margeland.co.uk

I think the late Freddie Mercury would have approved 

Wishing everyone a very Happy, Kosher Pesach from Marge Land

I have been doing the Pesach cooking today and, yes I have come up with some new recipes.  Now I did do one with celeriac, however it is similar to other kugel recipes so instead … here is a simply delicious apple, plum and rhubarb jam recipe for you to try.

Ingredients:

• 1kg apples
• 950g plums
• 50g rhubarb (about 1 large stalk, not the leaves as they are poisonous!)
• 25ml water
• 2kg granulated sugar
• juice of half a lemon and some of the peel
• a wooden spoon – not really an ingredient but Mother of Marge insists you use a wooden spoon not plastic or metal, so I have mentioned it here

A note about safety:  remember hot jam can be very dangerous and can scald skin badly.  Do not leave the jam in the middle to go answer the phone or the door, and do keep little kids and pets out of the way.

Method:

1. Prepare the fruit by washing it and chopping into small chunks.  I kept the skin on to increase the amount of pectin in the jam.  Pectin is important to make sure the jam will set.
2. In a big cooking pot (do not think a small diddy saucepan will do!) place the fruit in the pot along with the water.  I didn’t measure it exactly I just add two cookspoons worth of water.  Now this might not look much but as the fruit heats up it will give out a lot of liquid.
3. Heat the fruit and then allow it to simmer slowly to allow the pectin to be drawn out of the fruit.  Also if you don’t simmer the fruit slowly you end with crunchy fruit bits in the jam which is not nice.
4. Once the fruit is nice and soft (you should see a lot of extra liquid)  add all the sugar and stir it in well.  Make sure all the sugar is dissolved by ‘tamping’ the bottom of the pan with your wooden spoon.
5. Now hold your nerve and bring the mixture to the boil, and boil rapidly for 10 minutes (not necessarily on the highest heat setting, but still boiling rapidly).  It is tempting to stir the mixture before this time but resist.  Clearly though if you think the jam is in danger of catching on the bottom of the pan then do, carefully give it a stir.
6. Test the jam by spooning a little onto a saucer and seeing if it has set, ie if  it drags when the saucer is tipped to the side.  You might need to let the jam boil for a bit longer.
7. Once the jam is ready, spoon it into warmed, sterilised jam jars (do this by scrupulously washing the jars, and then whilst still wet microwaving the jars for a couple of minutes in the microwave  - be careful the glass jars get hot).
8. Seal with a little clingfilm touching the surface of the jam, avoid any air bubbles.  Now put on the jam jar lid.  Allow the jam to cool … and then try not to scoff it all in one go!

   

   the finished article

   

   Raw fruit about to be cooked

   
   

   

   Me stirring the fruit

   

   Jam boiling away

   
   
   

   Btw, I’m not sure why the pictures are in the wrong order, but that’s computers for you!