EMERGENCY MINCEMEAT

I had an urge to bake some mince pies, something you never see here in France except amongst the British ex-pats.  The French don't understand them, you certainly never see them in the shops and jars of mincemeat are virtually impossible to find unless very occasionally on the "English shelf" in some supermarkets (at an outrageous price).  Another ingredient hard to find is suet, or at least not in the form that we know it.  You can get lumps of fat to grate yourself from the butcher if you ask in advance!  (Or do what most ex-pats do and bring it back from visits to the UK!)

The urgent need was spurred on by the discovery of a set of Christmas cake decoration cutters in the bottom of a drawer, a rogue purchase from many years ago that had never been used.  Perfect for the pastry tops of mince pies as well as fondant icing!

So I looked for a recipe that I could adapt using what I had in stock.  You can buy delicious candied peel here but all of mine had gone into the Christmas cake so I used the zest of two clementines instead.  For the alcohol content I used Armagnac which we had bought to "water" the Christmas cake, not being brandy drinkers ourselves.

I adapted Mary Berry's recipe which you can see here which neatly makes four regular sized jam jars of mincemeat which will keep for several months.  It improves with keeping but some went into the pies straight away which were delicious and satisfied the urgent need for them!

Ingredients 

175g each of

    currants

    raisins

    sultanas

    dried cranberries

100g mixed peel or the zest of 1 small orange/2 clementines instead 

1 small apple peeled and finely chopped

50g chopped almonds

225g light muscovado sugar (or other brown sugar)

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp mixed spice

zest and juice of 1 lemon

125g butter, cubed or sliced

200ml brandy, rum, sherry or Armagnac

Method 

Put all of the ingredients except for the alcohol into a large saucepan and heat gently until the butter has melted.  Simmer gently for 10 minutes, stirring frequently so it doesn’t catch on the bottom of the pan.

Remove from the heat and allow to cool completely before stirring in the alcohol.

While the mincemeat is cooking then cooling sterilise your jars.  Wash the jars and lids then rinse well in hot water, shaking off the water rather than using a tea towel.  Place onto a baking sheet then into the oven  set to 160°C and leave for 10 minutes.  Remove from the oven and fill with the mincemeat while the jars are still warm.

Makes 4 jars of mincemeat which will keep for several months.

APPLE CHUTNEY

Every year our apples fall from the tree too soon, heaps of them.  Most are unusable due to insect damage and end up in the compost but most years I manage to salvage some.  This year I decided to make some chutney.

I adapted a recipe on the Good Food website to what I had in stock, using Melfor vinegar instead of cider vinegar, demerara sugar instead of light muscovado and a mixture of raisins and sultanas.  You could also add other spices than just ginger: maybe cinnamon or even curry powder.

Peeling and chopping so many apples is not my favourite pastime so I've given it two stars for the amount of tedious work but it's a delicious chutney.  It goes well with our new favourite French cheese - Laguiole, which is not dissimilar to a strong cheddar and can usually be found amongst the Cantal cheeses as it’s from the same region of France.  

I'm sure it would go equally well with pork pie, sausage rolls and cold meats.

It’s ready for eating straight away but can be left to "mature" for a few weeks.

There was such a huge quantity of ingredients that I had to cook mine in two separate pans, dividing them equally between the two.  Interestingly, one lot cooked quicker than the other, the wider, flatter pan finishing first by several minutes!

I remembered a tip from, I think, a James Martin recipe on how to tell if your chutney is ready.  It should be nice and thick and when you drag your spoon through it there should be a clear trail which only fills with liquid very slowly.  If it refills immediately cook for longer, in five minutes intervals.

At the time of writing you can see the original recipe here.  The comments suggest it’s a very popular and successful recipe and there are interesting tips and ideas.

Ingredients 

1.5 kg cooking apples (prepared weight) I had about 1.7kg.

750g demerara sugar

500g mixed raisins and sultanas

2 medium white onions

2tsp mustard seeds

2tsp ground ginger

1tsp salt

700ml Melfor or cider vinegar 

Method

Put all of the ingredients into a large saucepan (or divide equally between two), bring to the boil gently then simmer uncovered for 30-40 minutes or until thick and ready (see picture above).  Stir frequently and adjust the heat so that that the chutney doesn’t catch on the bottom of the pan.

While the chutney is cooking sterilise eight suitable jars by washing in hot soapy water.  Rinse well and put jars and lids on a baking sheet in the oven set at 140°C for 20 minutes.

Allow the chutney to cool then fill your jars and seal tightly.  Once opened they should be kept in the fridge.

Makes 6-8 jars of chutney.

GREEN TOMATO CHUTNEY

We harvested the last of the tomatoes the other day, dug up the plants and dispatched them to the compost heap.  All but one of the tomatoes were hard and green.

