Making a little Mrs Ball's Chutney ....

When it comes to chutney's you can't get any better. It's Mrs Ball's chutney. Just click on the link or preserving under labels and you will find the recipe. Imagine the catastrophe making a curry only to find you have used the last bottle of chutney.

Rina is on a mission, before the season is over I managed to get 6kg of fresh Queen peach's, 400 gr of dried apricots and about 150gr of dried raisins, ATM it's all socking in brown vinegar. Tomorrow first thing the cooking starts, in goes a few other ingredients, a chilli or two cause we love it hot.

Until tomorrow
Double checked that link and it did not work, so I just copy/paste a little of that post for you.



I can't tell you which one of my lovely South African friends put this recipe for Mrs Ball's Chutney on the Facebook and well I just had to give it a go. But then I just had to improve on it didn't I, well Mrs. Balls I hope you don't mind too much cause we like it hot, hmmmm maybe not this hot. The devil was sitting on my shoulder when I was chopping up the extra few chillis and those raisans. Maybe we'd just better stick to the original next time.

Edward Ball, Mrs. Ball’s grandson scaled down this original recipe to make 18 bottles of (mild) chutney.

612 g dried peaches
238 g dried apricots
3 litres brown wine vinegar
2 1/2 kg white sugar
500 g onions
120 g salt
7,5 g cayenne pepper
1 to 2 litres of brown wine vinegar for soaking
About 2 litres of brown wine vinegar for mixing

The fruit should be left in the soaking vinegar overnight, then cooked in the same vinegar until soft. Drain. Put the fruit through a mill. Add the sugar (dissolved) and onions (minced) and cook in a pot with the brown wine vinegar. The amount of vinegar depends on the consistency: it should not be too runny or too thick, but have the same consistency as the end product you find in the bottle. Add spices and cook for one to two hours. Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon to prevent burning. Sterlise your bottles and spoon in the mixture. That's it - you've got Mrs Ball's Chutney.

Kiwi jam

Ingredients:

3 cups chopped peeled kiwi
1 package dry pectin
1 cup unsweetened pineapple juice
4 cups sugar
Directions:
1Combine kiwi, pectin and pineapple juice in a large saucepan.2Bring to a boil stirring constantly.3Add sugar, stirring until disolved.4Return to a rolling boil.5Boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly.6Remove from heat-skim off foam.7Ladle into clean hot jars leaving 1/4 inch head space.8Process 10 minutes in a boiling water bath at altitudes up to 1000 feet.

(TRIED INVAIN TO GET PECTIN AT OUT LOCAL SUPERMARKET, SO ENDED UP USING jAM SETTING SUGAR. Also I let the sugar melt mixed in with the fruit and juice. and had the jam cooking slowly for longer, cause the kiwi's were a little firm to start with, so that changed the colour to a see through gold. The next batch I make I will make sure the fruit is more on ripe and soft side)

Read more: http://www.food.com/recipe/kiwi-jam-11522#ixzz1i4Pw9Zz9

http://www.food.com/

Tomato Jam to die for ...

Bottling a little summer goodness. I can't take credit for this pic above or this easy recipe, it's borrowed you see. Had a little hunt around the internet for Tomato jam, some even had grated ginger. Finally arriving at this recipe. The tomatoes were all from my garden, big fleshy fruit. The recipe calls for 4 1/2 lbs but I had 5 lbs.But by the time the jam is ready it has reduced to a jelly with little seeds, so very pretty.

Recipe
Sweet Tomato Jam
4.5 lbs ripe red tomatoes
4.5 lbs granulated sugar
2 lemons

Using a sharp knife, score the bottoms of each tomato in a cross, then plunge the tomato into boiling water for about 20 seconds. Remove and let cool, and when cool enough to handle, peel and roughly chop the tomatoes over a large pot, to catch the juices. (This is not a neat process. You might want to wear an apron.) Discard the skins, and place the tomato chunks into the pot.



Add the lemon juice to the pot, and add the lemon halves to the pot with the tomatoes. Heat the tomatoes over medium heat. Add the sugar, 1 cup at a time, stirring after each addition, and waiting about 10 minutes in between each addition. Lightly crush the tomatoes, or use a hand blender to puree slightly, and let cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the jam begins to jell and the entire mixture is bubbling like a swamp, being careful not to let it burn. Remove the lemon halves.

Ladle into hot canning jars with new lids, and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.

Makes approximately 2 pints.






Read more: http://savour-fare.com/2011/08/29/preserving-summer-tomato-jam/#ixzz1hzCvTapE

Just had the thumbs up, a little taste testing of the pot left overs. Well I better get to cleaning that kitchen. Tomorrow I am going to make plum jam.
See ya soon
Rina

More jam making, and a wander around my garden and where to find the best How to's...

A pot of peach jam bubbling away, queen peaches probably the last of the season.



I was hoping for more jam and might have to see if these's anymore left at the veggie shop, cause I sure a few South African friends would love a bottle to taste test. Labels I need labels, My Japanese friend Pina promised to design me some nice ones this afternoon, thanks Pina. Enjoy you Jam.

Just want to let you know the best tuturoial I have found for processing Meat Birds is over at Annie's Blog Tomorrow I have an appointment with 9 chooks and expecting the average weight too be 2,800grams per bird. So wish me luck, it's going to be an early start for sure.

