spicy pickled carrots

very easy way to pickle and preserve a few carrots

I have never pickled anything before but am wild about the concept of preserving.  I also really love the idea of eating the same food and experiencing its character in  many different ways. A friend sent me the link to this recipe on this great site dedicated to preserving: Food in Jars……definitely worth checking out if you want more info and detail on pickling etc.

I took about 45ogms of carrots (1 x bag), peeled and quartered them.  I cut a few into smaller batons as my jar is a strange curvy shape.

Blanch the carrots for about 30 seconds and then drain. The recommendation was 15 seconds — but that just seemed a little bit too short. Pack the carrots tightly into an adequately sized jar.

Make up the pickling brine by putting the liquid and spices into a pan and bringing this to the boil.

Pour the brine over the carrots, scraping around the inside of the jar in order to dislodge any air bubbles .

Recipe for the small batch pickling brine: (how easy is this?)

• 1 cup filtered water (I used water from my kettle
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon salt
• a small handful of ready mixed pickling spice or you could use as per her recipe: (I added a few extra pinches of chilli, bay leaves and cloves)

A palmful (each) of at least a few of the following:

• crushed bay leaves,peppercorns, hot pepper flakes, allspice berries, coriander seeds, whole cloves

Seal the jar and allow to cool.  Store in the fridge for 2 t0 3 days until ready to eat.

I cant wait to see how these will turn out and if pickling is this easy – I will start playing round with a few other vegetables.

VERDICT: The carrot is very crunchy and the flavours are quite intense.  I find that the cloves are a bit overpowering so will leave these out next time and add only: bay, peppercorns, coriander seeds, a pinch of chilli. I served these to a few friends for supper and they loved them.

salt with rosemary and coriander

rosemary coriander salt

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a total salt-aholic.  I love the stuff. I need it and put it on everything. Salt gives you high blood pressure, blah blah blah blah.  I have perfect blood pressure and cannot enjoy my food unless it is adequately salted.  finished.

i love salt

I love this salt flavour mix, the rosemary and coriander seeds help in the overall salt reduction and adds a little extra dimension when ground up over certain foods.

Making ones own salt mix is so easy. Buy a good pack of unrefined coarse sea salt (khoisan salt, atlantic sea salt etc….I find Maldon does not grind well in the salt grinder — too fine and not enough grip so ok to use if not putting in a grinder) and then mix up various concoctions of your own, put in an empty grinder and way to go. Any dried herbs of choice, peppers, dried chili flakes, lavender etc. This also makes a great kitchen gift.

salt mixes make great gifts

rocky road

sprinkle with icing sugar

This is inspired by Nigella’s Christmas TV show and I have a LOT of chocolate.  Kind of just did my own recipe as I needed to make a lot for two more xmas parties (its relentless).

You could halve the recipe and make a smaller batch etc…..

recipe:

• 450 – 500 gms milk chocolate (can use dark or milk or a combo)
• 200gms marie / tea biscuits bashed up in a plastic bag
• 200gms toasted almonds chopped and bashed up (some small pieces and some bigger pieces)..brazil nuts would work very well here – in fact pretty much any nut you like
• 100gms of whole glace cherries (optional) – could use dried cranberries or other dried fruit here
• about a cup of mini marshmallows
• some icing sugar for dusting

how to make:

• melt chocolate in a pot
• as soon as its melted add all the other ingredients – the chocolate should just coat everything so its ‘dryish’
• tip into a foil  tray or any other suitable dish
• allow to cool, turn out, cut into squares and dust with a bit of icing sugar for a christmas vibe

Nice little crunchy, chocolatey, fruity bites…..a total success and think Im going to have to bang out another batch or two before this xmas season is over.

make a whole pile for christmas

peanut butter shortbread

blinged up for xmas

I have recently fallen in love with peanut butter, I was kind of neither here nor there about it, now its very much a part of my life.  I took this classic shortbread recipe and peanutbutterified it. 

recipe:

• 200gms butter (original recipe is for  250 gms if you want to leave the peanut butter out and keep it classic)…..plus a bit for greasing
• 50gms crunchy peanut butter (I used WW organic crunchy peanut butter because its awesome but any kind would work)
• 125gms  caster sugar (plus a bit more for sprinkling)…I store vanilla pods in my caster sugar which imparts a lovely flavour
• 250gms plain flour sifted
• 125 gm corn flour

how to make:

