Jelly bag and jam funnel - kitchen equipment 29

At my participation at the Summer preserves course I realized, that I needed to make a new investment in some more kitchen equipment, so I really could use the acquired skills from the course. It turned out, that I needed to get hold of a jelly bag and a jam funnel. So I went shopping on the interned for these kitchen tools.

The jelly bag you need, when you want to make jelly such as this red & black currant jelly. And the jam funnel is crucial for the filling up the jam jar to the very top without getting hot jam on neither your fingers nor outside the glass. Here I am speaking from experience :-)

Raspberry vinegar

At the Summer preserves course we also made a fruit vinegar in form of raspberry vinegar. It was quiet interesting for me to make a fruit vinegar with so much sugar inside. Our tutor did no recommend for us for mixing raspberry together with herbs such as rosemary, when making this vinegar.

Using other fruit for such fruit vinegar you should use soft fruit without skin, so here blackberry could be an option to make blackberry vinegar, which I try out in Autumn.

This vinegar can be used for salads, and could perhaps also combine well with goat cheese.

I have previously been making such fruit vinegar in my little kitchen such as this raspberry vingear with elder flower.

Raspberry vinegar: - 6-8 bottles

• 450 g raspberries
• 600 ml white wine vinegar
• 450 g sugar per 600 ml vinegar liquid

1. Place the raspberries in a bowl and pour over the vinegar.
2. Cover the bowl and leave it to stand for 3-5 days, stirring it a least once per day with a wooden, plastic or silicon spoon.
3. After 3-5 days infusion mash the fruit with a a wooden, plastic or silicon spoon.
4. Strain the mashed vinegar liquid through a sieve lined with muslin or use a jelly bag. Let is drain freely without pushing it to obtain a clear vinegar.
5. Measure the liquid. For every 600 ml liquid weigh out 450 g sugar.
6. Pour the liquid into a cooking pan and dissolve the sugar. Bring the vinegar to the boil.
7. Pour the vinegar into bottles and seal.
8. Store at ambient temperature.
9. Use for salads.

Red & black currant jelly

The Summer preserves course started by making a jelly of red and black currant. These two fruits are very rich in pectin by nature, so a jelly can be created by having enough sugar inside.

It is the first time, that I have made a jelly by myself, but for sure it is not the last time I will make jelly.

According to the tutor at the course Vivien Lloyd, the ratio between red & black currant should not be 50:50, as the black currant is too dominant in flavour.

Red & black currant jelly: 8-10 glasses

• 1 kg red currant - washed and cleaned, the stalks removed
• 345 g black currant - washed & cleaned, the stalks removed
• 900 ml water
• 450 g sugar per 600 ml juice

1. Place the fruit and water in large cooking pan. Bring to the boil. Reduce the heat, and let the fruit simmer gently for 20 minutes.
2. Mash the content of the pan, so the fruit breaks.
3. Place a jelly bag suspended over a large bowl.
4. Pour the mashed fruit/water into the jelly bag.
5. Leave until, the bag has stopped dripping. Alternative night over.
6. Prepared the jelly glasses. I add boiling water to the glasses, while other will heat the glasses in the oven at 120 minutes.
7. Measure the amount of fruit juice and weight out 450 g sugar per 600 ml juice.
8. Pour the fruit into large cooking pan and heat up the juice to the boil.
9. Add in the (pre-heasted) sugar, Stir until the sugar is dissolved.
10. Bring the jelly mixture to a rolling boil (the jelly mixture has a lot of boiling foam on top).
11. Let it boil for 4 minute as starting point.
12. Test for a set after 4 minutes using the flake test (how the jelly is dripping from the cooking spoon). This is tricky, otherwise set, if the temperature is 104'C.
13. When the the texture is right, remove the cooking pan from the heat. Start right away to remove any scum from the surface of the jelly, using a large metal spoon.
14. Pour the jelly into glass jars, fill the jar to the top. Again remove any scum from the surface using a tea spoon.
15. Seal the jar with a lid.
16. Leave the glass upright and undisturbed to set.
17. Store at ambient temperature. 

Cherries in rum

This week-end the annual festival of Danish cherries (kirsebærfestival takes place in Kertiminde. So in order to celebrate the wonderful Danishes cherries, I hereby share a recipe on cherries in rum with you. The cherries should stores for around three months, so they will be ready for the use together with the classic Danish Christmas dessert of ris a la mande, another option could be serve these cherries together with white chocolate panna cotta.

At the course in Summer Preserves, the tutor Vivien Lloyd showed us how to make cherries in brandy. However, as I am not to keen on brandy, I decided to exchange the brandy as alcohol part with rum instead of. So here is my version of (Danish) cherries of rum.

