Gooseberry jam. Ah... the memories

Hello again, it's still Jam season and my next venture into the sweet napalm of the kitchen (before it cools) was the humble gooseberry. 

I am unreasonably lucky, in that Ben's folks have a gorgeous big gooseberry bush in their garden and have run out of ways to use them up. Enter me with my carrier bag and steely determination not to mind the scratches. Also Ben as his reach is much better than mine. After some perseverance (what a trial, spending time in a beautiful garden on a lovely sunny day!), we ended up with just over a kilo once they were topped and tailed.

The first sweet jam I made on my own was gooseberry, and I use this recipe.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2303641/gooseberry-jam

This is easier than the strawberry as gooseberries have so much pectin in them you're pretty much guaranteed to get a good set. No added pectin required, just good old granulated sugar.

You do have to top and tail your berries so I recommend sitting down to a good TV show while you do this as it'll take a while and is a bit fiddly, but bearable if you don't think too much about it. Then you just boil up the berries in plain water until they're soft, add the sugar and dissolve over a low heat, then boil the heck out of it. 

You can use a jam thermometer if you're feeling fancy, and I do have one, but it just makes another thing to wash up and the plate or spoon test works just fine. 

For the plate test just chill a plate In the freezer, drop a little jam onto it and let it sit for a few seconds to cool. Then give it a push and see if the surface wrinkles. If it does, you're good. If not, boil for a couple more minutes and try again.

The spoon test is also pretty easy, just chill your spoon, dip it in the hot jam mixture and let it drip off the side of the spoon. If the drips run together and start to form a sheet of jam, you've got a lovely set. 

Do be very careful of burning the jam as sometimes it's as little as 1 minute between perfectly set delicious jam, and lovely looking jam that sets, but is acrid and inedible. The only was to avoid it is to be careful, don't walk away from the pan while it's boiling, and stir to check for sticking on the bottom of the pan. And if it does happen, never mind, it's only fruit and now you know what not to do another time! We've all done it at least once, I once turned a beautiful smelling plum jam into a bitter set syrup by burning. I held onto it for a couple of weeks and kept trying it in case it might magically improve. It did not, it was super-gross. 

Once you have your set, quickly pour into sterilised jars, put lids on and set the pan to soak before the contents are set beyond repair. 

And if that all sounds like too much hassle, try gooseberry liqueur, it's what I do when I'm lazy and boozy. I use this recipe 

http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/gooseberry-vodka-recipe-8186/

It just boils (see what I did there?) down to topping and tailing the fruit, putting it in a big jar with sugar and vodka, shaking it daily until the sugar dissolves then putting it in a cupboard and forgetting about it till next year. It's bloody delicious. It got me super-addicted to making liqueurs and now I have at least 4 different ones on the go at any one time. I highly recommend it. 

Love and kisses,

H.

Jam time!

So its summer here in the UK and that means only one thing. No, not holidays, bikinis, barbecues or drinking in the sunshine... JAM!

The thing about jam-making is it's reliable. Even if the weather's crappy, you can always find some fruit to preserve somehow and this time of year I get fully obsessed with it. In addition, I like to give jam as gifts when people visit or at Christmas so it's always an idea to have a stash on hand. And who doesn't like jam? 

The formula is simple, fruit, sugar, acid, pectin. Add them together with considerable heat and jam happens. The only variations occur around whether the fruit needs softening or not. 

So for my first foray into the wonderful world of sugary preserves this year I went for a classic. Simple strawberry jam from this recipe, 

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2306/strawberry-jam

As you can see this recipe calls for jam sugar with added pectin as strawberries have bugger all pectin in themselves. I macerated them overnight with the sugar and lemon juice as directed, then boiled them up as directed. 

Now I thought this couldn't go wrong as I had my mum with me at the time (you hear me mum, I blame you!), so after boiling for approximately double the time stated in the recipe, it looked like it might set so we decanted it into the sterilised jars. It did not set. Not at all. It was still delicious on fresh scones, but I couldn't say it was a success. 

