all same size as much as possible
3 cucumbers, 1 onions. 1 green pepper
layer/mix with lots of salt in a colander and press it down to drain overnight - I use a bowl of water as weight. Rinse well with water and dry on a tea towel.
For the vinegar
white/cider wine vinegar - 1 bottle and boil for 10 mins with spices:
for sweet pickle use 200g sugar, 1 tsp of ground turmeric, 1 tbsp of mustard seed, 1tsp celery seed (I used celery salt and some dill I had)
for gerkin pickle use 1oz dill fronds, 2 tsps coriander seeds and 2tsps black peppercorns

You can then either pack your sterlised jars tightly with the veg and then cover with the vinegar - making sure there's no air bubbles or add your veg to the vinegar and boil for 3 mins and then jar.

toffeeapple

fly_dragon_fly wrote: »

i have to buy extra's and give them to the mother in law to look after as i cant help myself! x

Ha ha, very tempted too. Have started a box for xmas goodies in my wardrobe, out of sight out of mind is my thinking!! :rotfl:

mum2one

Smlsave - your wonderful xx

Anglea

SMlsave - are we talking about long cucumbers or the small ones?

kms26

Anglea wrote: »

SMlsave - are we talking about long cucumbers or the small ones?

:eek::eek::eek:

SmlSave

Thanks mum2one

are we talking about long cucumbers or the small ones?

ohhh errr missus!!!! :rotfl:so many inappropiate thoughts come to mind

72cm was the biggest one

They are cucumbers that my nan and mum have grown so they are large ones my sweet pickle cumbers are sliced really thinly and I'm going to cut the dill pickle cumbers into small batons (sticks).

Won't get to make anything this weekend as I'm away at my aunts, but as she's in the middle of nowhere I planning to see what I can find in the hedgerows

Star123

So far I've made 5 jars of marmalade ( but only have 4 now as family members stole one, lol) 9 jars of apple chutney, 6 small jars of strawberry jam but I'm not sure if i've burnt it or not so will get someone to taste it later and then another 5 and a half big jars of strawberry jam but it doesn't seem to be setting, do you think I could put it back in the pan with a bit more sugar to make it set?

Also has anyone tried apple jam? I've found a recipe for it but don't know if it is nice? And does anyone know of any chutneys etc that are cheap to make?

SmlSave

Hi Star

I've had apple jelly before and it was lovely. My aunt said to serve it with meat as it wasn't very sweet but I loved it with toast.

My strawberry jam didn't set earlier this year either. There's no need to add more sugar, what you need is pectin. I reboiled the jam, added liquid pectin and then jarred it. It then set in the jar after two days.

Any chutney made with ingrediants you all ready have will be fairly cheap. Picalili is good cause pratically anything can go in.

cdsmiler

Strawberries are one of those fruits with a really low pectin rating so added pectin is probably a must!

I'm currently looking at rubarb jam recipes - anyone tried rubarb jam and have a recipe they recommend? There's plenty out there, but thought I'd ask you lovely people first!

Clare x

Star123

Thanks, is liquid pectin easy to get, do sainsbury's and tesco sell it? And how much do you put in?

I was quite impressed with myself (lol) I've never made jam or chutney before and most of it seems to have come out ok. I think I will try the apple jam on monday and then I can get my friend to help peel the apples. I'm going to go blackberry picking tonight too so hopefully I'll get quite a few so I can make blackerry jam.

Also with my starwberries I got them reduced from somerfield and tesco, the ones from somerfield were 50p and tesco was 20p:j