Strawberry & Ginger Jam – and Confessions of a Blog Trainer

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I would be useless as a dog trainer - I cannot even get my blog to behave! To show you what I mean, let’s eavesdrop on a typical scene from Alchemy in the Kitchen...

Me:                 Hey, blog. What are we going to cook today?

Alchemy:       [Excitedly] How about strawberry jam?

Me:                 No! I know the weather is weirdly wonderful for this time of the year but it ain’t strawberry season quite yet. We’re making stuffed baked onions today.

Alchemy:       Whinge. Sulk. Blank page.

Me:                 [softening a little] Alright then, how about a nice pancake cannelloni? (see, trying to bargain – a fatal mistake for a blog trainer to make!)

Alchemy:       Silence. Absence of fingers tapping over keys. Tumble weed.

Me:                 Strawberry jam, eh? [voice-over of me thinking to self: Maybe this blog has a point.  The last twelve months have been relatively jam-free because the jam-maker extraordinaire in my life, my mother, has had to cope with first a fire, then less than a year later, an even more damaging flood when the miniscule stream behind her house rose by a terrifying 12 feet in the space of a few hours in Dublin’s first ‘Monster Rain’. Jam has been the last thing on my mother’s mind. (Although with all the silt the flood left behind, it’s going to be a fantastic year for the fruit trees, Mam...   Mam?)

                        Ok, maybe you have a point, blog. Let’s pop down to the shops. If they have some decent berries, you can have your way. Just this once, mind!

The End

So, you can see it would be useless to send me your dog for training.

Anyway... while I absolutely love homemade jam, I don’t eat vast quantities of it and don’t have ideal storage for it. Therefore unless I am making it as gifts, I make only a little at a time.

For approximately 350g (1 small jar) of delicious strawberry and ginger jam you will need:

350g fresh strawberries, rinsed, dried and chopped into bite-sized pieces

200g caster sugar

30g fresh ginger, peeled and cut into 3 or 4 large slices

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Sugar and spice...

If you don’t have a sugar thermometer, put a saucer or small plate in the fridge before you start – you’ll need this to test that the jam has set.

You will also need a sterilised jam jar – To sterilise jars, I run mine through the dishwasher but you could wash them and pop them in the oven at 100°C for a few minutes.

1                    Place the strawberries and ginger in a glass bowl and add the sugar. Cover and leave overnight. The sugar will draw the juice out of the berries. The following day, transfer to a large saucepan (you need plenty of room for the jam to bubble). Heat gently until all the sugar is dissolved, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. When the sugar has dissolved, add the lemon juice, then turn up the heat. Pop the sugar thermometer into the pot. Allow to bubble until the temperature comes up to ‘Jam’ (106°C or 222°F).  Be sure to take a moment to enjoy the heavenly scent rising from the saucepan. If you don’t have a sugar thermometer, simply keep the jam bubbling for 8 minutes, then test it the old-fashioned way by spooning a little onto the cold saucer you placed in the fridge. Leave it a moment or two to cool, then push your finger through the jam. If the surface wrinkles, the jam will set. If not, continue letting the jam bubble for a minute or so more, then test again.

2                    Remove the jam from the heat and fish out the pieces of ginger. Leave the jam to cool for about 15 minutes before transferring to the sterilised jar. This is because if you pour the jam into a jar while it is still very hot, all the fruit rises to the top of the jar. If you leave it to cool a little first, the fruit will distribute itself evenly.

I think this batch has Victoria Sponge written all over it. What say you?

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Blackberry Curd – I’m Wild About It!

Pin It Blackberry season is nearly over and I am making the most of the remaining wild berries. I've made jam, and the cordial has proved really popular with my family who are using it to make everything from blackberry bellinis and mojitos to pancake syrup and the mystery ingredient in a berry compôte. One of my favourite ingredients for a versatile dessert is curd. I love lemon curd, but I’m always happy to experiment. Here’s my latest curd creation.

Berry, berry delicious - blackberry curd stirred into double cream on mini-pavlovas

For a 1Lb jar you will need...