How you learn from my mistakes? Well, I overfilled my jam pan. I got lazy, tried to do it all at once and ended up not being able to sustain a rolling boil in case it boiled over. This was obviously a problem. But no worries, a couple of weeks later when I had the jam pan out again I added it back to the pan in 2 batches with more lemon juice, boiled it and after about 7 minutes boiling (for each batch) it was good to go. I decanted into freshly sterilised jars and, BOOM, jam fit for gifts. I like to gift jam, it's tasty innit?

Love and kisses,

H.

fings what I haz dun - hash browns

Hi chaps,

This may not seem revelatory to any of you, but recently I started making hash browns for a weekend breakfast/brunch (who has early breakfast at the weekend?) and felt the need to share as it's so freaking good.

See, until April this year, Ben and I rarely had weekends to relax together as Ben's job meant he was mostly working, and when he wasn't we were mainly visiting or entertaining guests because it's nice to catch up with family and friends sometimes. This meant very few Saturdays waking up and saying 'what shall we do today? 

In April however Ben was made redundant and we suddenly had all the time in the world, so we filled our time with visiting and guests and day trips and all the things we found it difficult to fit in before. And we had a great time, we saw people and did stuff and it turned into a kind of epic summer of fun things. But now it's autumn and we're settling in a bit more. We've promised ourselves to stay home as much as we can and concentrate on us and our house and getting ready for the c word. Oh yeah. I start geting excited about Christmas in approximately February so this is pretty restrained for me. And yes, food network have just done a weekend of christmas cooking shows and yes I watched most of them. Not even a little bit sorry.

Anyhoo, this is a massively roundabout way of saying that we've discovered the beauty of the lazy brunch together. I have an unashamed love of potatoes so take every opportunity I can to shove them in my face. Now I'd only had the hash browns you get in tacky cafes and cheap hotels before, you know, the triangle shaped ones with little to no flavour. But I'd heard amazing things, mainly from Greg Proops on his amazing podcast, The Smartes Man in the Workd. Seriously, listen to it. It's bloody good. Greg loves his greasy, starchy food as only a dedicated pothead who loves a lot of life on the road can. So I was inspired to give it a go.

I found this immensely simple recipe, which was promising.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/hashbrowns_12454

So basically you get some potatoes and onions, grate them, squeeze out the water, season (do not forget the seasoning on potatoes) mix with an egg and fry. Easy, right? The only ball-achy part seemed to be the grating, but as I have a food processor to do that part I had no worries.

So I've made these 3 times and each time I've got it wrong.

I know, I know, how do you get such a simple thing wrong? Well, the first time I got so carried away that it wasn't until I put the egg in that I realised I'd forgotten to squeeze the water out of the potatoes and onions. Crap. 

However, I'm a great believer in just working things out and making the best of it. Plus I was not wasting potatoes. 

I put the whole mixture in a colander, squeezed it out the best I could, added another egg and firmed it up with some breadcrumbs I had on hand. 

And guess what, it only worked. Totally delicious. 

However, next time I was determined not to mess up. So I got my teatowel ready at the beginning to remind me, however in my lazy morning fug, when I put the grater attachment in the food processor I neglected to take out the metal knife blade, so I ended up with grated, then shredded vegetables. Sort of potato and onion mush. 

Once again, bloody mindedness took over and I just persevered with the recipe. It worked, they were great.

So now I return to this morning. What went wrong today? 

Well, nothing. I remembered every step, used the right blade, and got all the processes right. 

Looks ok, right?

But I used the wrong kind of potato.

We get an organic fruit and veg delivery. It alternates between all fruit and fruit and veg and we always get potatoes (hooray!) in the veg box, but for months now they've always been new potatoes or waxy potatoes. I like new potatoes, don't get me wrong, but it's getting cold, the nights are drawing in, I want to be able to have baked or mash or roast potatoes. So we find ourselves in the ridiculous position of having a load of lovely organic potatoes languishing in the fridge while we buy a massive bag of floury potatoes from the supermarket.

So I thought, 'maybe the waxy potatoes will work.'

Nope.

They hold onto too much moisture and don't stick together well. They kind of fell apart a bit in the pan and stayed too squidgy. I know, this should be obvious, but I really had to try it. Nothing ventured and that.

So in my stubbornness, when they fell apart and wouldn't crisp up, I just went ahead and added breadcrumbs to the remainder of the mix. And yes, it worked. Again. I'm a fricking genius. 

Mmmmm.... goldeny....

