Sunday

I know this is stating the obvious but it's amazing how much a day of doing things you enjoy, and can afford, will cheer a person up. I've been feeling a little low recently but after spending last night watching utter rubbish on television, and today doing Christmas cooking and catching up with friends I feel like a new woman. 

The baking consisted of mince pies (pastry somewhat too short as some of them disintegrated) two kinds of fudge, and the final dipping of candied oranges in chocolate - basically my favourites from the last couple of Christmases. I'm particularly pleased with the fudge as I find it all too easy to burn and this lot didn't even come close to catching. I had meant to make some sort of biscuit as well but didn't get up early enough to organise that so they'll have to wait. The second batch of fudge was the chocolate and walnut from 'Sugar and Spice' the first lot was a universal hit, second time round I like the recipe even more which fills me with enthusiasm for further experimentation with this book. 

There has also been a gathering together of all the other things I've made over the last few months with Christmas in mind. The Russian Plum Liquor, and Apricots preserved in Muscat (though I've used a fortified moscatel - same grape, Spanish name - partly because it's unfashionable enough to be slightly cheaper, partly because I think the extra alcohol will be good for the preservation process. It's a luscious and lovely wine anyway with clean grapey flavours that will be perfect for apricots) are from Diana Henry's 'Salt Sugar Smoke' - still my book of the year for it's wonderful combination of the unusual and brilliantly simple. There are also all the jams and jellies from the same book - the shelves will look bare when they've gone but it will be licence to start again and I'm obviously looking forward to that...

Other reasons to be cheerful this week have been bumping into Fiona Cairns at work - she shops with us semi regularly but whenever I've spotted her before I've been far to busy or she's looked far to harassed for me to be able to buttonhole her - not this time, and so I got to hear a little bit about her new book (coming out in September) it's about seasonal baking and is apparently the book she's always wanted to write. I especially loved 'Bake and Decorate' and am really looking forward to this one. 

Finally Reading Matters has posted a round up of bloggers books of the year (including mine - the excellent 'Island Years Island Farm') I've just spent a happy half hour browsing through titles, adding both to my wish list and blog list - the latter certainly fits my criteria of enjoyable and affordable occupations. 

Preserves – Pam Corbin

It’s that time of year again – the blackberries are ripe in the hedges, I’m asking my friend L about the state of her father’s plums (although I’m more interested in his damsons this time), I’m prepared to actually fight a squirrel for the chance of some nuts (I will be paying for nuts again, the squirrels always win – they’re leaner and meaner) and today I made redcurrant jelly. This is not before time; the redcurrants have been in the freezer since this time last year and will hopefully be okay. Had I known how easy redcurrant jelly is I would have made it before. Of course I say that before I’ve tried the results, but by the time I’ve written this post it should be cool enough to test – so if you’re reading this post the jelly was a success.

Checking back I see that I’ve mentioned ‘Preserves’ before but only in passing, and as I’m trying to scrape bits of jelly off it at the moment it seemed timely to write about it at more length. ‘Preserves’ was my first River Cottage Handbook (I got the first River Cottage Handbook – ‘Mushrooms’ quite a bit later and only after I realised what a tremendous writer John Wright is – but that’s another post) it set me on The Way and was all in all a bit of a revelation. It came out about three years ago when I was all but jobless and so at perfect liberty to make jam whilst trying to stay calm through domestic and culinary achievement. I had been after a book just like this for a while but had found nothing that felt quite right, picking it up was a real eureka moment.

Here was a book that laid out everything I wanted to know clearly and explicitly. Every stage documented, emphasis on all the really important principles, a reassuringly stern note regarding sterilisation and the four ‘spoilers’, plenty of recipes to follow (as well as those principles that allow for successful improvisation). Perfect. Since then ‘Preserves’ has become a particularly well thumbed volume. It’s taught me a lot without ever letting me down and yet I’ve hardly scratched the surface when it comes to exploiting the possibilities within its covers.

Good as the television and the heftier books are I can’t help but feel that the best things to come out of the River Cottage brand are these books. There’s a house style but each one also has a distinctive voice. Every time I pick up ‘Preserves’ I get a shadow of that first eureka moment and that rare feeling of thinking this book will never be bettered (not in my eyes anyway).

And as redcurrants are around and frequently on some sort of offer at the moment, and as redcurrant jelly is my go to secret ingredient for making things wonderful with (it’s getting late I might be getting overtired and carried away now) here’s how it’s made...

I improvised a jelly bag from some muslin and an old embroidery hoop (why this was to hand do not know because I don’t really sew, but I was very pleased with my ingenuity) and then threw a kilo of redcurrants into a pan stalks and all with 400ml of water where they simmered away for about 45 minutes until the whole lot was just one big soft pulpy mass in a bath of glorious ruby juice with the power to stain everything it touched. That all got tipped into the jelly bag with a nice big bowl underneath so the juices could filter through undisturbed overnight, which left lots of time to sterilise some jars before this morning when it was measured back into a pan and bought to a simmer at which point 450g of sugar was added for every 600ml of water (in my case 800ml’s of fluid and so 600g of sugar which seems to have worked just as it should). After that bring it all back to a rolling boil and after about 8 minutes check to see if setting point has been reached. When it does that wrinkly thing on a cold saucer and any scum has been skimmed off the top it’s ready to go into the warm sterile jars and that’s it, job done.