Now for a little walk around my veggie patch "late summer planting"



Planted 8 climbing beans in the half barrels drums, even that is going to be very crowded when they start bearing. There's 3 drums here, and another row with 9 plants which are all starting to flower.



More climbing beans ...and then another large row of climbing beans are just popping their heads out of the ground right now and just behind them I planted some lima beans which are going to be dried out and stored.



A new variety of Vilmorin red capsiums/peppers, first time planting these, tomorrow I want to transplant them and stack them for a little extra support.Hmmm maybe I should have taken the pic before watering them.



Two self seeded red mustard plants, these I am going to look after cause I need to save the seeds. I hunted everywhere for seeds or seedling this year but nobody had any.


A large pot of lemon balm, got to check somethings munching on the leaves.



Last year I scattered a lot of chilli seeds directly into the soil after adding a lot of sheep compost to their old pot, they came up in the thousands and grow like weeds. Later I removed a heap of strong seedlings and worked the soil over and replanted them. Reward was a few strong chilli plants and heaps of long red chillies.

The lebanese cucumbers are ready to be tied up and helped on their way upwards, little yellow flowers are starting to appear, can't wait. The potatoes planted between the row of beans, are starting to pop their heads out of the ground too, with promises of nice fresh potatoes for a winter stew.
That's it from me, have a great weekend
Rina

Mrs Ball's secret recipe, Pickled Garlic .......

I can't tell you which one of my lovely South African friends put this recipe for Mrs Ball's Chutney on the Facebook and well I just had to give it a go. But then I just had to improve on it didn't I, well Mrs. Balls I hope you don't mind too much cause we like it hot, hmmmm maybe not this hot. The devil was sitting on my shoulder when I was chopping up the extra few chillis and those raisans. Maybe we'd just better stick to the original next time.

Edward Ball, Mrs. Ball’s grandson scaled down this original recipe to make 18 bottles of (mild) chutney.

612 g dried peaches
238 g dried apricots
3 litres brown wine vinegar
2 1/2 kg white sugar
500 g onions
120 g salt
75 g cayenne pepper
1 to 2 litres of brown wine vinegar for soaking
About 2 litres of brown wine vinegar for mixing

The fruit should be left in the soaking vinegar overnight, then cooked in the same vinegar until soft. Drain. Put the fruit through a mill. Add the sugar (dissolved) and onions (minced) and cook in a pot with the brown wine vinegar. The amount of vinegar depends on the consistency: it should not be too runny or too thick, but have the same consistency as the end product you find in the bottle. Add spices and cook for one to two hours. Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon to prevent burning. Sterlise your bottles and spoon in the mixture. That's it - you've got Mrs Ball's Chutney.



To make the chutney hot, add 75 g chopped chillies.
To make peach chutney, omit the apricots and use 850 g dried peaches instead.

It might sound like a bit of effort making your own chutney but then again, this will set me up for at least one year's supply of chutney. Taking into account how much just one bottle of chutney cost here in Australia, it might just be worthwile trying it out ...
Only we'll be on fire for the next year lol


Pickled Garlic (fresh from my garden, peeled and chilled for a few days now, man I got to make this one tonight) only got about 1 1/2 cups of garlic so will adjust the recipe to suit.

6 cups fresh garlic cloves
3 cups white distilled vinegar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt

Peel cloves; if large, cut in half lengthwise. In a non-reactive saucepan, combine vinegar, sugar and salt. Bring to boiling and stir until sugar dissolves. Drop garlic into mixture and cook, uncovered, over high heat 1 minute, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; let cool. Store in tightly covered jar in refrigerator for 3 months or longer.



And just as if there's not enough going on here atm, I made some semi sundried Tomatoes in the dehydrator and added vegatable oil instead of olive this time, so far so good

Holy Moses, where's the milk? not good to lick the spoon ...

Food Dehydrator ....

Yesterday we stopped off at Factory Seconds and had a look at the food dehydrators. There was just one model to choose from, a Sunbeam and that was good enough for me, and not to expensive. So now I am a very happy girl. No more not knowing what to do with the fresh produce, nice giving your friends fresh produce but what is the point of growing food and giving it away all the time, and then not preserving it. Preserving in bottles has never really been my thing although I have done some in the past.

I have prepared some veggies, carrots, onion, sweet potato (kumera) and tomatoes quartered. It's still going atm so can't show you the end result. Next I try some herbs. At least I will really be able to do the onions now.

Rhonda's Bread and Butter Cucumbers.

Can't let these lovely cucumbers go to waste so I remembered seeing a recipe for Bread and Butter Cucumbers over a Rhonda's blog "Down To Earth" They so easy to make I promise you. So pleased with the results.



BREAD AND BUTTER CUCUMBERS
5 medium cucumbers cut into 5 mm slices

350g onions, sliced very thinly

green capsicum and red chilli are optional

50g salt

350 ml cider or white wine winegar vinegar

350g sugar

2 level tablespoons mustard seed

2 level tablespoons celery seed
½ level teaspoon turmeric
¼ level teaspoon cayenne pepper


Slice the cucumbers, onions, capsicums and chilli and place in a bowl, and salt and let stand for 3 hours. Drain, rinse under the cold tap and drain thoroughly. Bring the remaining ingredients to the boil in a stainless steel saucepan and then add the vegetables. Reduce the heat, bring just to the simmer and cook 2 minutes. Pour hot into sterilized jars, making sure the liquid covers the cucumbers and seal.


And here is the finished product. Three jars of cucumber pickles for the fridge.