To be honest we ate them all and I couldn't really tell the difference. They were a delight for brunch with a fried egg and a glass of orange juice.

Yup, my brunch wins.

Next time maybe I'll do it properly, then again I do have some sweet potatoes in the fridge....

Love and kisses,

H.

fings what I haz dun - homemade cleansing balm

Hey there,

So the 'bookmark a week' thing had become increasingly inaccurate, given how rare my blog posts have become. Also, I was running out of bookmarks that I really wanted to do, so maybe I should just delete them all off my phone and start again. In light of this I have a new series - 'fings wot I haz dun'. 

Once a week (hopefully) I will do a little project, photograph it, and write a blog about it. So here goes....

Like everyone, I like to have a clean face. All the muck that gets on your face during the day plus any makeup can be kind of icky and not great for your skin, but cleaning it off was always a giant ball-ache as far as I was concerned. 

You could use cream cleanser (messy and wasteful of cotton pads), soap (all skincare people gasp in horror), cleansing wipes (feel like sandpaper) and various other concoctions with one thing in common. They don't really work very well.

So a couple of years ago I discovered cleansing balms and, guess what? They only bloody work. They pretty much dissolve even waterproof mascara and other ickyness, then you wipe them off thoroughly with a clean flannel. Clean skin, no ouchiness. Result. 

There is, however, a downside. Price. 

The first cleanser I tried was fantastic. It was the Emma Hardie Amazing Face Moringa (nope, me neither) cleansing balm. And there's a reason all the skincare bloggers love it. It's rich, smells gorgeous, melts in your hands and leaves your skin clean and soft. 

http://www.emmahardie.com/product.php/32/2/moringa_cleansing_balm_with_cleansing_cloth

The only reason I even had it was because it came free with a magazine subscription, but it costs around £35 for 100ml. I don't know about you, but I find it difficult to part with that much cash for something that sits on my skin for 2 minutes a day and gets washed off.

I researched cheaper options and got the Champneys Super Rich cleansing balm.

http://www.champneys.com/shop/shop/super-rich-cleansing-balm/

That's around £10 for 100ml. More reasonable, but still bloody pricey and not as nice to use. 

In the interim I had discovered something called the oil cleansing method. 

http://www.theoilcleansingmethod.com/

It involves mixing castor oil with another cold pressed vegetable oil (normally olive) and using that as a cleanser. And it really does work a treat, but it's super messy and just isn't as nice a sensation as a balm. I also sometimes use almond oil which I decant into tiny dropper bottles, but I prefer to reserve that as a pre-moisturiser treatment mixed with a little vitamin e oil (ain't I fancy?), or as a pre-cleanse when my eye make-up's really ridiculous.

So in the end I went searching and looky what I found.

http://www.vintageamanda.com/2011/10/hot-cloth-cleanser-or-the-portable-oil-cleansing-method/

I had all the ingredients bar beeswax and I knew where to get that. So I decided to do it.

It's super simple. Really, you just melt together the oils, the cocoa butter and beeswax in a bowl over simmering water, add essential oils.

Easier than melting chocolate, seriously.

Then pour into a container to harden and use.

Look how pretty! 

No idea where to get the jar from I'm afraid, it was a gift from my lovely in-laws. They know me well.

To be honest though, it set a bit bloody hard. It took a real effort to get any out of the pot, and no matter how I scrubbed my skin it seemed to leave a waxy residue. Incidentally, residue is not a pleasant word. Residue.

Right, moving on!

So I thought, bugger it I'll melt it again in the jar and stir in more oil. So I did and it worked. I didn't measure it at all so that's probably no help to you, but I shall be attempting it again soon without the cocoa butter and I'll let you know how I get on. If it works.... christmas gifts! And just as a special treat for you, this is how attractive you can look while using it!

Sometimes my eyebrows are green. 

Now I've loosened the mixture it's a pleasure to use, removes even the silliest makeup and leaves no residue (there it is again) at all. Highly recommended once you tinker with the recipe a little.

Next I need to make face cream...

Love and kisses,

H.

A bookmark a week #8 Raw vegan lasagne

Hiya! Been a few weeks innit?

I got a bit super-stressed at work so I had to have a couple of weeks off blogging, then I had 2 weeks in Amsterdam and, really, it wasn't going to happen then was it...?