I had made green tomato chutney in the past and was not too thrilled with it but this time we had so many good tomatoes that it seemed a shame not to do something with them.  

With the rain pouring down outside and the wind howling it seemed like the perfect day to do some cooking on the wood burning stove so I searched online for a different recipe.  It was a Sunday and the shops were shut so I looked for one where I could use what I had in the house.

You can see the original recipe on the Waitrose website here.  I didn't have any mustard seeds so used ready made wholegrain mustard instead.  The only vinegar I had was this one which is brown vinegar with added honey.  I didn't have a cooking apple so used two eating apples (golden delicious).  (I omitted the chilli as I personally can't eat it nowadays.)

I have listed below the ingredients that I used but suggest you refer to the original recipe which I used as a guide.

I remembered from the last time that I made chutney (which was some years ago) the best way to tell if it's thick enough and done.  You draw your spoon across the bottom of the pan and if it leaves a clear channel which doesn't immediately fill up with liquid it's ready.

The quantity of tomatoes I had made 2½ Bonne Maman jars of chutney.  Most of the recipes I looked at suggested you should keep it for 2-3 weeks before eating it but of course I had to have a little taste!

It is yummy!!  It's nice and chunky, just as I like a chutney, as I'd chopped the ingredients not too small.  The flavour is delicious, both sweet and sharp, and I wonder if the particular vinegar I used had something to do with that.

Anyway, I can't see me lasting 2-3 weeks before I open the first jar and it's most unlikely to end up at the back of the cupboard, unloved and still uneaten 2-3 years later!  It's a winner!

Ingredients

650g green tomatoes, washed and chopped

2 onions, peeled and chopped

2 eating apples, peeled, cored and chopped

200ml brown vinegar

50g sultanas

1 heaped teaspoon wholegrain mustard

1 tsp ground ginger

½ tsp salt

75g light soft brown sugar

Method

Put the tomatoes, onions and apples into a large, heavy based saucepan, with half (100ml) of the vinegar.

Bring gently to the boil and simmer for around 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the veg are soft.

Add the other ingredients and remaining vinegar and cook again, stirring frequently, until the mixture has thickened.  (See text for how to tell when it's ready.)

Spoon into sterilised jars while still warm.  Tap the jars on the worktop several times to dispel any air bubbles, seal and label the jars.

Makes 2½ 1lb jars of chutney.

To sterilise the jam jars

Wash the jars and lids thoroughly in hot, soapy water and rinse well.  Shake off any excess water (do not dry with a tea towel) and place on a baking tray.

Place the tray in a warm oven (160°C or thereabouts) for 10 minutes until dry.  Fill the jars while they are preferably still warm.

PRESERVED ROAST TOMATOES (forgotten cakes and bakes of 2015)

We did phenomenally well for tomatoes last year.  We planted a few tomato plants at the top of the garden in May, watered them a couple of times then more or less ignored them for the rest of the summer.  We harvested our first tomato on 1st July and they just kept on coming. 

Keeping up with the supply of tomatoes and thinking of ways of using them proved to be a challenge.  It seemed wrong to waste any so I made and froze tomato sauce, tomato soup and just plain chopped tomatoes. 

Round at a friend’s house for apéros one evening she served her own herby roast tomatoes in olive oil, simply squashed onto a thin slice of baguette.  They were delicious.  This made me think I should have a go at something similar myself.

I used this recipe on the BBC Good Food website as a guide, but it’s so easy that a recipe is hardly necessary.

Once the roasted tomatoes were cool, I packed them tightly into Le Parfait jars, pouring olive oil on the layers to make sure there were no air gaps.  Writing this five months after they were first bottled, I can confirm that they have kept perfectly well in the fridge for several months, although the oil does solidify and it’s a good idea to use up the contents in a few days once the jar is open. 

The tomatoes have many uses, in salads, soups, casseroles and so on, but are delicious just squashed onto a slice of fresh or toasted baguette.

Ingredients

freshly picked cherry or medium sized tomatoes

fresh or dried herbs, eg thyme and basil

a handful of garlic cloves

olive oil

balsamic vinegar

salt and pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 160°C / 140° fan.

Cut each larger tomato in half and lay cut side up on baking trays.  The cherry tomatoes can be left whole.  Tuck in a few cloves of garlic and sprigs of thyme or basil leaves, or sprinkle lightly with dried herbs.  Drizzle liberally with balsamic and olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

Bake in the oven for an hour, then turn off the oven and leave the trays in until the tomatoes are cool.

Pack into jars in tight layers, covering with oil to avoid any air bubbles.  Fill the jars right to the top, leaving a layer of oil on the top.  Keep in the fridge.  Keeps for up to six months but use within a week or so once the jar is opened.