• preheat oven to 150 degrees c
• butter a 20 – 24cm square tin
• cream the butter, peanut butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy
• add the flour and corn flour and mix lightly with spatula or wooden spoon and then your hands until you have a smooth dough
• roll your dough on a floured surface until about 2cm thick
• press the rolled out dough into the tin getting it into the corners (I skipped the rolling out and just pressed it directly into the tin — a slightly less even surface which I quite like)
• prick the dough all over with a fork
• bake for around 50 minutes until a nice golden colour
• while it’s still warm from the oven sprinkle over caster sugar
• allow to cool slightly then cut into desired squares with a sharp knife

Perfect shortbread texture, subtle but yet distinctive peanut butter flavour, nicely blinged up with some edible glitter for christmas gifting. Such a winner!

just baked

white chocolate, cranberry and pecan nut cookies

a tin of delicious cookies

I had some dried cranberries lying around and always have white chocolate so thought these would be quite nice. The recipe was with macadamia nuts, but couldn’t find one mac nut in the Waterfront yesterday (dont get me started on this topic…)

I have however got tons of pecan nuts — so substituted.

I find American cookies completely irresistable and totally get the whole raw cookie dough eating thing. I had a good few picks at it while making these.

recipe: (I halved it – this is the half)

• 300gm white chocolate (cut up into chunks – big and small)
• 100gm butter
• 1 egg
• 50gm muscovado sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 180gm (or 1 1/4 cup) flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 85gm caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon (I left this out as felt I didnt want this flavour in these cookies)
• 50gm dried cranberries (delicious)
• 50gm pecan nuts chopped (or macadamia nuts or others could work)

how to make:

• oven on at 180 degrees c
• melt 85gms of the choc in a double boiler, then cool a little
• beat butter, egg, sugars and vanilla with an electric beater until creamy
• beat in the melted choc
• stir in the flour, baking powder, cranberries, nuts and remaining chocolate to make a stiff dough
• using a tablespoon measure , drop small mounds well spaced on a lined baking sheet (silicone baking sheets work really well)
• you could also reserve some of the nuts, berries and chocolate pieces and place these into the cookies after they are on the tray so they poke out (extra pretty)
• bake for 12 minutes
• allow to cool for 1 -2 minutes then put on a cooling rack (this is quite important as they carry over cooking quite a bit after baking and can go a bit too brown if left on the baking pan)
• You could double up and freeze the already formed cookie discs for later use. 

OMG they are so yummy. Slightly chewy which is the way I like them.

Sensational when slightly warm from the oven with the white chocolate still soft and gooey. The dried cranberries add so much value….now I need to give these away as soon as possible otherwise I am going to have to schedule an extra few sessions with my personal trainer.

baked

quick apricot jam

 My paternal grandmother Betty used to make the most incredible apricot jam and I remember the delight as a child finding a more or less whole apricot within the jam and then squishing this on my toast. 

I started making apricot jam about 10 years ago and bottled these  under the  brand name: ’sams jams’.  The friends and family were pleased but oh what a mission to do.  I would make about 10 kg’s at a time and boil multiple pots on the stove for hours,  unable to leave my flat.  Due to the scale of the project,  I have not made jam since those vintages of 1999 and 2000. 

I really do love the concept of preserving so when I found myself with a massive amount of the most beautiful imported and out of season strawberries after an international TV shoot, there was no way I was not going to convert these treasures into something longer lasting. 

I came across a recipe for ‘small batch’ strawberry jam on YouTube and what a win it was.  It takes about 20 minutes to make and produces a jam that is so much about the fruit and less about the sugar.  I love it! 

I followed the recipe using apricots the other night and it worked out perfectly.  It’s so easy. I’m planning on buying a little extra fruit each time this summer and making up a quick batch to bottle and give away as gifts. 

recipe: 

• 3 cups apricots quartered (about 600gms)
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice

to make: 

• put all ingredients in a wide shallow pan/ pot on high and cook for about 8 – 10 minutes. 
• the wider the better as this facilitates quick evaporation and thus quicker jammification
• to test if the jam is ready, freeze a side plate for 5 minutes. Drop a dolop of jam on the cold plate. Run your finger through the middle. if the jam stays apart and doesn’t immediately join back together, its jammy enough.
• at the same time boil the storage jars in a large pot of water – remove and drain
• scoop the hot jam into the jars and seal
• pop the sealed jars back into the boiling water for 10 minutes (this gets rid of any bacteria etc)
• remove from the pot, drain and allow to cool

 

…..I couldn’t wait,  so I scraped the pan down and spread on a toasted whole-wheat crumpet.  So delicious, quite tart, not too sweet. 

I still may go back to making apricot jam the way my grandmother did, if only so that I can find the whole apricot again. 

bottled and ready for gifting