But I'm back, refreshed and as culinarily curious as ever.

This isn't exactly a bookmark, more a youtube video that I kept watching and obsessing over.

http://youtu.be/8ixX1Cix7ks

Now my diet isn't fully raw, nor am I vegan or even vegetarian, but I definitely see the merit of eating mainly fresh ripe seasonal fruits and vegetables. I know that when I eat mostly raw food I feel more energetic and my digestion works better (dairy and I are not friends). This may be all in my mind, but that doesn't negate the effects for me. What works for you may be very different. I also still think that there is a valid place in the human diet for meat, just nowhere near as much as we regularly eat in the west. It's also important to me that the majority of meat that I eat is from free range animals. 

Having got the disclaimer out the way, I can tell you honestly that this raw vegan lasagne is bloody delicious. Honestly it is!  

I didn't have exactly the ingredients Kristina does in her video (no chard. I hate chard), also I am nowhere near as perky as she is. Well, maybe a bit perky. Anyhoo, I think I did a fair approximation. I will say that you could probably do this with a standard blender, but the pine nut sauce may not be as smooth and the tomato sauce might be a bit lumpy. I used my nutribullet  *reverential pause for the nutribullet*. Some day I will do a post on how this blender has completely changed the way I eat, but today is not that day. Suffice it to say, it's a bloody good mini-blender with a lot more power than a standard model and it cost about £99 from argos. Utterly worth it.

http://www.argos.co.uk/m/static/Product/partNumber/1463237/searchTerm/Nutribullet.htm

Ideally of course I'd have a vitamix, but given that they cost around the £400 mark, I may have to wait a while to justify that one.

Wait, does it come with the fruit?

The processor I used is just an own brand one from sainsbury and is pretty standard. Any basic processor should work, or use the blender with care.

The recipe is pretty easy, albeit with a few different steps. First, cut your courgette into thin strips. I do have a mandolin, but frankly I'm terrified of it. I've never been able to use it without cutting myself so I thought I'd go for the peeler method for safety.\
 

This is the boring part.

Then I lined the bottom of my dish with about 3 layers of the strips. I used an enamel pie dish that I love but any dish would do.

Not its intended use I think

First complex (ish) bit, the greens mix. I measured none of this. I happened to have a slightly tired little gem lettuce heart which I chopped and stuck in the processor, added a big handful of spinach, same of rocket, coriander and parsley, a spring onion and processed till it was pretty finely chopped.

The smell of this was out of this world. Fresh and green and savoury. Mmmmm.

Next I made the tomato sauce. My tomatoes were cherry plum tomatoes that I'd got at the fruit and veg market in Eastville, it's there every Sunday at least and the prices are pretty good, as is the produce. These had actually been frozen before we went away so blending was a great way to use them up. I added some well rinsed sundried tomatoes, I think 3 in total, 3 medjool dates for sweetness and richness, a tiny piece of chilli pepper and a spring onion. Then I blended it till it was, well, blended.

I then added some coriander and parsley, as it was there, then pulsed that in a bit. I added these late so they weren't utterly pulverised as this would have muddied the colour. This way I got a nice red sauce with flecks of green.

Mmm.... thick and delicious.

Just one more sauce to go, first clean your blender (or, as I did, get your husband to do it).

I was a bit dubious as to whether this would work as I'd never blended anything in the nutribullet without adding fluid unless it was a very watery fruit such as the thawed cherry tomatoes. Nothing ventured though... so I added half a cup of pine nuts, 1 chopped courgette and a little bit of garlic and blended. 

It only bloody worked! Went so smooth and creamy and rich. And delicious. The picture doesn't do it justice honestly, it was mega. 

Then it was all over bar the assembly. I just did this however seemed best at the time, same as I would with regular lasagne. Then I sprinkled it with some more cherry plum tomatoes, these ones had not been frozen so not so sloppy.

I cut half off and managed to get it on a small plate and oh my giddy aunt it was delicious. So good. 

To tell the truth, it got a little sloppy and there was a lot of liquid pooling at the sides of the plate, but this may have been due to the frozen tomatoes. It didn't matter as I just got a spoon and ate it up. Still delicious. 

