Culinary Travels Of A Kitchen Goddess

There is no escaping the fact that autumn is well and truly upon us.  Mornings are crisp and fresh, with your breath misting in the early air and the nights are drawing in earlier and earlier, creeping in some days soon after lunch, or so it seems. Now this is all well and good if you’re inside with a fire (or if you’re really lucky) an Aga roaring, dog curled up on your lap and nothing more taxing to do but think of reading a book or pottering around the house, or dare I say it, giving in to an afternoon snooze. It is a different matter entirely though if however you are out there battling against the elements, rain lashing down, facing the prospect of a long or arduous journey home.

If you’re unfortunate enough to have suffered the latter situation your first food desires will most likely be for that notion of comfort food, homely, warming, sometimes calorific fayre that brings back the feeling of what ‘mother used to make’. Even if you didn’t have the nicety of great home cooked food somehow well made comfort food dishes evoke that nostalgic feeling nonetheless. I maintain it is the smell that does it, the waft of comforting aromas as you open the front door. That and the feeling that you’ve made it home, things can only improve, you’ve reached your sanctuary, your castle and with that you’re going to have a good feed and warm the body and soul.

For me at least the smell of jams bubbling away is one of the most comforting of all; now here’s the mystery, I never smelt homemade jam as a child, my mother never made it and I have no recollection of being at my Grandmothers house while she made preserves, so why the sudden feeling of contentment when I get that aroma waft past my nose? Happen it’s because I’ve only recently become a ‘preserver’ and I seem to have really caught the ‘bug’ for it. I really don’t know.

Damson jam was my latest venture. Until Jo a lovely friend and work colleague of mine brought over 2 kilos of the purple beauties in for me I had never seen, let alone tasted, a damson. I had no idea what to expect from them at all. All I knew is that I didn’t want to eat a raw one!

Damsons like plums and greengages come from a Prunus tree which is a member of the rose family. The true damson, Prunus damascena is a blue black, oval shaped fruit. It makes beautifully rich preserves with a great depth of flavour.

The damson jam is fabulous spread on toast or scones, in fact used as you would any other conserve but there is another great way to promote its talents – as a background flavour in a lovely crumble.

For my mother, crumbles are the autumnal/winter pudding; she would rather a crumble than any other dessert going. My dad is not all the fond, although I’m trying hard to covert him, he’d rather a pie was served. Me? Well I’m torn, I love pies with sweet buttery pastry but I also enjoy a crisp, short, crumble providing it has texture; oh and they’re easier from the cooks view point (i.e. mine) too.

So I bit the bullet as the saying goes and created a mixed fruit crumble that incorporated some of the freshly made jam and the tantalizing delights sitting in my fruit bowl; all delivered by the excellent organic suppliers Riverford. I ended up with a selection of sliced apples, nectarines and plums.

To give further texture I added spelt flakes to the crumble topping, they give crunch and chewiness with a hit of nuttiness. I buy mine from a local organic health shop but if you can’t get hold of them rolled oats would be a good substitution. I also used spelt flour as I’d a small quantity that needed using up, but regular white flour would work just as well.

Clotted cream (also from Riverford) was the order of the day for accompaniments, simple pouring cream, custard or ice cream would also be good. Personally I’d go for a cold accompaniment though as I prefer the hit of hot pudding against cold sauce but it’s up to you.

I had the notion to use my Le Creuset bean pots as individual serving dishes but they were far too big for one, as a cosy pudding for two to share, one pot & two spoons style they’d work well though

Another lovely use for damsons is to make cordial, such as I did here.

Damson Jam

• 1kg damsons
• 300ml water
• 1kg granulated sugar

1. Put the fruit and water in a preserving pan or large saucepan and simmer until the damsons are soft.
2. Allow the fruit to cool slightly before removing the damson stones, I find it easiest to tip the fruit into a large sieve (over a bowl to collect the juices) and wearing rubber gloves pick the stones out by hand.
3. Return the fruit to the preserving pan and add the sugar.
4. Stir over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved and then boil rapidly until the setting point is reached.
5. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before serving.
6. Spoon into hot, sterilised jars, seal and allow to cool before labelling.

Autumn Fruit Crumble

• 3 apples, peeled cored and sliced
• 3 nectarines, diced
• 6 plums, halved and stone removed
• 2 tablespoons damson jam
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 50ml water
• 100g white spelt (or plain) flour
• 50g butter, diced
• 50g demerara sugar
• 50g spelt (or oat) flakes

1. Melt the tablespoon of butter in a large frying pan and when foaming add the prepared fruits, toss in the butter until golden and add the jam and water. Stir until the jam has melted and allow to simmer until the fruit is just tender.
2. Remove from the heat and either pot into individual dishes or a shallow oven proof dish.
3. Preheat the oven to 180C or the equivalent.
4. Make the topping, put the flour and butter in a bowl and rub together using your fingertips until you have the consistency of bread crumbs, stir in the sugar and spelt.
5. Sprinkle the topping over the fruits, mounding it up a little towards the centre.
6. Bake for about 25 minutes or until crisp and golden.