Cherries in rum: - 1 portion/glass

• 250 g cherries - washed & dried
• 100 g sugar
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 4 allspice berries
• 300 ml white rum

1. Remove the stalks from the cherries and de-stone them.
2. Place the cherries in 0.75 l storage glass/jar
3. Add in the sugar, cinnamon stick and allspice berries.
4. Pour the rum on top.
5. Close the glass/jar.
6. Agitate the glass daily, until the sugar is dissolved.
7. Store for minimum 3 months.
8. Can be used as dessert sauce for ris a la mande or other dessert.

Summer Preserves at the WI Cookery School

Mid June I participated in another course at Women Institute (previously courses have been afternoon tea course & Christmas afternoon tea course), this time on Summer Preserves with Vivien Lloyd as tutor. She is a great tutor, who was great in answering my many questions in relations to the many different types of Summer preserves. I was really dragging on her experience to see using your own eyes to see, when the jam has the right consistency for gelling in the jam glass or texture for a chutney. So I have learned to make jam without addition of pectin powder, but using the pectin naturally present in the fruit. However, using the natural present pectin alone from the fruit means, that the sugar content has to be very high to get a gelling.

As usual the atmosphere at the Denman College is fantastic :-) All I meet of the other participants were very open and very friendly, they really wanted to meet new people. Upon arrival I went directly to the bar area after dropping my suitcase in my room, so I could meet all the participants over a cup of tea followed by a glass or two of wine. During the various meals you could easily sit at different tables talking and meeting some new people.

The course price includes staying in a room, all meals, tea breaks, tuition and final all the preserves, which you bake during the stay. So I do not find it to be a very expensive course.

Below you can see all my photos taken during the course. I will later share these recipes with you and as well my own modifications to the recipes. We were trying many different recipes on jams with either fruit or vegetable, fruit in brandy (or cherries in rum), cordial with herbs, gooseberry curd and chutney with rhubarb and ginger.

And as usual I combined this course at Denman with some days in London (tea & gin-shopping, visit to Beefeater, afternoon tea and buying some interesting cooking books).

Raspberry vinegar

Strawberry and apple jam

Red & black currant jelly

Herb scented cordial with geranium

Gooseberry curd

Tomato and chilli jam

Lillet Vive

I have been testing a recipe from a small recipe booklet for the use of the aperitif Lillet. And the weather here in Denmark has been nothing but sunshine since beginning of May, which is very unusual fir Denmark. So my mother and I have enjoyed this drink a couple of times in her garden during the these wonderful Danish Summer evenings :-)

Instead of using Lillet Blanc I have used Lillet Rose, and I did not have any strawberries. But the cocktail taste great anyway on a warm Summer evening :-)

Lillet Vive: - 1 drink:

• 6 cl Lille Rose
• 6 cl Fever Tree Indian Tonic
• Ice cubes
• Slices of cucumber
• Mint leaves

1. Add all the ingredients into a big tumbler glass.
2. Enjoy :-)

Afternoon tea at the Mad Hatters, London

During my first part of the Summer vacation, where I spend some days in London, before participating in jam making course at WI, I managed to visit various museums, went on gin distillery tour and fill up my suitcase with various shopping,

When I am in London I always book afternoon tea at different places, and this time I booked aftenoon tea at Mad Hatters. The weather was lovely, so the afternoon tea could be enjoyed in the hotel court yard, which was full of flamingos as a way of celebrating the 50 years "birthday" of Laurent-Perrier Cuvée Rosé.

The afternoon tea menu consist of:

Savoury part:

• Smoked salmon Scotch quails egg with caviar and cream cheese
• Stack of King of Hearts ham and parmesan croque-monsieur
• Cornish crab brioche roll with spiced avocado and coriander
• White Rabbit cucumber and cream cheese sandwich on pesto bread

Sweet part:

• Queen of Hearts rose and strawberry Jammy Dodger
• Mocha chessboard gateau
• Tweedle Dee lemon curd financier
• Mad March Hare vanilla pocket watch macaroon
• Chocolate and pistachio Blue Caterpillar
• Wonderland marshmallow magic mushrooms
• Mad Hatters lost carrot and fennel meringue
• Alice’s exotic fruits “ Drink Me” potion
• Sanderson’s warm scones served with Cornish clotted cream and fruit preserve 

The afternoon teat costed 75 £ including a glass of champagne and you could get re-fills of the tea. It was not exceptional, and in my opinion the afternoon tea at Fortnum and Mason was a better experience. The service of the waiters is good, but for me the taste and texture was average without any wauw effect. The names in the menu raise the expectation, which the actual food cannot fulfill, so I will give this afternoon tea experience a total of 3 stars.