If anything it was a bit too rich so next time I think I'd make the sauce with half the pine nuts, it was a bit much to finish, but it really was wonderful.

I'd say the while process took me about 40 minutes beginning to end which is pretty good for a gourmet raw meal like this. I normally keep it pretty simple so it was nice to mix it up for a change. I'm having the second half tonight and, having just tasted it, it's still lovely but not quite as good as when it was completely fresh.

For those who care, here's the nutritional info for the recipe. I wouldn't always do that, but I was curious given the nature of the meal.

Most importantly it was lovely for a summers evening, fresh but rich and tasty as hell. I was completely satisfied after and didn't have any digestive discomfort (or much wind, which is more than I can say when I eat cheese!).

If you've got a blender, I would definitely recommend trying this. It's not for everyone, as demonstrated by Ben's face when he tried it (not his thing apparently) but keep an open mind and give it a go.

Until next time, love and kisses,

H.

A bookmark a week #7 pretty storage

Hello there you (yes, you).

This week I decided to do a crafty project. I bought a glue gun a little while ago and decided to use it to stick some stuff to some other stuff. Logic.

I have many storage problems, I always seem to have too much stuff everywhere so I'm trying to get organised for pretty much the first time in my life. Recently I've been obsessing about perfume storage.

When Ben and I moved house last year, I set up an ikea computer desk that we were no longer using in our room as a sort of dressing table with an old pub stool as the seat. It's not pretty, but it works and I love it.

But where to put my perfumes? I seem to have a few now, not sure how that happened, and since I've always been a bit of a beauty product geek I want to look after them. I've seen on the internet where people said they shouldn't be in sunlight because.... er.... because of reasons that sound utterly plausible, if completely forgettable. But mine are in daylight! Panic!

Yes they are very dusty you judgy mcjudge-pants.

I can't put them in a drawer, they're full of other beauty products and tools, but now I know I can't leave them out either. What to do?

The answer came to me after buying an exceedingly comfortable pair of shoes (crocs in fact. I'm not ashamed). I can decorate a shoebox and use that! I know, I'm a genius. 

I toyed with painting it, then decided it would look terrible and I'd make an awful mess. Then I decided to cover it in fabric. After all, how hard could it be? So I searched and found this.

http://www.restorationbeauty.com/2013/02/diy-storagedecorative-boxes.html?m=1

Looks pretty simple eh? 

Of course my box had a lid and stuff, but I figured I'd just work it out. Not wise at all in hindsight.

So first I assembled my equipment.

Next the lovely Ben cut off an unwanted bit of cardboard so it would be easy to close up on it's end.

Remember, always get a grown-up to help

Then I faffed about a bit as I decided where the hell to start. 

In the end, I decided to just cut some fabric and see what happened. It went to plan for a while.

Almost neat innit?

I had super fun with the glue gun, I highly recommend you get one, it's a satisfying thing to use.

So I managed to cover the box ok and I was fairly happy with the results. I decided then to do the lining with some super cute fabric. 

It was at this point I remembered that I don't have the patience or attention to detail for these kind of things.

I basically just shoved the fabric in the box and glued and cut and cut and glued until it was done. Oddly, it was a giant mess.

I made 2 major mistakes. Firstly, sticking the sides so I couldn't put the excess fabric neatly under the main lining there. This meant it was precariously stuck to the top hanging down, then the rest had to be stuck outside the main fabric on the bottom, looking super-messy.

Secondly, I got scissor happy and cut too early so I didn't have enough fabric to complete the lining on the top of the lip that keeps it closed. 

To be honest, once it was done and stuck I was so sick of the sight of it I just shoved it on the side and left it there to languish.

So sad

However, after my strop had ended, I looked at it again, tried putting the perfume in and, honestly, I don't hate it. It keeps my perfumes out of the sun, it looks ok when it's closed, I have spare fabric left over and I know how (not) to do it for next time. Yay me!

Ooh, fancy (if you don't look too closely)

So, should you try it? If your box is open like on the link then go for it, just take a bit of care on the lining, that's where it gets tricky. Otherwise only try if you have the things I lack, i.e. patience and any kind of expertise.

That's me for now,

Love and kisses,

H.

A bookmark a week #6 potato fritters

This is becoming rather a habit isn't it?