200g caster sugar

2 eggs, beaten
75g butter
100 mls fresh blackberry juice (I made this by pressing 200g fresh berries through a sieve to remove the pips)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1         Place all the ingredients together in a medium saucepan and heat gently over a low heat, stirring all the while. Continue stirring for about 25 minutes until the mixture thickens. Don’t be tempted to leave it even for a moment unless you want blackberry-flavoured scrambled eggs. To check if it is ready, dunk a spoon in the mixture then draw a finger through the mixture that adheres to the spoon. The channel you make should remain. If no channel remains, continue cooking for a further five minutes and test again. It will thicken further as it sets.

2         Pass the mixture through a sieve to ensure it is totally smooth before transferring to a sterilised jar. Cover when cool and store in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.

Wild about blackberries

             

I fold this mixture into whipped cream and use it to fill mini-pavlovas. It is also fantastic used to sandwich a simple Victoria sponge, or to fill a pastry shell. Top with mixed berries. 

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Boozy Eton Mess – A Celebration of Summer!

Pin It If you’ve ever had the pleasure of tasting a Wexford strawberry that has been basking in rare Irish sunshine, then you’ll remember it as possibly the most strawberry-flavoured strawberry you’ve tasted in your life. Each perfect specimen looks like it was hand-picked to star in an advert for strawberry-related products. They are the super-models of the strawberry world.

Summer 2011 starts right now!

Fantastic as a no-effort dessert, Wexford strawberries and cream were my choice for one of the ‘afters’ at a recent family party. Madame Unexpected-But-Very-Welcome-Guest, the-mother-of-a-friend-of-my-sister’s, was deposited at my door the previous evening due to double-booking of rooms elsewhere. A sweet lady, she was determined to make herself useful as I bustled around the kitchen, hulling strawberries, preparing salads and generally not being a very good hostess.

Another fine mess...



Without a word of English, she gestured that she would whip cream for me. I gratefully accepted as there was about a litre of the stuff. The trouble is, I assume that people know – by osmosis - where everything is in my kitchen, so when I turned around 10 minutes later, I was surprised to find that poor Madame, sweat dripping from her forehead, had bypassed my trusty stand mixer and was whipping the cream by hand. I pointed to the mixer – not sure she knew what it was – and said in that voice that is reserved for poor cross-language communication “IF ... YOU... PUT ... THE ... CREAM... IN ... THERE... – MUCH FASTER. Plus Vite, I added for good measure, feeling rather pleased with my command of French. The poor lady looked at me with a large measure of confusion and a sprinkling of anxiety, and quizzically confirmed the instruction ...“errr... faster?” When I nodded, she started whipping the cream at a rate that rendered her hand a blur.

I'm from Wexford too!

Confiscating the whisk, I sat her down and made her an Irish coffee while the cream was whisked to soft peaks by mechanical means. She, in turn, confiscated the strawberries and made them the star of the show with this slightly boozy version of Eton Mess, a silly name for one of the easiest, most summery desserts in the world. I can’t think of anything more appropriate to celebrate the start of Summer 2011. Happy May Day!



For 2 Summery servings you will need:

300g ripe strawberries

1 – 2 tablespoons icing sugar

1 – 2 tablespoons Strawberry/Raspberry liqueur (Crème de Fraise/Crème de Framboise)

1 ½ - 2 individual ready-made meringue nests, chopped into small bite-sized pieces

125mls double cream, whipped to soft peaks



Fresh mint leaves and 2 perfect strawberries to decorate

1          Start by cutting the strawberries into smallish bite-sized pieces. Place 200g of the chopped strawberries in a mixing bowl. In another bowl, roughly mash the remaining 100g of strawberries and mix in the icing sugar and the strawberry/raspberry liqueur. (You could use a teaspoon of vanilla extract if you prefer). Add to the bowl of chopped strawberries and mix gently.

2          Spoon a little of the strawberry mixture into two beautiful glasses or Sundae dishes.

3          Gently stir the meringue pieces through the whipped cream, followed by about half the remaining strawberry mixture.

4          Spoon some of the cream mixture in the glasses, and add a layer of the strawberry mixture. Continue layering until you have used up both mixtures, finishing with a final layer of the cream mixture.

5          Decorate with the mint leaves and a perfect strawberry.

Wexford Strawberries hard at work soaking up the sunshine

This can be eaten straight away, but I prefer to leave it in the fridge for about an hour to allow the flavours to meld – alchemy at work.

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