Autumn (also known as Fall in North American English) is one of the four temperate seasons. Autumn marks the transition from summer into winter, usually in late March (southern hemisphere) or late September (northern hemisphere) when the arrival of night becomes noticeably earlier.

The word autumn comes from the Old French word autompne (automne in modern French), and was later normalized to the original Latin word autumnus. There are rare examples of its use as early as the 12th century, but it became common by the 16th century. Before the 16th century, harvest was the term usually used to refer to the season. However, as more people gradually moved from working the land to living in towns the word harvest lost its reference to the time of year and came to refer only to the actual activity of reaping, and autumn, began to replace it as a reference to the season.

The alternative word fall is now mostly a North American English word for the season. It traces its origins to old Germanic languages. The exact derivation is unclear, the Old English fiæll or feallan and the Old Norse fall all being possible candidates. However, these words all have the meaning “to fall from a height” and are clearly derived either from a common root or from each other. The term came to denote the season in the 16th century, a contraction of Middle English expressions like “fall of the leaf” and “fall of the year”.

Association with the transition from warm to cold weather, and its related status as the season of the primary harvest, has dominated its themes and popular images. In Western cultures, personifications of autumn are usually pretty, well-fed females adorned with fruits, vegetables and grains and wheat that ripen at this time. Most ancient cultures featured autumnal celebrations of the harvest, often they are one of the most important on their calendars. Still extant echoes of these celebrations are found in the mid-autumn Thanksgiving holiday of the United States, and the Jewish Sukkot holiday with its roots as a full moon harvest festival of “tabernacles”. There are also the many North American Indian festivals tied to harvest of autumnally ripe foods gathered in the wild, the Chinese Mid-Autumn or Moon festival, and many others. In the UK it is during the autumn that harvest festivals take place. The predominant mood of these autumnal celebrations is a gladness for the fruits of the earth mixed with a certain melancholy linked to the imminent arrival of harsh weather. This view is presented in John Keats’ poem To Autumn where he describes the season as a time of bounteous fecundity, a time of ‘mellow fruitfulness‘.

The beginning of autumn is a joy for me, especially in a culinary sense. I love the fact that it opens up the season of slow cooked comforting meals such as stews and pies, and, even more so that my preserving pan gets back into some serious action. 

With an overflowing fruit bowl of discovery apples and some lovely plums waiting to be eaten I just knew I had to get the big preserving pan out.

My first autumnal preserve has been an apple and plum jelly which I have named Autumn Blush. It gained its name partly because we are not fully into autumn yet, we have just had a wee blush of it and partly because the jelly is a gorgeous pale rose colour, which reminds me of the pale red blush hue of the apples.

I flavoured the apple & plum jelly with a touch of juniper; although not an obvious choice it worked really well. The juniper added a rich, pungent, resinous note to the jelly; which had a tart background due to the apples and a rich sweetness from the plums. All in all it is very well rounded, I would say it feels like you are ‘eating the apple tree’ but maybe that doesn’t sound too great

Juniper berries have been found in ancient Egyptian tombs, including Juniperus phoenicia and Juniperus oxycedrus at multiple sites. The latter is not known to grow in Egypt, and neither is Juniperus excelsa, which was found along with J. oxycedrus in the tomb of Tutankhamun. The berries imported into Egypt may have come from Greece; the Greeks record using juniper berries as a medicine long before mentioning their use in food. The Greeks used the berries in many of their Olympics events because of their belief that the berries increased physical stamina in athletes.” The Romans used juniper berries as a cheap domestically-produced substitute for the expensive black pepper and long pepper imported from India. It was also used as an adulterant, as reported in Pliny the Elder’s Natural History: “Pepper is adulterated with juniper berries, which have the property, to a marvellous degree, of assuming the pungency of pepper.”

Making a jelly is not a complicated process but it is rather slow, the fruit has to be cooked and then strained overnight to allow the juices to drip freely before getting boiled with sugar the following day until setting point is reached and the jelly can be jarred up and stored. Providing the jelly is put into sterilised jars and sealed correctly it will last for at least six months, after that time I find they start to darken and go a little runny – still edible but not as good as when eaten within the six months.