Last weekend I had a bit of time to faff about and decided to embark on something rather exciting (by my standards in any event). I have an absolute love for a certain deep-fried foodstuff, well, most deep fried foodstuffs if I'm honest. 

When I was but a wee lass, my family would get dinner from the chip shop on a Friday. We would only get fish on a special occasion or if we were at the seaside, so we would have something a bit cheaper like a battered sausage with our chips. My wonderful mother, who I don't seem to be able to stop talking about, used to get a potato fritter and I started getting this too after a while because how genius is that? Deep fried potato chips with a slice of deep fried battered potato. Maybe it's my distant Irish heritage talking but I just couldn't say no to it.

Sadly, at some point the chip shop stopped doing these and I have been unable since then to find a chip shop that does. I've had mushy pea fritters and baked bean fritters but nothing can compare to the majesty of a potato fritter.

I'd considered making potato fritters before, but had never found a recipe that made sense to me. They all seemed to involve either making a sort of mashed potato cake or grating potatoes for a kind of onionless hash brown thing. I rejected such foolish ideas without hesitation.

However, during a recent attack of nostalgia, it occurred to me to search for 'battered potato fritters' and to my delight I came across this.

http://www.tartantastesintx.com/2012/07/scottish-recipes-tattie-fritters.html?m=1

While I didn't throw up my arms in celebration and give a whoop of delight, this was purely due to the fact that I was in the canteen at work and I am British after all. Anyhoo, I added it to my bookmarks to be tried when I could be arsed to deep-fry.

As it was the Eurovision Song Contest last weekend, and Ben and I were playing a drinking game along to it, as usual, and I decided greasy carbs would be just the thing to line the stomach. The rules of this game are pretty intense after all.

This is just the basic rules, There are many many more and they can be added at any time in the evening.

This recipe is wonderfully simple. Flour, baking powder, salt and sparkling water. Mix them until they're like batter. 

It was so simple I could even be bothered to sift the flour

Done!

Peel and slice potatoes, well here I went a bit off-recipe because, to be honest, I bloody hate peeling potatoes. It's so pointless for anything but fancy mash. Anyway, the skins are delicious and nutritious. Basically, I peeled 3 potatoes, then decided I couldn't be bothered to do the other. 

Rebel potato!

I did keep them separate to do a taste test, but noticed literally no difference in the end product. Then again, by the time we ate those ones we were pretty drunk.

Back to the recipe, you dip the slices in batter and deep-fry them. I don't have a deep fat fryer, so I just used a big pan full of oil. I also didn't have a thermometer to check the temperature, but I've seen people on the internet checking oil temperature with a wooden spoon so I just did that.

Apparently it's ready when the bubbles all gather around the spoon like that. Seemed to work.

Once it was hot I dropped in the slices. I did them about 5/6 at a time depending on size. First of all they sank to the bottom, but soon floated up once they'd started to cook. 

Mmmmm... fire hazard...

They took less than 10 minutes to crisp and become golden so I took them out and put them on a rack to drain (we don't use disposable paper towels 'cause we're giant hippies like that).

Once out I sprinkled both sides with salt (fancy schmancy sea salt, because I can) and waited for them to cool. This really was the hardest part.

Admittedly they're not the prettiest foodstuff. Maybe if you have proper lighting rather than kitchen lights and an iPhone.

Once they were cool we ate a few each, then realised that 4 potatoes, even with nothing else, was far too much for 2 people. We had them in 3 servings over the course of the evening. I'd tell you they're just as good cold, and I thought they were, but I was too drunk to make a fair comparison. I also dipped a few in ketchup and that was a delight. 

Verdict is you should definitely make these. They are immensely unhealthy so probably only once or twice a year, but they're so good. This was my first attempt at battering anything and the batter was crisp and perfectly chip-shop-like, the potato was soft and buttery and the whole thing was the most comforting, lovely thing.

Mmmm... greasy....

Trust me, they were delicious enough for 2 photos.

Ben can be a bit of a picky eater and even he loved these. Also, they're completely vegan, therefore dispelling the notion that all vegan food is healthy...

Next week I may take a break from culinary exploits and get crafting. I recently bought a hot glue gun and can't wait to play with it. Expect injuries...

Love and kisses,

P.S. Mum, if you read this I'll totally make them when you come to visit.