The colour of the jelly will vary according to which apples you use, I was lucky enough to have pink tinged discovery apples which enhanced the colour but whatever you use it will still taste great

I like to spread the jelly on toast or cakes. I often add some to fruit tarts, cakes and pies. It can be served with cooked meats but I don’t really care for it like that.

You can read about how to sterilise your jars here.

I am entering this jam to Virtual Jam Swap hosted by Aimee of Under The High Chair. Aimee’s blog is absolutely lovely and well worth a visit.

This fall, Under the High Chair is hosting its very first virtual jam swap and quite possibly the first event of this kind in the blogosphere! Come October, this will be the place to show off your home preserves and showcase how you captured summer in a jar.

Autumn Blush Jelly

• Apples, the weight is not important here as it’s the volume that will be calculated later but I roughly used around 5lb of apples
• Plums, approx 1/3 plums to the apples so here I used about 1.5lb of plums
• 1 lb of preserving sugar per 1 pint of juice
• 2 teaspoons juniper berries (but adjust this according to how many apples & plums you have and your own personal preference)

1. Chop the apples in to quarters (don’t bother to peel or core them) and place in a large preserving pan with the plums and juniper berries, cover with water and allow to simmer for around an hour or until they are soft and pulpy, a potato masher can be used to help hurry the process.
2. Place the apples in a scolded jelly bag (or muslin lined sieve) over a large bowl and leave to drip overnight, do not press the apples or the jelly will be cloudy.
3. The following day place the apple juice in the preserving pan with the correct amount of sugar and heat gently, stirring frequently to dissolve the sugar.
4. Increase the heat to a rapid simmer for around 45 minutes or until setting point is reached, I use a jam thermometer to check the temperature and then put a teaspoon or so of the jelly onto a cold saucer, if the jelly separates when you draw your finger through it, it is ready to jar.
5. Pour the jelly into sterilised jars and top with a waxed disc before attaching the lids.
6. Leave to cool.

Personification of Autumn (Currier & Iveslithograph, 1871)

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

Above is a partial section of the opening of John Keats ‘To Autumn’ a famous and moving piece of poetry. It’s a glorious read but to a foodie seems to mean so much more, an understanding of how the seasons change and how it affects our day to day lives and of course our diet.It is considered the perfect embodiment of poetic form, intent, and effect and was written in Winchester on 19 September 1819 and first published in 1820.

To this day the words are still relevant, to many at least, despite the year round availability of goods from supermarkets from far away shores many are reverting back to eating at a seasonal pace; something I wholeheartedly agree with. Sure there are things we need that simply cannot be produced here such as some spices e.g. vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg to name but a few, as we have totally the wrong climate but all we can grow here we should and as for exporting our ‘home grown’ to import another countries produce of the same goods (such as prawns) I find that utterly disgusting, but once again I digress.

Back to the preserving pot for me, this time spiced apple jelly the produce. Here making the most of the seasonal apples with a little help from far away grown friends star anise and cinnamon, oh and a few hibiscus petals along the way to help with the colouring. The recipe base for which came from the lovely Brenda over on Violet’s Pantry, do check out her marvellous blog.

I used half windfall apples and half sweet dessert apples as I’d some lurking in the bottom of the freezer, but all windfalls or crab apples would be fine.

Fruit jellies are incredibly easy to make, if not a little time consuming as the process is spread over two days. The wait is well worth it though.

Fragrant and gently spiced, giving a warming undertone to the jelly. Perfect for serving on toast/breads or even with roast meats, especially lamb or chicken, either warm or cold.

The Recipe:

• Apples, the weight is not important here as it’s the volume that will be calculated later but I roughly used around 5lb of apples
• 1 lb of preserving sugar per 1 pint of apple juice
• 2 cinnamon sticks (adjust the amount according to how many apples you have)
• 4 star anise (again adjust to how many apples you use)
• 1 tablespoon of dried hibiscus leaves

1. Chop the apples in to quarters (don’t bother to peel or core them) and place in a large preserving pan with the spices and hibiscus, cover with water and allow to simmer for around an hour or until they are soft and pulpy, a potato masher can be used to help hurry the process.
2. Place the apples in a scolded jelly bag (or muslin lined sieve) over a large bowl and leave to drip overnight, do not press the apples or the jelly will be cloudy.
3. The following day place the apple juice in the preserving pan with the correct amount of sugar and heat gently, stirring frequently to dissolve the sugar.
4. Increase the heat to a rapid simmer for around 45 minutes or until setting point is reached.
5. Pour the jelly into sterilised jars and top with a waxed disc before attaching the lids.
6. Leave to cool.